From 24 - 25 February Pablo Márquez Vázquez (delegate for the parishes of the Iberian Province) and Francisco Cruz Rivero took part in the 1st Catholic Congress of good practices in parishes, organised by the Catholic University of Valencia.
The Congress presented a study that the organisers had carried out on evangelising parishes in Spain. They had analysed parishes that share a similar culture and structure in terms of pastoral conversion.
The aim was not to present a model parish, but a set of good practices. Each parish has to discover how to move forward and what practices and support it needs to employ in order to move towards pastoral conversion.
As a result of the study, an evaluation tool was also introduced that helps each parish to analyse itself and to see its weaknesses and strengths in order to set out on the path of pastoral conversion.
The Congress succeeded in demonstrating that parishes are still a suitable platform for evangelisation - for awakening parish communities to set out on the path of evangelisation, encouraging changes in parish culture and structures, encouraging the leadership of the parish priest and the parish laity to be shared, showing good practices and offering various support tools, fostering the network of parishes that want to initiate processes of pastoral conversion. In short, the sim is to leave behind the paradigm of Christianity that maintains parishes so as to initiate a process that discerns how to evangelise in our world and which dares to explore new paths.
03/02/2023