MISSION SUNDAY

People in mission

Trips to Africa and Nicaragua, visits here by missionaries help to remind south Florida Catholics the church is universal.

Published: 10.19.07

Children at the Jacinta y Francisco Orphanage in León crowd around Miami missionary Michelle Hernandez to see the images in her digital camera.
DANIEL SOÑÉ | FC

MIAMI | What do missionaries in Nicaragua, a bishop in Africa and a high school's mission trips have in common?

The bishop, the missionaries and the school are all part of the Miami Archdiocese and its efforts to reach out to Catholics around the world.

That emphasis on missionary works, called for in Archbishop John C. Favalora's 2001 pastoral letter, "The Star of Bethlehem," will be celebrated this Sunday, Oct. 21, with a Mass at 10 a.m. at St. Mary Cathedral.

Young people are especially invited to this celebration of World Mission Sunday, when the church reminds its people that "catholic" means "universal."

Awareness of that universality is not a one-Sunday aberration in the archdiocese:

• Children in Catholic schools pray for missionaries and offer up sacrifices year-round as part of their involvement with the Holy Childhood Association.

• Catholic parishes have been hosting missionaries throughout the summer and into fall, listening to their tales of faith and struggle in places such as Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and even remote corners of the United States.

• Last year, those visits by missionaries moved south Florida Catholics to donate just over $338,500 to mission work around the world.

• The archdiocese has its own lay missionary group, Amor en Acción, or Love in Action, which pairs schools here with schools in Haiti and takes high school and college students on mission trips to Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

• Missionaries from the archdiocese, led by Father Jean Pierre, director of the Office of Missions, visited Nicaragua this summer to see firsthand how people here could help Catholic schools over there. Please see stories, Pages A1 and A3.

• Bishop Felipe Estévez made his first visit to Africa in July, spending a month in Cameroon and Kenya, where he visited some of the projects sponsored by Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' charitable arm overseas. See the story HERE.

• Students from Belen Jesuit Preparatory in Miami gathered earlier this year to reflect on their 25 years of mission trips and how those experiences had changed their lives.

Return to Archdiocese of Miami Front Page