Vocational, youth, catechetics and social ministries

During 23, 24 and 25 February, the meeting of those charged with pastoral work in the Province of México Occidental took place in the Marist University of Guadalajara. The meeting had two objectives:

I. To promote the follow-up process of the evangelizing project of the Marist Educational Community (CEM) by means of the guiding principles of the Province and provide elements for drawing up operational plans for the following school year.

II. To make the participants more familiar with the 4 component areas and integrate them in their pastoral practice.

The Provincial Pastoral Team is made up of Brothers Hugo Pablo (vocations ministry), Agustín Acevedo (youth ministry), Alejandro González (catechetics ministry) and Angélica Alegría (social ministry).

The areas that compose an integral Marist ministry are worked in blocks of one morning or one afternoon.

In vocations ministry, there was reflection on the current context and vocation; the culture of vocations and pastoral work and outlines of a project in a vocational key.

There was a conference which offered a panorama of the current situation with regard to the evolution of the concept of catechesis in Latin America. And the evolution and radical transformation of society and the audience for catechesis.

Youth ministry focused on the commitment to be “Evangelizers in the midst of youth”. It made known the document the Marist Institute has just published under this name and guidelines were given for working with it in each educational community.

With the guide of Focus on Social Commitment, there was reflection on the solidarity practices being realized, putting emphasis on the importance of moving, through our activities, to a more promotional and transformative solidarity, leaving behind mere welfare.

Finally, the last day involved a proposal to integrate the 4 areas in an operational planning which would be worked on for the rest of the school year so as to be put into operation in the 2012-2013 cycle.