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Preparing the Way to CAM 6

What is a CAM?

The acronym “CAM” refers to the American Missionary Congress (in Spanish, Congreso Americano Misionero). Each CAM takes place every five years in one of the countries on the American continent.

What is so unique about them?

A CAM is the only continental gathering in the world dedicated entirely to Mission.

Are they for me?

The most important prerequisite for taking part in a CAM is to be someone who, on behalf of their faith, feels called to commit themselves to serve others in their respective country and environment.

What is the CAM’s goal?

The Congress has three main purposes:

1. To gather people committed in their faith
2. To learn and discuss about missionary challenges, and share experiences
3. To celebrate Mission together amidst the host country’s cultural backdrop

Where and when will the next Congress take place?

The city of Ponce, in Puerto Rico, is host of the sixth American Missionary Congress. It will take place from the 19th to the 24th of November 2024. During CAM 5, it was announced that the next gathering would take place in 2023. But due to the pandemic, the Congress had to be postponed for a year.

Theme and Symbols of CAM 6

Theme

Every CAM has a theme and a slogan.

The theme for CAM 6 is: “Spirit-filled evangelizers to the ends of the earth.”

The slogan is: “America, witnesses of Christ with the power of the Spirit!”

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1: 8)

The Symbols of CAM 6

The Torch of Faith

It consists of a candleholder whose shape, which reminds us of the American continent, represents the transmission of faith in America during its history. The light reminds us of the light of Christ, a fire that burns and sets aflame.

The Logo

The Anthem

This musical work titled Witness of the Living Christ, is part of the theme, the slogan, the biblical text and the general objective of CAM 6.

The CAM’s History and Dynamic

History of the American Missionary Congresses

The American Missionary Congress is an inter-ecclesial meeting organized by the Pontifical Mission Societies, that takes places every five years and gathers people who are committed to Mission in different ways.

The Continental Church began this path in Mexico in 1977, gathering countries from Latin America and the Caribbean, and organizing what was then called the Latin American Missionary Congress (COMLA).

In 1999 in Argentina, 22 years later, Canada would take part in this Congress for the first time, opening the door to continental meetings, hence the “American Missionary Congress”. Since then, Canada and the United States have taken part in CAM 2 Guatemala (2003), CAM 3 Ecuador (2008), CAM 4 Venezuela (2013) and CAM 5 Bolivia (2018).

It is important to understand that all CAMs are a process rather than an end in itself. That is why our brothers from Puerto Rico have prepared and organized different missionary animation activities at the diocesan and national levels, as well as virtual continental meetings for biblical, theological and missiological formation. They also chose to officially launch CAM 6 outside their country, in Mexico.

The goal of these activities is to maintain missionary zeal and, through missionary animation and formation, create spaces of fraternal union within a continental Church rich in cultural diversity.

Watch Cœur missionaire (Missionary Heart), a documentary film that reflects on Mission, focused essentially on the path leading to CAM 5 in 2018, in Bolivia.

Preparatory Path to CAM 6

CAM: A Continental Missionary Itinerary

Activities organized as part of the path leading to CAM 6:

• Continental meeting of missiology and ecclesiology professors, from the 14th to the 16th of February 2020, at the Pontifical Mission Societies office in Mexico
• International Missiology Pre-Symposium
• 1st International Missiology Symposium (virtual meeting). This Symposium took place from the 8th to the 10th of November 2022. The theme was: “Promoting the Church’s ad gentes mission with new zeal, while walking together as we listen to the Spirit”.
• 2nd International Missiology Symposium. Canada’s first continental meeting
• The Missionary Rosary. It took place in the most important Marian shrines of the American continent
• Biblical missionary itinerary. A formation based on the Acts of the Apostles

Watch coverage from Canada’s first ever International Missiology Symposium that took place from the 24th to the 26th of October 2023.

Videos

Watch conferences, testimonies and other events that took place on the 2nd International Missiology Symposium, that took place in Canada for the first time ever.

(NOTE: You can find the English translated versions here)

CAM 6 Prayer

Pope Francis gave us this beautiful prayer inspired by the Holy Spirit. Share it with everyone!

Prayer for the 6th American Missionary Congress

O merciful Father,
who revealed in your Son the “Good News,”
announced in these lands of America
by so many missionaries, in word and deed;
help us to rediscover our vocation as baptized people
in order to give renewed life to our missionary activity
proclaiming, like them, the joy of the Gospel.

