EUROPE/POLAND - Closure of the Year of Missionary Formation; various HCA Congresses planned for May and June in the country

Warsaw (Agenzia Fides) – This past May 28 saw the conclusion of the Year of Missionary Formaiton on a national level at the Center for Missionary Formation in Warsaw. Information on the event was sent to Agenzia Fides from Monsignor Jan Piotrowski, National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) of Poland. The center also recently celebrated its 25th anniversary (see Fides 7/5/2009). The Closing Mass for the year was presided by Archbishop Jan Romero Pawlowski, newly-appointed Apostolic Nuncio to the Republic of Congo and Gabon, and was “a special occasion to thank God for the great gift of 32 missionaries who will soon be sent to various parts of the globe to bear witness to the Gospel,” he said. During the homily, the Archbishop especially focused on the need for missionaries to cooperate with God's grace, as no one is born a missionary. He comes to be one through God's assistance. The National Director of the PMS also mentioned that “missionary formation is of great importance and necessary in assuming the responsibilities of being a missionary.”
That same day, Archbishop Anatol Milandou of Congo-Brazzaville (in the Republic of Congo) came to Poland, upon the invitation of Bishops' Missions Commission President, Bishop Wiktor Skworc, who addressed the future missionaries, wishing them a fruitful labor in the field of evangelization. On the last weekend in June, the center will hold a national encounter of Polish missionaries visiting their native country. In addition to this activity, during the months of May and June, there have been various diocesan encounters for the HCA in Poland. There was a Congress on May 16, in Chojnice (Diocese of Pelplin), May 23 in Maków Podhalański (Archdiocese of Krakow) and in Poznań on the same day, and on May 30 in Serpelice for four dioceses: Bialystok, Drohiczyn, Lomza, and Siedlce. In the upcoming days, there are Congresses and missionary encounters scheduled in Elk, Częstochowa, and Tarnow.
Lastly, there is a misiology session in the University of Katowice (Uniwersytet Śląski) on the Church in Africa (Ecclesian in Africa), scheduled for June 2, to be attended by Archbishop Georges Mpundu of Lusaka (Zambia), Fr. Marek Rostkowski, OMI, and various misiologists from all over Poland. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 1/6/2009)