Text 2249, 62 rader
Skriven 2007-03-06 20:51:52 av Marc Lewis (1:396/45)
Ärende: Vatican Information Service (Press Release)
===================================================
Hello All!
                This Area is READ ONLY.  Do not post to this area.
                The following press release is Copyrighted by the
                          Vatican Information Service.
                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                               VIS-Press releases

MESSAGE FOR HISPANIC-AMERICAN DAY

VATICAN CITY, MAR 2, 2007 (VIS) - The Pontifical Commission for Latin America
has made public its annual message for Hispanic-American Day, which is
celebrated annually in the dioceses of Spain. This year the Day falls on March
4 and has as its theme: "Called to be disciples and missionaries in America."

In the message, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re and Archbishop Luis Robles Diaz,
respectively president and vice-president of the pontifical commission, write
that the theme of the Day is inspired by that of the fifth Conference of the
Latin-American Episcopate, which is due to be held in Brazil in May, "an event
of great importance that invites us to reflect upon the identity of Christians,
who are called to put Jesus Christ, light of the world, at the center of their
lives and to transmit a love that turns people into His faithful disciples and
committed missionaries."

"The extraordinary generosity of the first disciples cannot be explained save
by the strength of their personal love for Christ, which brought them even to
give their own lives. ... To be a follower of Christ thus means to be in living
harmony with Him, so as to burn with zeal and to feel the urgent need to
announce Him."

At the end of His earthly life, Jesus told His disciples "to announce Him to
all people," in other words in "all those areas in which human beings express
their culture; taking the message to the frontiers of life, the family, the
workplace, culture, the economy and politics. Yet an undertaking of this
magnitude cannot be carried out if not with the supernatural power of charity
which is made manifest in the witness of missionary activity."

Cardinal Re and Archbishop Robles - in the name of the pontifical commission -
express their gratitude to Spanish Catholics for "the pastoral efforts they
have made on behalf of South America over more than 500 years of
evangelization." And they encourage them "to continue to work with great
missionary commitment in favor of the continent which has been called 'the
continent of hope,' a hope founded on its invincible faith."

"Of course," the prelates write, "there are countless shortcomings afflicting
that land," but these can be faced with the "living religiosity that today,
more than ever, needs to be awoken and nourished with decision and courage."

In order to face this challenge, the message concludes, "the Pontifical
Commission for Latin America again encourages Spanish Catholics to commit
themselves to this great enterprise, each in their own way, either by prayer or
by helping to support missionaries and their works, ... but above all through
real participation in missionary activity. In celebrating the Hispanic-American
Day, the Commission invites you to experience a real impulse of evangelization,
in the knowledge that love 'has been and remains the driving force of mission,
... the principle which must direct every action, and end to which that action
must be directed'."
COM-AL/HISPANIC-AMERICAN DAY/RE:ROBLESVIS 070302 (500)

SUMMARY

--- MPost/386 v1.21
 * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS =Meridian, MS= bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)