O God,
you pour out your Holy Spirit to renew the face of the Earth,
wounded by injustice and suffering;
give us strength to walk, as God’s people,
in synodality and mutual listening,
towards the next American Missionary Congress,
witnessing together the love that conquers the world.

O God and Father,
you chose Mary as model of Evangelization
to offer Christ to all humanity;
grant that, imitating her example of dedication
and sustained by her maternal and providential care,
may we always be your missionary disciples
to the ends of the Earth.
Amen

Dear Friend in Christ,

As the world is witnessing and experiencing the ongoing economic crisis, earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, and wars around the globe, I ask that you keep them in your prayers, and support them if you are able.

I have found inspiring the extent to which communities have pulled together and supported one another through the worst of it. This is what makes Canadians special and mindful of those beyond our shores even when the economy looks bad.

Last year I wrote asking you to join us at the Society of St. Peter the Apostle in supporting and encouraging the education of seminarians and drilling a borehole for St. Augustine Millennium Seminary, Tamale in Ghana. Your donation assisted in making this possible for the seminarians and the staff to get clean water.

In mission dioceses in Africa and Asia, it costs at least $1,500.00 a year to train a student for the priesthood. Despite the sacrifices made by their families and the Seminaries’ efforts to grow their own food, it is a struggle for them to cover the full costs of their training.

By supporting the education and seminarians and Religious Sisters struggling with socio-economic problems, you are instrumental in providing the sacraments to so many faithful and loving “people of God.”

Our Church is growing in Africa, South America, and Oceanic, and because of your special relationship with the Society of St. Peter the Apostle, you share in this missionary spirit throughout the world. We thank you because it is your generosity and support that makes this happen!

Please, join us again this year with your prayers and donations to provide good priests and religious for people in mission countries.

With sincere thanks and prayer,

Rev. Fr. Alex Osei, C.S.Sp.

National Director

On May 22, 2022, the Venerable Servant of God, Pauline Jaricot will be raised to the full honors of the altar in Lyon, (France) on the bicentenary of the foundation of the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith (POPF), during the Eucharistic celebration presided over by the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle. On May 26, 2020, Pope Francis authorized the publication of the decree recognizing the miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable. It is possible to read and deepen the story of this miracle on our site, that is, of the miraculous healing of three-year-old Mayline Tran who lost consciousness due to suffocation caused by food which caused multiple cardiorespiratory arrests and further complications that left her no hope of survival. Thanks to the intercession of Pauline Jaricot, doctors confirmed that the little girl had completely recovered in May 2014, after a complex and long period of rehabilitation.

Learn more about this story

Our national director has the pleasure of meeting Mayline and her family during his recent trip to witness the beatification of Blessed Pauline Jaricot. Please see below for recent pictures of Mayline

What does to call oneself “Pontifical” mean? What are the elements that distinguish it? These are the questions that the International Secretariat of the Pontifical Society of the Holy Childhood asks all children and adolescents who will have to provide their answer, not in words but with a picture, combining artistic ability with a good dose of imagination, creativity, and experience of the Society.

On the occasion of the centenary of the denomination of the Pontifical Society of the Holy Childhood, the International Secretariat announces a “Competition” which will end on May 19, 2023, on the 180th anniversary of the foundation of the Society itself.

Children and adolescents are therefore invited to participate by answering the question “What does Missionary Childhood and Adolescence mean for me in terms of being a Society of the Pope?” with a picture accompanied by a brief descriptive caption of one’s work and the meaning of Pontifical.

Each National Director will select the winning picture at a national level and will send it, together with the description made by the author of the picture, to the International Secretariat of the Holy Childhood by March 31, 2023. The pictures received will be collected and published.

The text “History, Charism, Spirituality of the Pontifical Mission Society of the Holy Childhood”, by Juan Carlos Carvajal Blanco, priest of the diocese of Madrid and professor of the Faculty of Theology of the Ecclesiastical University of St. Damascus and Mr. Rafael Santos Barba, philologist and editor, director since 2013 of the magazine of missionary pastoral care, Illuminare, of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Spain, is available in five languages ​​on the PPOOMM website.

180 years after its foundation and a century after the conferral of the title of Pontifical, the text allows for an in-depth study on the origins of the Society of the Holy Childhood or Missionary Childhood and Adolescence, on its charisma, gift of the Holy Spirit to Msgr. Charles de Forbin-Janson, and his spirituality in order to better understand the educational content of this Society, its role in the evangelizing mission of the Church, and its relevance.

