Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Guatemala City (Fides Service) – On Thursday 27 November DAY TWO of CAM2 was ‘Asia Day’. The opening prayer focussed on mission as an urgent necessity for Asia. During the prayer, Fides correspondent in Guatemala Victor Livori reports, the Our Father was recited in Urdu, one of the most widely spoken languages in India.
Before beginning his intervention, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, asked those present to prayer for the repose of the soul of German Antonio Arribas a lay catechist of Santa Rosa de Copán diocese in Honduras, killed the previous day. The theme of the Cardinal’s talk was “Mission starting from littleness, poverty and martyrdom”. He said: “we are nothing compared to the world but we are a little seed which falls anywhere and from our littleness and insignificance we build up the Kingdom of God. Today evangelisation means building the Kingdom of truth, grace, love and peace. The arms of destruction are poverty, impunity, corruption and social injustice”.
Cardinal Maradiaga said that to evangelise from poverty means to do as Jesus did when he “went with his disciples from one village to another”, and the Cardinal quoted the Puebla Document in which America was called to “give of her poverty”. “Today we must evangelise with boldness, imitating America’s holy martyrs” the Cardinal said and he concluded by underlining that the Church must not be weak of heart, her heart must beat to the rhythm of the words of St Paul: “Woe to me if I did not preach the Gospel!»
The Cardinal’s intervention was followed with talks by Father Joaquin Garcia, OSA, on “Mission, testimony of Creation” and Ms Adelaida Sueiro on “Mission, announcing the Gospel of Fullness of Life for all”, in which it was underlined that evangelisation must start from faith in “God of Life”.
The morning’s work ended with a prayer of thanksgiving accompanied with elements of Maya culture. The afternoon was dedicated to discussion in work groups to identify factors which hinder mission and factors which facilitate mission today.(S.L.) (Fides Service 28/11/2003; lines 31; words 398)
