Santiago, Chile, Jan 5, 2018 / 00:00 am
Less than two weeks before Pope Francis will arrive for a pastoral visit to Chile, more than 2,500 college students were sent on mission to serve the country's rural Catholic communities.
The young people, who come from 40 different schools, will fan out to 90 communities across Chile to spend 10 days sharing their faith with more than one million families, leading youth and family activities, and building chapels.
A Jan. 2 send-off Mass at the National Shrine of Maipú was celebrated by the Archbishop of Santiago, Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, who said that "the Church in Chile needs to go out of itself."
"Looking at all of you, we see that the Church is alive. A Church that's in the communities, in the university. That's the Church that Pope Francis will find in Chile and it's your mission to take her to the streets," he said during his homily.