The “Portuguese National Missionary Days” will be held at Fatima from 16 to 18 September on the theme “Eucharist and Mission”. Organized by the episcopal Commission for Missions of the Portuguese Bishops’ Conference, in partnership with the national Conference of Religious Institutes, the aim of the event will be twofold: “evaluating the missionary path already completed and permeating the new pastoral year with the missionary spirit”. The programme includes conferences and debates that will examine fundamental aspects of the link between Eucharist and Mission. Meanwhile, the meeting of the presidents of the Portuguese-speaking Bishops’ Conferences ended in recent days in Mozambique, with the publication of a final document. It voices the bishops’ concern about those faithful who “have abandoned the Catholic Church and joined new religious movements, especially those of pentecostal stamp”. The communiqué signed by the president of the Portuguese Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Jorge Ortiga of Braga stresses that the trend can be reversed through a reform of pastoral programmes of evangelization, at the level of catechesis, and with a renewed effort of permanent formation of the faithful, clergy and pastoral workers. At the social level, the bishops also expressed concerns about the phenomena linked to the urbanization of the population.
