12 thousand young people are expected at the 9th National Youth Mission Congress of Mexico, which is opening in Guadalajara today. The meeting, lasting until July 29th, was organized jointly by the national Pontifical Mission Societies Office and the Mexican Bishops’ Commission for Missions. They chose the theme "Young people disciples and missionaries of Jesus Christ". The Congress, for which the young prepared themselves by analyzing the documents originating from the Conference of Aparecida, is meant to be a meeting of reflection, community and personal prayer, a real missionary feast in which the young are invited to celebrate their faith publicly, and to get to know and share the experiences gained in the mission lands, through the accounts by the male and female religious who made their mission services in Africa and Asia. The Congress is starting this afternoon, with the opening of a mission exhibition by Card. Juan Sandoval Iñiguez, archbishop of Guadalajara. The closing ceremony, on July 29th, is going to have a deep Marian meaning: it will start in the morning with the peregrination of the effigy of the Virgin of Zapopan in the town streets, and it will end with a solemn Eucharistic liturgy, at the "Benito Suárez" auditorium, the site of the Congress.
