In Portugal there are 3000 missionaries “who cannot leave home” and who pray each day for the success of the new evangelization in the country. Preparations for the international Congress on the new evangelization (ICNE) were held in Lisbon on 14/15 February. The Congress is aimed at promoting the city mission in five European cities (Vienna, Paris, Lisbon, Brussels and Budapest). Father Carlos Paes, coordinator of ICNE in Lisbon, explains that the project has just begun. “What’s been done in Vienna will be repeated in the other dioceses. It’s an event aimed especially at reviving the enthusiasm of lay Christians”. The various initiatives being taken in Portugal include the mobilization of “missionaries of prayer”, i.e. those persons who cannot “leave home” (contemplatives, the elderly, prison inmates, etc.). Some 3,000 people have enrolled in the project; they will receive a little kit with a cross and a prayer to be recited each day. They will later receive a proper missionary mandate from the Patriarch of Lisbon. A text is being distributed to the parish delegates of ICNE for Lent; they are being asked to meditate on it and disseminate it in the communities that want to participate in the mission.
