Rome (AsiaNews) –Today in PIME (Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions) marks 157 years since its foundation and at its centenary celebrations for the history of the Institute this years thanks will also be given for the release of Fr. Giancarlo Bossi, the missionary kidnapped June 10th last from his Parish in Payao (Philippines) and release on July 19th after 39 days in captivity. The day after the missionaries release, PIME Superior General Fr. Gian Battista Zanchi had written a letter to all the Institutes missionaries in Italy, recalling that “to mark the anniversary of the foundation, the Eucharistic celebration will be offered in thanksgiving to the Lord for the safe return of Fr. Giancarlo and for the continued protection of all of our missionaries”. This evening at 20.30, mass will be held in the Mother House in Rome, celebrated by Fr. Zanchi and concelebrated by the entire Institute missionaries present in the city.
PIME was born on the far off July 30th of 1850, when Msgr. Angelo Ramazzotti (first bishop of Pavia, then Patriarch of Vneice) accompanied a group of students from the “Lombard Seminary for Foreign Missions” - don Giovanni Mazzucconi and don Carlo Salerio – from the seat of Rho Oblates to his home in Saronno: arriving at their destination they met with another group of priests and aspiring missionaries who were attempting to give life to the “Seminary for Foreign Missions”. According to the Gospel parable of the mustard seed, destined to grow, this community gave birth to PIME, which in over 157 years of life has sent out hundreds of missionaries across the world. Today PIME is present in Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong – China e Taiwan, India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Cameroon, Ivory Cost, Guinea Bissau, Algeria, Brazil and the Amazonia, Mexico and the United States. A missionary history which is a symbol of evangelization accompanied by good works, born of the concrete needs of the local population. A witness that has “always been marked by God’s Grace which sustains all those who announce the Gospel”, but also by Martyrdom: 18 PIME missionaries have lost their lives announcing Christ’s words, the last two of whom in Mindanao, Fr Giancarlo Bossi’s missionary terrain. This is why this evening’s Eucharistic celebration “has a special intention of thanksgiving to God for the release of our confrere”, writes the Superior General in his introduction to the Eucharist.
In the meantime in the Philippines joint peace efforts of the Christian and Muslim communities, “determined to oppose all those seeking to create tensions in the Country” continue. On July 26, the people of Payao, marched on the narrow streets of this municipality, just a day after kidnapped Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi bade them goodbye. Payao Mayor Joeper Mendoza had invited the thousands of men, women and children- Christian and Muslim - on a “peace march” – to “work for peace and development”, while Jesus Dureza, presidential assistant on the peace process, encouraged the people to “transform the kidnapping of Fr. Bossi into an opportunity to allow Payao to move toward peace and progress”.
The peace caravan is among the initiatives being undertaken by the local government and the Church with the assistance of the civil society groups and the ACT for Peace to strengthen the relations of the members of the Mindanao community. Yesterday, inter-religious dialogue was held during which the principals and teachings of the various religions were discussed in the prospective of respect, love, peace and common development.
