Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Camaguey (Agenzia Fides) - "With Jesus and Mary, missionaries all day long" is the theme of the 3rd Holy Childhood Congress to be held in 13 - 25 July in Camaguey, Fr. Raúl Rodríguez Dago, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Cuba told Fides. The Congress has been organised to mark 15 years of Holy Childhood activity. The Holy Childhood society reappeared in 1992 in the diocese of Camaguey after disappearing from Cuba in 1961, when Catholic schools were nationalised. The Congress will be held in Camaguey at the diocesan House de la Merced.
Delegations of fifteen children from each diocese in Cuba are expected to attend with a group of animators as well as all the children members of Holy Childhood in Camaguey making a total of about 500 children with 50 animators. The delegations of children are working on material distributed to parishes and the conclusions to present at the Congress during which the children will reflect on “how to evangelise in Cuba”, starting from their own experience.
The congress will start in the afternoon of Friday 13 July and the children will receive a holy picture of Our Lady of Charity, the first mission to Cuba and the national mascot of Holy Childhood "Antenna Missionaria". On 14 July the day's activity will include prayers in front of the Blessed Sacrament animated by children and various moments of reflection. Later in the day leading personages of popular children's stories in Cuba will visit the Congress and give the children a message of human and Christian values. In the evening there will be a Festival of Culture. The Congress will close on Sunday 15 July with a Mass presided by the Archbishop of Camaguey Mgr. Juan García Rodríguez, president of the Cuban Bishops' Conference and for many years president of the Cuban Bishops Commission for Missions. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 20/6/2007; righe 29, parole 406)