Sr. Roberta Tremarelli AMSS, Secretary-General of the Pontifical Society of the Holy Childhood explains in the presentation: “This text by Professor Juan Carlos Carvajal and Rafael Santos Barba, rich in historical analysis and pastoral theological reflection, presents the breadth and depth of the Society, as an evangelizing Work, also highlighting its prophetic aspect with reference to the Holy Childhood of Jesus, the Son of God, who became a child. Jesus, the one sent by the Father, is the center of the Work. His smallness is an example to imitate”.

The volume, published by the International Secretariat of the Pontifical Society of the Holy Childhood, concludes with an extensive quotation from St. John Paul II visiting the Carmel of Lisieux which well represents the spirit of the text, as the authors explain: “The paragraph at the end of our exposition has an undoubted theological density, but it has the virtue of synthesizing the essential nucleus about everything we exposed. In fact, in the light of the life and work of St. Therese of Lisieux, it relates childhood, spiritual childhood, and participation in the mission, to the Mission of the Most Holy Trinity in favor of humanity”.

Click here if you wish to download the English version of this book.

Click here to download the entire Novena for Pauline Marie Jaricot

Dear brothers and sisters,

With the Encyclical Laudato si’, promulgated in 2015, I invited all people of good will to take care of the Earth, which is our common home. For a long time now, this house that hosts us suffers as a result of wounds that we cause by our predatory attitude, which makes us feel that we are masters of the planet and its resources and authorises us to make irresponsible use of the goods God has given us. Nowadays, these wounds manifest themselves dramatically in an ecological crisis without precedent, which affects the ground, the air, water and, in general, the ecosystem in which human beings live. The current pandemic has now brought to light in an even stronger way the cry of nature and that of the poor who suffer most the consequences, highlighting that everything is interconnected and interdependent and that our health is not separated from the health of the environment in which we live.

Therefore, we need a new ecological approach, that can transform our way of dwelling in the world, our styles of life, our relationship with the resources of the Earth and, in general, our way of looking at humanity and of living life. An integral human ecology, that involves not only environmental questions but also mankind in his entirety, that becomes capable of listening to the cry of the poor and of being leaven for a new society.

We have a great responsibility, especially regarding the future generations. What world do we want to leave to our children and our young? Our selfishness, our indifference and our irresponsible ways are threatening the future of our children! I therefore renew my appeal: let us take care of our mother Earth, So I renew my appeal: let us take care of our mother Earth, let us overcome the temptation of selfishness that makes us predators of resources, let us cultivate respect for the gifts of the Earth and creation, let us inaugurate a lifestyle and a society that is finally eco-sustainable: we have the opportunity to prepare a better tomorrow for all. From God’s hands we have received a garden, we cannot leave a desert to our children.

In this context, on 24 May 2020 I proclaimed the Laudato si’ Year, the organisation of which was entrusted to the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. I thank all those who have celebrated this year with many initiatives. Today I am pleased to announce that the Laudato si’ Year will result in a concrete action project, the Laudato si’ Action Platform, a seven-year journey that will see our communities committed in different ways to becoming totally sustainable, in the spirit of integral ecology.

I would therefore invite everyone to embark on this journey together, and I address these seven environments: families – parishes and dioceses – schools and universities – hospitals – businesses and farms – organisations, groups and movements – religious institutes. Work together. Only in this way will we be able to create the future we want: a more inclusive, fraternal, peaceful and sustainable world.

On a journey that will last for seven years, we will let ourselves be guided by the seven aims of Laudato si’, which will show us the direction while we pursue the vision of integral ecology: the response to the cry of the Earth, the response to the cry of the poor, the ecological economy, the adoption of a simple way of life, ecological education, ecological spirituality and community engagement.

There is hope. We can all collaborate, each one with his own culture and experience, each one with her own initiatives and capacities, so that our mother Earth may be restored to her original beauty and creation may once again shine according to God’s plan.

God bless each one of you and bless our mission to rebuild out common home. Thank you.

APOSTOLIC LETTER
ISSUED “MOTU PROPRIO”
BY THE SUPREME PONTIFF

FRANCIS

“ANTIQUUM MINISTERIUM”

INSTITUTING
THE MINISTRY OF CATECHIST

1. The ministry of Catechist in the Church is an ancient one. Theologians commonly hold that
the first examples are already present in the writings of the New Testament. The service of
catechesis may be traced back to those “teachers” mentioned by the Apostle in writing to the
community of Corinth: “Some people God has designated in the Church to be, first, apostles;
second, prophets; third, teachers; then, mighty deeds; then, gifts of healing, assistance,
administration, and varieties of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do
all work mighty deeds? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?
Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts. But I shall show you a still more excellent way” (1
Cor 12:28-31).

