PARAGUAY, José Aníbal Argüello Rojas. The Catholic University Missions were born around 1999. Some young girls, who belonged to the Girls’ Youth from Asunción, traveled to Chile, and there they learned about Project Mission for the Country. They returned with the intention of applying it in their Paraguay…
Since that year, and as fruit of the graces of the Shrine, the Catholic University Missions responded to the request of the Catholic Church in Latin America- each Christian should be an active participant of the Continental Mission, proclaimed by His Holiness Benedict XVI in the Episcopal Conference of Latin American and the Caribbean, in Aparcida, Brazil. That along with the Bishops, he reminded all those baptized in the Catholic faith that the Church is called to make all of their members “disciples and missionaries of Christ.”
We are called to show this capacity of the Church to promote and to form missionaries who will respond to the vocation they received and to be able to communicate in all the corners of Paraguay that Jesus’ peace is with all of us…
A Holy Week at the service of the faith of children, youth and adults
Attentive to this call, 400 Paraguayan youth, who are members of the Schoenstatt Youth and other movements and parishes, set aside what is comfortable and the daily routine, and they went forth to reach out to others. During Holy Week of this year, 2012, the work of evangelization has continued in five communities of the IX Department of Parguarí: Calixtro, La Colmena, Acahay, Ybycuí and Quiindy.
They shared different workshops and meetings. They shared the catechism of the Holy Days with the children, carrying out dramatizations and crafts that helped them to learn about the main celebrations and liturgies of Holy Week. With youth from the communities, they worked on strengthening the faith, taking into account the proclamation of the Holy Father about the Year of Faith and of his request that the youth learn and be nourished by the Catechism of the Catholic Church. With the adults of the communities they worked around the family, in close collaboration with the pastoral lines of work of the Paraguayan Episcopal Conference, which has established a triennium to apply family catechesis, to regain family values, and to accomplish the goal of every family being a true “domestic Church”.
The experience has been fully life giving. They have experienced the great need of our people to receive Christ in the Eucharist daily and the other sacraments. But they have also sadly noticed the lack of priests and shepherds of the Catholic Church, who can carry out this task, for which they are in continuous prayer to the Lord that he will increase the desire in the young men there of consecrating themselves entirely for the Kingdom of God. Entirely, completely, forever.
A miracle of God and a great project that works and renews the faith in the Covenant of Love
The Catholic University Missions are truly a miracle of God. The way in which they develop and open up are truly a real sign that His love has been manifested to those, especially to all the youth, who have given themselves loyally to collaborate in the fulfillment of God’s Plan.
The Mother Thrice Admirable has strongly manifested herself in all of her children, showering abundant blessings on them, sheltering them, and helping them to trust in the perfect plan of Her Son…From the Shrine, they received the graces of shelter, transformation and of apostolic zeal, which carried us with so much strength and joy to transmit the Good News of the Kingdom of God…This was the way that several members of the Boys’ and Girls’ Youth from Paraguay gave their testimony about the commitment to evangelize, working together with youth from other movements, at the service of the faith of the Paraguayan people, during this time of preparation for the great Jubilee of the Covenant of Love in 2014.
As if the Holy Father knew about the Catholic Missions
“Do not be afraid! Open, even more, open wide the doors to Christ!…If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed. Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation… Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything. When we give ourselves to him, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ – and you will find true Life. (Benedict XVI, homily at the beginning of his pontificate. Rome, April 24, 2005)
Celina M. Garza, San Antonio, Texas: English translation – M.P. Janknegt: English edit
