As part of the 2019 World Youth Day in Panama, we the Franciscan Family – sons and daughters of St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi – would like to meet and work together in order to promote missionary fraternity as an international, intercultural and inter-obedient lifestyle.
The brothers and sisters of the Secular Franciscan Order in Panama have found a suitable location for this kind of meeting. Thanks to them, we will be hosted by the Franciscan Sisters at the Colegio Internacional de María Inmaculada on Paseo del Amazonas Avenue in Panama City, Panama.
While we participate in WYD 2019, we have a series of activities planned, such as engaging in formation and witnessing with the Franciscan Youth, going forth to the outskirts as itinerants, encouraging people to care for our common home and promoting the adoption of new lifestyles based on values of Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation, according to the Encyclical Laudato Si’.
We are expecting you at the “Franciscan Ecological Village”! This is a concrete means of promoting awareness and care of creation. The village will be physically set up January 18-27, 2019, on the campus of the aforementioned Colegio Internacional de María Inmaculada. This College will also be home to the Franciscan Youth and the Itinerant Franciscan Fraternity.
The “Franciscan Ecological Village” will be organized and managed by the Secretariat of the Global Catholic Climate Movement (GCCM), and the General Office for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (GPIC) of the Conventual Franciscan Order, based in Rome.
Moreover, during WYD, we will join a group of young Laudato Si’ animators from the GCCM and the members of the different Franciscan families (the Itinerant Franciscan Fraternity), to carry out everything that has been planned.
The “Franciscan Ecological Village”, among other things, provides an opportunity to share the message of the encyclical Laudato Si’ with young people, and do it using the spirituality, instruction and activities that originate from the encyclical itself: the Eucharist for the Care of Creation; the Ecological Rosary; meditation on the Word in terms of ecological conversion; a retreat day at the nearby Metropolitan Natural Park; and the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
There will also be some workshops on climate change and on the Church’s social doctrine. Work groups will be organized to take a Laudato Si’ action. There will also be a traveling photo exhibition produced by the GCCM of Brazil, together with the Episcopal Conference of Brazil and the Franciscan Family of Brazil.
The meeting of the Franciscan Family in an international setting makes possible the growth of fraternal relations among its members. Moreover, this is why the Ministers General from the Order of Friars Minor (OFM, OFM Conventual and OFM Capuchin), from the Third Order Regular and from the Secular Franciscan Order, will be joining us on certain days. The meeting will end with the “Laudato Si’ Concert” performed by the musical group “Alfareros” which has been nominated for a “Latin Grammy” this year.
Finally, we offer, with simplicity and joy, an opportunity for young people around the world to experience faith in the context of the Central American Church: a Church that is part of greater Latin America and one that has lived through martyrdom, as represented by St. Óscar Arnulfo ROMERO and other martyrs of the Latin American continent.
Below, please find the general program of our meetings in pdf format.
The Organizing Committee