Saint Luke begins his Gospel by stating: “I too have decided, after investigating everything
accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you, most excellent Theophilus, so
that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received” (Lk 1:3-4). The
evangelist seems to be well aware that his writings offer a specific form of instruction that can
give firm assurance to those already baptized. The Apostle Paul, for his part, tells the Galatians
that: “one who is being instructed in the word should share all good things with his instructor”
(Gal 6:6). As is evident, this text provides yet another detail; it speaks of the communion of life
as a sign of the fruitfulness of an authentic catechesis.

2. From the beginning, the Christian community was characterized by many different forms of
ministry carried out by men and women who, obedient to the working of the Holy Spirit,
devoted their lives to the building up of the Church. At times, the charisms that the Spirit
constantly pours out on the baptized took on a visible and tangible form of immediate service to
the Christian community, one recognized as an indispensable diakonia for the community. The
Apostle Paul authoritatively attests to this when he states that “there are different kinds of
spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there
are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each
individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit. To one is given through the
Spirit the expression of wisdom; to another the expression of knowledge according to the same
Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit; to
another mighty deeds; to another prophecy; to another discernment of spirits; to another
varieties of tongues; to another interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit produces
all of these, distributing them individually to each person as he wishes” (1 Cor 12:4-11).

Within the broader charismatic tradition of the New Testament, then, we can see that certain
baptized persons exercised the ministry of transmitting in a more organic and stable form
related to different situations in life the teaching of the apostles and evangelists (cf. SECOND
VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, 8).
The Church wished to acknowledge this service as a concrete expression of a personal charism
that contributed greatly to the exercise of her mission of evangelization. This glance at the life
of the first Christian communities engaged in the spread of the Gospel also encourages the
Church in our day to appreciate possible new ways for her to remain faithful to the word of the
Lord so that his Gospel can be preached to every creature.

3. The history of evangelization over the past two millennia clearly shows the effectiveness of
the mission of catechists. Bishops, priests and deacons, together with many men and women in
the consecrated life, devoted their lives to catechetical instruction so that the faith might be an
effective support for the life of every human being. Some of them also gathered around
themselves others of their brothers and sisters sharing the same charism, and founded religious
orders wholly dedicated to catechesis.

Nor can we forget the countless lay men and women who directly took part in the spread of the
Gospel through catechetical instruction. Men and women of deep faith, authentic witnesses of
holiness, who in some cases were also founders of Churches and eventually died as martyrs. In
our own day too, many competent and dedicated catechists are community leaders in various
parts of the world and carry out a mission invaluable for the transmission and growth of the
faith. The long line of blesseds, saints and martyrs who were catechists has significantly
advanced the Church’s mission and deserves to be recognized, for it represents a rich resource
not only for catechesis but also for the entire history of Christian spirituality.

4. Beginning with the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, the Church has come to a renewed
appreciation of the importance of lay involvement in the work of evangelization. The Council
Fathers repeatedly emphasized the great need for the lay faithful to be engaged directly, in the
various ways their charism can be expressed, in the “plantatio Ecclesiae” and the development
of the Christian community. “Worthy of praise too is that army of catechists, both men and
women, to whom missionary work among the nations is so indebted, who imbued with an
apostolic spirit make an outstanding and absolutely necessary contribution to the spread of the
faith and the Church by their great work. In our days, when there are so few clerics to
evangelize such great multitudes and to carry out the pastoral ministry, the role of catechists is
of the highest importance” (cf. SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Decree on the
Church’s Missionary Activity Ad Gentes, 17).

Along with the important teaching of the Council, mention should be made of the constant
interest of the Popes, the Synod of Bishops, the Episcopal Conferences and individual Bishops
who, in recent decades have contributed to a significant renewal of catechesis. The Catechism
of the Catholic Church, the Apostolic Exhortation Catechesi Tradendae, the General Catechetical
Directory, the General Directory for Catechesis and the recent Directory for Catechesis, as well
as the many national, regional and diocesan Catechisms, have confirmed the centrality of a
catechesis that gives priority to the education and ongoing formation of believers.

