CORDOBA, Spain, JAN. 31, 2012 (Zenit.org).- More than 2,000 members of the Cursillo movement participated last week in a thanksgiving celebration of the 1,000th cursillo in Cordoba.
The ceremony was presided over by Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity. During the homily, Cardinal Rylko reviewed the history of the Cursillos of Christianity, describing it as a “long journey of abundant evangelical sowing, which began in 1954.”
“Today we have no time to remain still; the task of evangelization is urgent,” he added.
“The Ecclesial Movements and New Communities are a timely answer of the Holy Spirit to the challenges that the world poses to the Church of our time,” the cardinal said. “That is why the Church looks to you with great hope and counts on you.”
Cardinal Rylko pointed out that the Movement of Cursillos of Christianity is present in 63 countries worldwide and that all the communities are an integral part of the life of the Church.
“You are a gift of the Holy Spirit, an indispensable instrument of the evangelizing mission, the expression of the Church’s vitality in our days,” he said.
Referring to all lay associations and ecclesial movements, the cardinal highlighted three tasks they face: “To be schools of holiness, mission and communion.”
Related to this, he explained that the world needs real, holy Christians, and to that end the various movements and associations must be missionary and evangelizing, as well as true schools of communion.
The celebration began with the words of Bishop Demetrio Fernández of Cordoba, who said that “today is a day of celebration in the Diocese of Cordoba because, through the Movement of the Cursillos of Christianity, thousands upon thousands of people have encountered Jesus Christ in his Holy Church.”
