The congress is organized by the Pontifical Mission Societies in Puerto Rico together with the Diocese of Mayaguez. More than 1,000 young participants are expected to come for the event. They will come from the island as well as from Canada, the United States, Mexico, Panama, Venezuela, Peru, Cuba and Argentina.
«[T]he aim of the congress is to increase our young people´s missionary awareness, to help them discern their vocation of service in the Church, and to call new workers for the harvest so that, answering the call of the Holy Father, the young Church of Puerto Rico may start in a springtime of missionary activity opening to the whole world,» the PMS diocesan director, Father Juan Lagos Gonzalez, told the Vatican agency Fides.
Testimony, conferences, workshops, song and dance during the congress will focus on the mandate given by Jesus: «Go into the whole world to proclaim the Gospel.»
The first national Missionary Youth Congress, held in August 1998 at Ponce, drew more than 800 young people.
