Evangelization Project of the Kerigma Center arrives in Asturias

“Arde Asturias” is the name of the evangelization project organized by the group of the first announcement of the Kerigma Center in the Diocese of Alcalá de Henares, Spain.

Between August 17 and 24, this initiative will take place in different Asturian locations, such as Oviedo, Gijón, Avilés and Covadonga, among others, to offer a time of prayer and training through meditations and workshops.

In conversation with ACI Press, Carlo Cortés Vazquez, one of the organizers of the event, explained that it is the first time that this project is carried out in a Spanish city different from Alcalá de Henares, where he has been carrying out 12 years under the name “Arde Complutum”.

“We have the desire that this method of apostolate be extended, so we have accepted the request of some people to do it in Asturias. We have seen that it was time to take this model to other dioceses, and we would like to start with Asturias. If God wants, we would like to continue every year in another different diocese,” he said.

The Kerigma Center for New Evangelization

He Kerigma Center For the new evangelization, it offers a method that, since its foundation in 2013, has managed to bring thousands of non -believers to God and especially to baptized who lived away from their faith.

Born in response to the call of San Juan Paul II, Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, the center proposes a “re-evangelization” particularly directed to those who, even having faith, have not experienced “a living and personal encounter with Jesus Christ.”

Cortés, one of the founders of the Center in Alcalá de Henares, explains that “Kerigma is a word of Greek origin that means ‘first announcement’. When the Church, in its origins it began to preach after the death and resurrection of the Lord, that first announcement was called the charismatic announcement,” he said.

The word kerigma “represents the apostolate we do, to go out in search of those far from faith,” he said.

The fruits of the “first announcement”

The “Arde Asturias” project is, in Cortés’ opinion, “the most important mission of the whole year.” “We begin in the Sanctuary of Covadonga, where we will be the first two days. The first day is dedicated exclusively to prayer and training, but from Monday the mornings will be dedicated to prayer, training, workshops or experiences,” he reveals to ACI Press.

On the other hand, in the afternoon an apostolate will be held: “Every day we will go to a different place; a parish, other sanctuaries or even one day will be a chapel of perpetual worship.”

“Normally we follow the model of the classic evangelization vigils, where it is evangelized from a temple, the doors open and the people who are walking on the street to enter are invited,” Cortés said.

For Carlos, this “is a time when the Holy Spirit is left to act, so that the evangelizer can testify to faith to the person inside the temple.”

He also reports that, as it is an evangelization of the “first announcement”, many times the fruits are seen over time, although on several occasions they have witnessed how many people confess after many years.

“It is a miracle that we see very frequently, they confess after years. There are also people who after many years have asked us baptism or participated in the life of the parish.”

“Maybe in one night 400 people can enter a church, on a night of evangelization that lasts two hours. The fruit is not immediate, to the best of those 400 people only to one or two the Lord touches them in a special way,” he explains.

However, Carlos affirms that it is worth it and that, after a while, “many people arrive who thanks to that first announcement, which is a very simple thing, go to catechesis and participate with the parish.”

The event is scheduled to participate more than 50 evangelizers from various places in Spain and all ages, such as marriages, families, consecrated and priests “who have felt the call of announcing Christ living that goes out to meet each of their children, to fill them, accompany them, give them their love and peace”, as reported in the statement of the event.

From Kerigma, they remember that “God loves you and has died for you, so that you have life and life in abundance.” “We announce and God does the rest, and we are witnesses of first -hand of the merciful love that goes out to look for the lost sheep to bring it home.”