Chile: More than 1,500 young people travel the country carrying the message of Christ

Within the framework of different missions, more than 1,500 young people left this weekend to work as volunteers throughout the Chilean territory, bringing their help and the message of Christ.

The sending Mass was celebrated on July 13 at the San Joaquín campus of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, where a large number of them study.

There, Father Osvaldo Fernández de Castro, Vice Grand Chancellor of the university, encouraged the young people to be happy, faithful and fruitful, and reminded them: “Even if you don’t believe in God, God does believe in you.”

“There is a world that needs God and the Lord is counting on us to bring Him to the world,” he noted.

The date of the missions coincides with the winter break, and the volunteers are divided into the Country Work, Life Mission, Sowing UC and Country Mission Choir projects.

The different missions travel through 51 areas and towns, from the Coquimbo region to the Los Lagos region, bringing the message of Christ to hundreds of people and families.

The rector of the University, Ignacio Sánchez, for his part, recalled: “We are called to change our lives, the country, the world,” and highlighted: “Christ chose twelve to transmit his word. You, like the apostles, have been called.”

“This winter has hit us perhaps harder than others. We have had many floods and perhaps more icy cold than in others; In some way, that gives a different touch, hopeful and with much more charity, to this dedication that the young people make and that shows the hope of a living Church, a Church that is on the way out and a Church that does not remain asleep before the material and spiritual needs of our country,” said Ángela Parra, director of the Pastoral.

Seven students from Spain participate in this edition of the winter work, who belong to the Schoenstatt movement and traveled to Chile to be part of the “Country Work” project.

For its part, the Catholic University of Chile will send students to experience a mission organized by the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, which brings together students from that country, Bolivia and Chile.

Like every year, the projects that are developed throughout the country are Life Mission, Country Work, Sowing UC and Country Mission Choir.

On this occasion, Trabajo País will be in charge of building meeting spaces with the communities, and to do so it mobilizes more than 800 volunteers in 25 areas, with the motto “At the service of Chile, let us be tools of hope.” The project aims to build 13 chapels and 12 parish halls.

For its part, Misión País has 237 university volunteers, who will be deployed in different camps in the Valparaíso region and the metropolitan area of ​​Santiago, with the motto “Brave with Christ, give your life to the mission.”

The Mission Country Choir will join, on an itinerant basis, in visits to the different locations, with the motto “Make yourself a song of Christ, and ignite hearts.”

As the winter holidays approached, Siembra UC modified its calendar so that students from 66 schools could go out on missions during two long weekends: July 12 and 16 and August 14 and 18, with the motto “Ignite us with your Spirit, Let us be God’s now.”