Last year, the event took place, for the first time, outside the capital, in nine cities, including Marseille, Orléans, Rennes and Besançon. It brought together more than 15,000 people, including 10% of practicing priests in France, specifies The cross. For his 8th edition, the Mission Congress, which takes place from Friday September 30 to Sunday October 2, returns to Paris, in various locations in the capital. This great meeting of evangelization in France was born in 2015 “at the initiative of Anuncio and in partnership with several movements and missionary communities” (Alpha, Ain Karem, the Emmanuel Community and, each year, new ones)recalls the site of the Mission Congress.
“The idea is to alternate between regional cities and the capital. In 2023, the Mission Congress will be decentralized again, so that the mission can best adapt to local issues.”, explains to Life Joseph Challier, spokesperson for the Mission Congress. In The crossArnaud Bouthéon, one of the founders, agrees: “I think that the Mission Congress responded to a need for meetings and exchanges of Catholics involved in their parish or their movement and who could be a little isolated and end up exhausted. They come to regain strength and ideas to then support their diocese.” Also interviewed by The cross, Thérèse Garnier, responsible for the pastoral care of families in the diocese of Besançon, discovered the Mission Congress two years ago in the capital and, the following year, she actively participated in the edition held in her region. “Many suffer from the lack of priests and faithful in their parishshe laments. With the Mission Congress, they discovered tools such as the Alpha paths, which make evangelization possible also at home.”
Be an actor of the Congress
Especially since society is de-Christianizing: since the 1980s, there has been a significant decrease in those who declare themselves Catholic, according to one study of the Society’s Observation Center published in November 2021 (from 70% in 1981 to 32% in 2018). For the bishops, the Mission Congress therefore clearly appears as an opportunity. Mgr Jean-Philippe Nault, Bishop of Nice, is a regular: this is the fifth time he has been there and, this year, he will take part in a round table around the question “How to announce Jesus in a culture where we don’t know him anymore?”
“This is an important meeting for our Church of France, all sensibilities combinedhe advances to The cross. In Digne already [où il fut évêque de 2014 à 2022]I encouraged all the pastoral councils of the parishes to send a delegate there or to go there with several people to experience a living Church, which does not despair and carries out many bold initiatives.” An opportunity for the participants not only to be spectators but also actors of the Congress, believes Anne-Geneviève Montagne, one of the founders, with Christian family. “Unlike workshops where one person presents a missionary and duplicable achievementshe explains, open forums are collaborative. On a question, a small group of interested people will reflect in order to bring out a common answer that did not exist until then..” Ultimately, the Mission Congress has become, over the years since its creation, a flagship event for Catholics.
Religion: the Mission Congress opens in Paris – Regards protestants