5. Without prejudice to the Bishop’s mission as the primary catechist in his Diocese, one which
he shares with his presbyterate, or to the particular responsibility of parents for the Christian
formation of their children (cf. CIC can. 774 §2; CCEO can. 618), recognition should be given to
those lay men and women who feel called by virtue of their baptism to cooperate in the work of
catechesis (cf. CIC can. 225; CCEO cans. 401 and 406). This presence is all the more urgently
needed today as a result of our increasing awareness of the need for evangelization in the
contemporary world (cf. Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, 163-168), and the rise of a
globalized culture (cf. Encyclical Letter Fratelli Tutti, 100, 138). This requires genuine interaction
with young people, to say nothing of the need for creative methodologies and resources
capable of adapting the proclamation of the Gospel to the missionary transformation that the
Church has undertaken. Fidelity to the past and responsibility for the present are necessary
conditions for the Church to carry out her mission in the world.

Awakening personal enthusiasm on the part of all the baptized and reviving the awareness of
their call to carry out a proper mission in the community demands attentiveness to the voice of
the Spirit, who is unfailingly present and fruitful (cf. CIC can. 774 §1; CCEO can. 617). Today,
too, the Spirit is calling men and women to set out and encounter all those who are waiting to
discover the beauty, goodness, and truth of the Christian faith. It is the task of pastors to
support them in this process and to enrich the life of the Christian community through the
recognition of lay ministries capable of contributing to the transformation of society through the
“penetration of Christian values into the social, political and economic sectors” (Evangelii Gaudium, 102).

6. The lay apostolate is unquestionably “secular”. It requires that the laity “seek the kingdom of
God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God’s will” (cf. SECOND
VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 31). In
their daily life, interwoven with family and social relationships, the laity come to realize that
they “are given this special vocation: to make the Church present and fruitful in those places
and circumstances where it is only through them that she can become the salt of the earth”
(ibid., 33). We do well to remember, however, that in addition to this apostolate, “the laity can
be called in different ways to more immediate cooperation in the apostolate of the hierarchy,
like those men and women who helped the apostle Paul in the Gospel, working hard in the
Lord” (ibid.).

The role played by catechists is one specific form of service among others within the Christian
community. Catechists are called first to be expert in the pastoral service of transmitting the
faith as it develops through its different stages from the initial proclamation of the kerygma to
the instruction that presents our new life in Christ and prepares for the sacraments of Christian
initiation, and then to the ongoing formation that can allow each person to give an accounting
of the hope within them (cf. 1 Pet 3:15). At the same time, every catechist must be a witness
to the faith, a teacher and mystagogue, a companion and pedagogue, who teaches for the
Church. Only through prayer, study, and direct participation in the life of the community can
they grow in this identity and the integrity and responsibility that it entails (cf. Pontifical Council
for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, Directory for Catechesis, 113).

7. With great foresight, Saint Paul VI issued the Apostolic Letter Ministeria Quaedam with the
intention not only of adapting the ministries of Lector and Acolyte to changed historical
circumstances (cf. Apostolic Letter Spiritus Domini), but also of encouraging Episcopal
Conferences to promote other ministries, including that of Catechist. “In addition to the
ministries common to the entire Latin Church, nothing prevents Episcopal Conferences from
asking the Apostolic See for the institution of others, which for particular reasons, they consider
necessary or very useful in their own region. Among these are, for example, the offices
of Porter, Exorcist and Catechist.” The same pressing invitation is found in the Apostolic
Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi; in calling for a discernment of the present needs of the
Christian community in faithful continuity with its origins, the Pope encouraged the
development of new forms of ministry for a renewed pastoral activity. “Such ministries,
apparently new but closely tied up with the Church’s living experience down the centuries, such
as that of catechists… are valuable for the establishment, life, and growth of the Church, and
for her capacity to influence her surroundings and to reach those who are remote from her”
(SAINT PAUL VI, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, 73).

To be sure, “there has been a growing awareness of the identity and mission of the laity in the
Church. We can indeed count on many lay persons, although still not nearly enough, who have
a deeply-rooted sense of community and great fidelity to the tasks of charity, catechesis and
the celebration of the faith” (Evangelii Gaudium, 102). It follows that the reception of a lay ministry such as that of Catechist will emphasize even more the missionary commitment proper
to every baptized person, a commitment that must however be carried out in a fully “secular”
manner, avoiding any form of clericalization.

