The National Director of Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) USA, Rev Fr. Andrew Small, OMI, has lauded AMECEA Countries for putting into proper use, the funds received from them.
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| Rev Fr. Andrew Small, |
Speaking to journalists at Bingu International Conference Center (BICC), Fr. Small said that apart from coming to attend the AMECEA Plenary, he and his colleagues are here to also inspect some of the projects sponsored by the PMS.
Pontifical Mission Society is the Pope’s Organization that help all those dioceses that are considered missionary. “These are 500 in Africa, 400 in Asia, and a couple of hundreds spread across the world,” he said adding that “There are 1150 dioceses spread around the world that depend on this mission society in Rome,” he explained.
“Every year the whole church has a collection of funds for the world Mission Sunday which is second last Sunday in October,” he said adding that “It is from these funds that grants are distributed annually to the bishops to help them support the dioceses. In addition special projects such as the need to build a new chapel for instance or construction of a clinic or health facility are also supported in the program.”
He also pointed out that the Church does lots of wonderful things, especially here in Africa. “We see that the Church is blossoming and growing and our focus basically is establishing the local church, (the Catechists, Priests, Lay leaders) so that there are enough human resources,” he said.
“We are looking for ways to share our resources so that self reliance and self dependence is strengthened within the Eastern Africa generally,” he explained adding that “The Church has the most valuable resource locally with their own creativity, the sweat from their brow, and their dedications.”
“All that is needed is to be a lot more proactive particularly towards ensuring self-reliance,” he added.
By Pamela Adinda- AMECEA Social Communications