Our Missionary Teams
The missionary teams we established this year in our three parishes are not simply a practical solution to covering a vast territory and responding to the lack of vocations. They reflect our desire to involve lay people more deeply in our mission. While pastoral responsibility belongs properly to the pastor, nothing prevents him from engaging the faithful in a genuine missionary dynamic.
It is in this spirit that we have created teams in several villages throughout our three parishes. Their mission is to revive communities that have declined due to emigration, COVID, and other difficulties; to involve the faithful in a concrete and persevering mission, especially those who have been confirmed; and to foster pastoral solidarity within our parishes.
The goal of these teams is, over time, to identify local leaders who can help structure and strengthen the communities, so that after two years the missionary team can step back and allow what they have sown to continue growing.
Testimony of Idania, leader of the missionary team in Fidencia
For the past six months, together with the missionary team in Fidencia, we have been working to help build a community that is more united and more alive. Every week, we visit families, the sick, people who have drifted away from the Church, or those discouraged by the difficulties of daily life. Little by little, we discover not only wounds, but also the human and spiritual richness present within this community.
This work requires a great deal of patience and perseverance, because the fruits are not immediate. Yet we already see some lay people regaining confidence, participating more actively in Mass, and becoming involved in prayer, catechesis, and works of charity.
We try to live this mission with joy, simplicity, and without imposing, convinced that evangelization begins above all with closeness, listening, and personal witness. Our hope is that one day the community itself will be able to continue this missionary journey on its own.
