The participants include 114 national directors of institutions that support missionaries financially and morally. The meeting will open with a pastoral session, which runs from Thursday to Saturday.
The summit will be inaugurated by Cardinal Jozef Tomko, outgoing prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
The general assembly will take place from May 7-11. It will begin with an address by Archbishop Charles A. Schleck, president of the Pontifical Missionary Works (Propagation of the Faith, St. Peter the Apostle, Holy Childhood, and Missionary Union), who will evaluate the past year´s activities.
«Over the past year, there has been a 10% increase in requests for grants by the mission Churches,» Bishop Bernardo Prince, secretary-general of the Work of the Propagation of the Faith, told the international agency Fides. «Donations for the missions have also increased globally.»
