Hundreds of street missionaries will invade the city centre of Lisbon to evangelise through art and beauty: that’s one of the initiatives planned as part of the International Congress of New Evangelization (ICNE) to be held in the Portuguese capital from 5 to 13 November. Since 2002 the ICNE has involved five European capitals: Vienna (2003), Paris (2004), Budapest, Brussels in the next two years and this year Lisbon. Launching the Congress in Lisbon in recent days, the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon Josè Policarpo reminded the missionaries that “only a few men and women experience the beauty of life in depth, some because they are not allowed to be born, others because they have to struggle against difficulties”. Cardinal Policarpo expressed the hope that the international Congress would be “able to offer a horizon of profundity expressed through faith, culture and brotherly love”. Proclaiming the faith through art and beauty is therefore the aim of the action of the street missionaries: through paintings, games, human statues, music and theatre they will bring joy to the streets in Lisbon’s city centre. They will wear orange T-shirts so as to be clearly “identifiable as missionaries”. Many other events are on the programme, most of them organized by youth groups: some will go to shopping malls, others will approach passers by and tourists, others will set up a pavilion in the railway station, while others again will propose meetings in places of contact between Portuguese and immigrant African communities. A pilgrimage to Fatima will take place on 9 November. A round table will be held on 12 November with the involvement of the cardinals of European cities, while a series of debates, prayer vigils and over 40 workshops dedicated to the proclamation of Christ will round off the programme.
