Meaning of the Logo

COMLA 6 - CAM 1 Missionary Infancy in the Congress

Missionary Infancy in the Congress hope for a better world.

Bishop Carlos Forbin Janson was the first to see this clearly "who are the best but the Christian children to take care and protect those children of the world who need help desperately?"

In this way he founded the "Missionary works of the Saint Infancy", which later on was turned into "Missionary Infancy". It was in 1843 (55 years ago) when nobody cared about the kids of the third world, and when the UNICEF and the ONG (non-governmental organizations) had not been founded yet.

Nowadays the missionary Infancy is working in more than 107 countries. About 20 million children from the third world benefit from the Christian Children's Solidarity. A look around the poorest places in Africa, Asia, Oceanía and Latin America would show the educational and health initiatives supported by the Missionary Infancy. They are: 15,000 nurseries, 38,686 elementary schools and 12,682 High Schools. There are also 2,055 hospitals, 6,873 health consulting rooms, 2,743 Orphanages. A deepest look would also show the solidarity of the Missionary Infancy since it supports thousands of Catechesis Groups. In 1998 the Missionary Infancy collected $15, 249,089 dollars. The Argentinian children contributed $10,400(pesos) to the Missionary Works.

Is it possible to imagine how many millions and millions of little boys and girls have been helped by the solidarity of the Missionary Infancy? How many of them have saved their lives, how many have been fed, have healed their illnesses, learnt to read and write, how many have had a happy break time at school and clean classrooms? The works of the Missionary Infancy does, without any doubt, a great job. However, unfortunately, there are still many challenges to face to be able to build up a better world.

Childhood is no longer a happy period

Millions and millions of kids keep on having a childhood that is not suitable for them. The games, joy, lack of worries which should fulfill the first years of their lives, have been substituted by violent consequences that the grown ups have developed around them. It is because of that, that the Christian children of the Missionary Infancy go on working for a common cause built upon complete unity and solidarity.

Day after day, the harsh reality of daily life is turning childhood into a more and more sad period in life . the truth is that the Third World children's life is quite different from those of the First World. It is true that many kids from the Occident have to face loneliness, lack of communication with their parents, home violence, abuse...

However , it is really alarming the number of children who lack even the basic health care, education, food and who are also victims of labor exploitation in the underdeveloped countries of Africa, Asia and even in our American continent.

In our consumer society there are many families who only care about their own comfort. It is very painful to see how some kids waste money on expensive clothes, movies, video games...But it is also true, that within this same selfish society, the Missionary Infancy is raising its own initiative to mitigate the injustice the grown ups world is causing the children.

The work is not easy. There is still much infamy committed against childhood. According to UNICEF, every day, 35,000 kids die in the world due to causes that can be prevented. Those who die in the wars; it seems to be a silent emergency; some that worries the public opinion less than the wars.

According to UNICEF 12 millions kids under 12 years old die every year, half of them due to lack of food. As a consequence these children lack, for example, the iodine of salt, with out which cretinism is provoked. They have not got iron, A vitamin, cinc or folic acid, which is so important for the red corpuscle.

"Malnutrition does not only cause poverty but it is also its effect. It is a vicious circle which, if it is not broken, will prevent the world from developing" Fransisco González Bueno denounced_ member of the UNICEF SPANISH COMMITTEE. Even when malnutrition does not provoke death, it causes both a low intelligence quotient and physical- psychic weakness (added Gonzalez Bueno).

African countries which suffer from serious malnutrition, with a high death index, are mainly those in the east such as: Ethiopia, Kenia, Uganda, Somalia, Tanzania and the people's Republic of Congo. In Sudan help is needed for the 2,4 million people evacuated due to the floods. The heavy rains have also caused great damage to Eritrea, Burundi, Rwanda, and to a lesser extend to Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Lesotho.

In Asia, the worse situation is in North Korea where the ONU recognizes a general state of malnutrition. Important parts of the population of Mongolia have also been seriously affected. In the case of Irak, the lack of food problem, malnutrition of people and infancy death rate have been provoked by the embargo that country has been imposed on since the end of the Golf war.

