“Missionary activity has always characterised the life of the Portuguese Christian communities, but we are registering a certain enfeeblement of it at the present time”. That’s the view of the national director of the Pontifical Mission-Aid Societies of Portugal, Father Manuel Barbosa, who recently announced the creation of an ‘ad hoc’ committee with the task of formulating strategies for reviving missionary activity. The project, presented at the Episcopal Conference of Portugal, “is aimed at reviving the missionary spirit that is innate in people’s spirit. It should not be forgotten that the Church is missionary by nature”. The first important appointment in the work of the committee is on 3-4 June, when a symposium on Mission is to be held in Lisbon. In 2005 those in charge of the programme wish to involve all the dioceses and publish a document on the missionary endeavour of the Church. In 2006 a national missionary congress is being planned. In spite of a certain decline in missionary activities, says Father Barbosa, “we are registering new forms of mission in the form of volunteer service projects lasting several months, and in some cases years”. In 2003 some 200 young people dedicated their summer to mission countries while some 50 others left for mission projects lasting one or two years. “In the past concludes Father Barbosa there were people who consecrated their whole life to missions; today what’s new is the way the laity are beginning to share this experience”.