8. This ministry has a definite vocational aspect, as evidenced by the Rite of Institution, and
consequently calls for due discernment on the part of the Bishop. It is in fact a stable form of
service rendered to the local Church in accordance with pastoral needs identified by the local
Ordinary, yet one carried out as a work of the laity, as demanded by the very nature of the
ministry. It is fitting that those called to the instituted ministry of Catechist be men and women
of deep faith and human maturity, active participants in the life of the Christian community,
capable of welcoming others, being generous and living a life of fraternal communion. They
should also receive suitable biblical, theological, pastoral and pedagogical formation to be
competent communicators of the truth of the faith and they should have some prior experience
of catechesis (cf. SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Decree on the Pastoral Office of
Bishops in the Church Christus Dominus, 14; CIC can. 231 §1; CCEO can. 409 §1). It is essential
that they be faithful co-workers with priests and deacons, prepared to exercise their ministry
wherever it may prove necessary, and motivated by true apostolic enthusiasm.

Therefore, after having taken all things into consideration, and by apostolic authority

I establish

the lay ministry of Catechist

My Dear Friends,

On behalf of the staff of PMS Toronto and the missions that we serve, I wish you and your loved ones a joyful and blessed Christmas

It has been a challenging year for all of us, and the “normal” is now very different, but we continue to look upon Our Lord for strength and wisdom to be witnesses for His Kingdom. Let us take the time to stop and ponder on how these changes affected everyone, especially the most vulnerable children at our missions.

WILL YOU JOIN OUR MISSION? Through our baptism, we were tasked to go and spread the Good News. Mother Teresa said, “Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love”. What we might perceive as our small act of kindness can cause many ripples of good deeds for the poor missions that need so much.

Christ came into this world as a child that we might see the pure and gentle hearts that He gave them. Let us focus on how we can make it a better world for them. one mission at a time.

Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year! May the Lord bless and protect you and your loved ones.

Yours in the service of Christ,

Rev. Alex Osei, C.S.Sp.
National Director

They are celebrating a 25th anniversary in the Diocese of Koforidua, Ghana! Their guiding principle is that every Cathoic is a member of God’s people – their own Parish Family. As a member of a Parish Family, we are to develop our own spiritual leaders by training and supporting them, especially when it comes to caring for the young.

During their Holy Childhood Day, they scheduled a week-long program of activities for children in 37 parishes in the diocese. Children performed all the major roles during the Masses. They camped at St. Andrew Parish to play games, socialize and learn about Christ.

With the grant support from The Holy Childhood Fund, they were able to re-build the Adiemmra Community Centre that was brought down by a rainstorm. The community now has two new classroom blocks to accommodate the students and an office.

A grant was provided as well to St. Michael’s Clinic and Maternity in Akim Ntronang for Child Welfare Services to providing services from breast-feeding, vitamin supplements, immunization, and curative care for minor ailments; and for School Health & Development that provides screening, health education, and hygiene. 96% of the children in basic schools were provided attention and care.

This year we need to raise $250,000 to fund projects in parts of India, Kenya, Banglasdesh, Pretoria, and Nigeria that were assigned to PMS Toronto.

Again, we lean on your kindness and generosity to be our missionaries at home by supporting the work of all those who have been sent to different parts of the world. Their ministry is only possible through the help of benefactors of the global network of Pontifical Mission Societies. Our counterparts worldwide have specific projects assigned to them too!

The Holy Childhood Association needs your support now more than ever. The children are most vulnerable for they cannot fend for themselves. We need to protect them and let them know they matter.

Please consider a GIFT OF SECURITIES (stock, bonds and mutual funds). It can offer you a smart opportunity to support the needs to the port and at the same time, benefits from tax savings. By donating your securities directly to the Holy Childhood Association, you will be except from payment of taxes on capital gains. More information on this can be found at CanadaHelps https://bit.ly/37fQTFQ

This year with the restrictions imposed on churches due to COVID-19, we are reaching out to you through this letter to provide you an opportunity to know what is going on at missions worldwide and offer a way to make a difference in the lives of those at the missions. We have heard of stories of missionaries who are unable to reach those in their care because of the distance and the financial difficulties that go with it, and of others who are faced with extreme poverty, displacement, hunger, and disease on top of the pandemic with their communities.

#WeAreStillHere is a hashtag adopted by PMS worldwide to express that our missionaries are here for you, they are not going anywhere, they are not giving up, and their hope is that you can be here for them.