Damage in Latin America is not less important. The heavy rains caused by "El Niño" have brought about deterioration in the harvest and infrastructure in Haiti, Cuba and Brazil. High temperatures have also caused great problems to Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. On top of this, the Mitch hurricane which has left Central America in ruins, destroying countries sich as Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador.

In Arms

Another alarming fact are the near 200,000 children in arms in some of the wars today. According to the book "Soldier kids"- recently published by the Red Cross- 2 million kids have died victims of armed conflicts. One of the conclusions of the book's authors: Ilene Cohn and Guy Goodwingill- is that some of these kids are physically safer within these armed movements than outside them; or within other groups (such as street kids, refugees and those marginalized) Since they find in these groups shelter, loyalty, instruction, self-confidence, pride and respect.

Unicef asserts there are 250 million children in the world who suffer from labor exploitation. Most of them work in farms, but there are children working in mines, in the building industry, industry of shoes, sport equipment, matches, fireworks, crystal industry, pottery and even in prostitution. Other 100 millions of these kids are from Latin America. They are children who cannot get their daily food even from labor exploitation. they live on begging, small robberies or prostitution. Besides, these kids annoy- with their presence- the institutions and security forces in cities like Brazil, Mexico City or Bogota, so they try to "clean" the streets using the torture method and murder.

Thus, the Missionaries' work and that of the ONGs (non-governmental organizations) consist of: on one hand to feed, take care and provide these kids with a job, education and lodge, sometimes which the governments have not been able to do. And, on the other hand, they have to protect them from the police torture, cruel treatment, rapes and in many occasions to prevent them from being murdered.

Missionary kids: Hope for a new world

There are too many kids suffering and too many problems upon them. "That is why nowadays, more than ever, we must go on struggling for a world, which though created under a love sign- has degenerated into fight, rivalry, misery..."-Asserts José Luis Irizar Artiach- National director of the Pontifical Missionary Works in Spain. Hope moves the missionary's heart to build up a more fair word.

The Missionary Infancy is for these kids, that hope, because the missionaries today and those of future are here. Jesus trusts children because he knows that they get what they want. And they can do a lot in their families, with the schoolmates, neighbors and the whole world. Thanks to the mass media and the mixture of people everywhere, kids today can reach the children from the furthest places. The kid with the freshness of his faith and the enthusiasm of his age can be a real missionary of hope.

Pope John Paul II has said "I want to address the members of this Missionary Infancy Work, the group leaders and the children to tell them, again, that the Church raises hope in his capability to save the world. The Evangelization has as a landmark many young witnesses... and will go on existing thanks to the new generation of kids born to the life of God and Church through Baptism; mainly in the young churches that join Christ so passionately communicating the faith so generously".

Missionary Infancy: An unbreakable Net of solidarity

The kids of the Missionary Infancy have been doing a service to the needy of the world for more than 150 years.

As Priest Santos Paniagua- director of the "Iluminare" magazine explains: "It is a real net because the kids are interwoven and they live a missionary communion between them, in their parish, diocese, and thus they form a great family spread all over the world. A family of great young missionaries who work hard with a generous heart. Thus, the child, from his very first childhood, learns to be helpful, the missionary's noble feelings start to develop in his spirit because he worries about people and he feel important because it is Jesus himself who is sending him. In thisway they feel identified with a missionary's convictions and Judgement everywhere and for everybody.

The Educador's role: parents', teachers', catechists'

It is the Educador's role: parents', teachers' and catechists', to raise a missionary awareness among children. They must teach the kids that a selfish Christian is a blasphemy, that Christianism means to share what we have. Bishop Irizar adds: from whom nothing has to give but himself?. When there is a little, that little is a lot?

And in that way: what a lot of missionary boys and girls the Saint Infancy works has given away to the Church!

Now we are going to cross a new millenium's door, an unique opportunity to open ourselves to the hope of a new world where there is more joy, faith, justice, peace, love... and so we say: "Children, missionaries of hope" because they have together with a generous lively heart a lot to say and do to improve the situation of man in all his dimensions.

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