Missionary children ready to evangelize Cuba

Havana, Cuba, Aug 4, 2005 / 22:00 pm

More than 370 children and teenagers attended the II National Congress of Missionary Children, which took place July 29-31 in the eastern Cuban city of Camagüey.  The event began with a procession in which participants received a large pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Charity, the patroness of Cuba.

Organized by the National Director of the Pontifical Missionary Works in Cuba, Father Raul Rodriguez Dago, and the National Secretary for Missionary Children, Enrique Cabrera Napoles, the gathering offered participants the opportunity to reflect on such questions as, why they are missionaries and what their role is in the strengthening of missionary work.  It was also an invitation to discover more deeply the call of Jesus and to involve other children in missionary activity.

Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino, Archbishop of Havana and President of the Bishops’ Conference of Cuba, sent a message to the Congress inviting the young participants to persevere in their missionary work, “whether with older people or with the youth,” and he reminded them that “the first area of work for you is with the children of your own age with whom you share school, play and festivities.  They are the ones you should invite first to know Jesus.  You are called to say to them: ‘Come and see that the Lord is good.’  May every one of the Missionary Children be an apostle to other children.”