Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Madrid (Agenzia Fides) - “With the children of Asia...we seek Jesus” is the theme of the Holy Childhood Day this year, being celebrated on Sunday, January 25. Holy Childhood is thus starting a project that will last the next 5 years: visit each continent so that the children and adolescents can gain an awareness and universal vision of the Church. Asia is the largest and most extensive continent. It is also the most in need of evangelization.
“I am glad that this year we are focusing on Asia, and the main reason is because it is a continent with a fertile land where the seed of the Gospel can grow with strength in the future,” says a Message issued for the Day from Archbishop Francisco Perez of Pamplona-Tudela, Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Spain. “There are millions of Asian children,” the Message says, “and we should look upon them with the strength of knowing that the future depends on what they are taught now.” Furthermore, “the Asian peoples are proud of their traditional religious and cultural values,” and thus, “there is a fertile ground in which the seed of the Gospel can grow in the Asian soul.”
Archbishop Francisco also considers that there is much that can be shared by both sides, i.e. that they can offer society “some of the values that have been hidden by the cultural dark night of the West” and can show “that moral wisdom and spiritual intuition that is so typical in the Asian soul.” At the same time, “we can be a gift that goes beyond merely advanced technologies, by the exchange of mystical experiences of faith, in the testimonies of our saints.”
With the celebration of this Day, Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, Archbishop of Madrid, has also written a letter to children, in which he thanks God that “in Madrid, there are many of you children who know and love Jesus. You are aware of His presence in your life. You lovingly pray for those you love, for all the people in the world, especially those most in need of prayers.”
He also reminds them that this Sunday is Holy Childhood Day, “which reminds us that, in many places of the world, many children do not know this joy of knowing and loving Jesus... These children search for the meaning of their lives, a reason to be truly happy. I am thinking of countries like India, China, and Japan. All these countries are in Asia, where there are many children, but few Christians.” Thus, he asks them to pray for “all these children that, although they may not know it, it is Jesus they are seeking.” And he also asks them to pray for “the missionaries that are already there with them, that they may never tire in preaching that Jesus is with them and He loves them, and that every day there may be more children who receive this great hoy of knowing Jesus.” “You can also help them with a small offering, making a sacrifice,” the Cardinal said. With this money, many things can be provided for the children of these nations...like buying them catechism books or translating a Bible into their language, or building churches and centers for catechesis...You can be missionaries, too, like them!” (RG) (Agenzia Fides 22/1/2009)
