Macao Institute of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
The Congregation for Evangelization has officially established the Redemptoris Mater College for the Evangelization of Asia, based in Macao, entrusting the direction to the Neocatechumenal Way.
The College has been established with the decree signed by Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of Propaganda Fide, on June 29, after the audience with Pope Francis. The “Redemptoris Mater College for Asia” will open its doors in September, with a first core of students coming from various nations of the world. The initiative aims to respond to John Paul II’s call that, in the encyclical letter Redemptoris Missio, indicated the Asian continent as a territorial area, “towards the which the missio ad gentes should mainly focus on ”(n.37), and to the wish of Pope Francis that, in the apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, invites the Church to “go out” to always announce the gospel. As deduced from the statute, the College depends directly from the Congregation for the Evangelization of peoples, maintains contacts with the local bishop and may have sections dedicated in other places or countries. It is in fact a “major seminary of the Church, an educational community that lives the true canonical law and must obtain a legal existence under the laws of the country ” in which the institute is located.
The College has the purpose to prepare future priests for the evangelization in Asia, accompanying and educating them “to the life of prayer and the theological and cardinal virtues, with a serious commitment in the philosophical and theological studies and to an action of itinerant evangelization.”
Priests trained at the institute “May be sent, in the judgment of the prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of peoples, in dioceses that request it ”, in various Asian territories and nations as needed pastors of those who require them. “In such a mission of evangelization, priests can be helped by entire families, formed in the Neocatechumenal Way, also available to be sent ”.
Formation in the College is configured according to the indications of the Magisterium of the Church, while the training of seminarians includes direct and personal participation in the Neocatechumenal Way. In addition, according to the specific identity of the College, the proposed study will have its own connotation on the missionary level ”:“ The students – it is read in the Statute – are helped to highlight the missionary dimension inherent in the various themes of the theology, so that, even on an intellectual level, they are adequately prepared to integrate themselves into the universal mission entrusted by Christ to the apostles ”. The College is entrusted, in particular, to two patrons: Mary, Mother of the Redeemer, and Saint Joseph, Custodian of the Holy Family of Nazareth. In addition, the memory of the saints of the Churches of Asia will be celebrated with particular solemnity.