The ETS Lay Missionary Association with its Volunteers, together with the Archdiocese of Agrigento, organizes the WEEK ALM 2024, a traveling missionary animation camp that will be held in Agrigento from 1 to 8 July. Archbishop Alessandro Damiano declared: “It is the first time that the Archdiocese collaborates with the volunteers of the Lay Association. Your participation reveals your desire to be active and responsible protagonists in the world, promoters of the themes you have chosen and which concern us all personally. I therefore invite you to give your creative and engaging contribution to the animation and dialogue with those you meet in our territory, without exception, seeking ways, places and methods that are increasingly appropriate to the challenges and opportunities that our complex, but also stimulating, time Offers us. I hope that from this event comes a fuller awareness of our Christian mission and a more lively docility to the power of the Holy Spirit, so that all the action of the Church and every pastoral initiative are lived in a missionary dimension of testimony and announcement. I invoke the heavenly protection of Mary, Queen of the Missions, and of the Blessed Rosario Livatino. I heartily bless you and those you will meet on your journey.” For months, ALM volunteers have been working for this event dedicated to all those who wish to learn about and experience the mission in our territories. The theme chosen is: “Mediterranean: together to learn, reflect, pray, promote justice and sow peace”. The objective of this week will be to gain experience with the various realities present in the Agrigento area, understanding their fragilities and potential, through meetings with their witnesses, to share, discuss and explore the themes dear to the “Mission”. The participants, who accepted the invitation and join the initiative, come from different Italian Dioceses and will arrive in the city on Monday 1 July are Stefania Rosa Di Terlizzi and Lucia Preve from the Diocese of Turin, Graziella Piscopo and Perpetua Nsenje (Zambiana) from the Diocese of Rome, Angela Convertini with her husband Bahador Rambaran (Mauritian) and daughter Anoush Alessia Rambaran from the Diocese of Bari-Bitonto, Maria Grazia Spinelli from the Diocese of Oria, Graziana Scalco and Sister Yuliana Anunut (Indonesian) from the Diocese of Vicenza, Alessandra Venturini from the Diocese of Treviso and Cinzia Broggiato from the Diocese of Padua. With you, writes Clementina Iezzi, ALM president, we want to share, discuss and explore the themes dear to the mission. The ALM is grateful to you for the commitment you will put into living these days. There is a need to broaden our gaze, to go out, to go further, to make alliances, to open ourselves to the unexpected that the Spirit inevitably brings with it. Let us be carried. Finally, I wish you all to be bearers of peace, love, brotherhood and joy in every place and context in which you find yourself, in this world that needs it so much. The week’s appointments will be itinerant.
The ALM Week will begin on Tuesday 2 July with a visit to Muetàn with the “Tanzania a corner of the world to read the world” route curated by ALM volunteer Mimmo Gambino. The visit to the Lucchesiana Library led by the director Don Angelo Chillura. In the afternoon guests will follow the Art and Faith Itinerary led by Dr. Domenica Brancato, director of the Diocesan Museum. At 8.00 pm, in the Cloister of the Archbishop’s Seminary, Archbishop Monsignor Alessandro Damiano will officially inaugurate the opening of the WEEK ALM 2024 with the ALM Missionary Exhibition and the welcome greeting to the participants. The evening will be animated by a representation of the Folk group Val d’Akragas from Agrigento, directed by maestro Lello Casesa, and voice and cello pieces will be performed by professors Eleonora Tabbì voice and Mauro Cottone cello. For the occasion, the video “viva la vita” by the string students of the Empedocle Classical and Musical High School of Agrigento will be screened. During the evening, the diocesan representative of the service for the promotion of economic support to the Catholic Church, Arch. Nunzia Licata, will also speak.
On Wednesday 3 July at 5:00 pm the participants will move to Porto Empedocle where the Relic of Blessed Rosario Angelo Livatino is expected to be welcomed at the parish of SS. Trinità. At 5:30 pm Don Giuseppe Cumbo, Vicar General, will introduce the figure of Blessed Rosario Livatino and at 6:00 pm he will preside over the Holy Mass. At the end the evening will continue with the Concert of the Interparish Polyphonic Choir Empedoclino “Santa Teresina di Lisieux” directed by Don Gioacchino Falsone, the presentation of the book “Rosario Livatino” by Marilisa Della Monica and the Missionary Exhibition with testimonies by the ALM Volunteers.
On Thursday 4 July at 10:00 am the group will be welcomed by the community of the city of Realmonte and at 10:30 am, in the premises of the parish of San Domenico, Don Stefano Nastasi and Don Fabio Majorana (former parish priests of Lampedusa) will hold a meeting on migrants in light of their experience. At 1.00 pm sharing a packed lunch together with the Migrant Community present to follow the visit to the splendid Scala dei Turchi. The program will continue at 7.00 pm in the Parish of Maria SS. of the Villaseta Chain with the Eucharistic Celebration presided over by the singer-songwriter Friar Giuseppe Di Fatta of the order of friars minor who at 8.00 pm will hold a moment of reflection with a “Concert-Prayer”. During the evening, the Missionary Exhibition will also be set up with the testimonies of the ALM Volunteers.
On Friday 5 July at 10:00 in Agrigento in the premises of via Barone 2/A, the Director of the Diocesan Caritas Valerio Landri and his team will present the activities promoted by Caritas and the Mondoaltro Foundation. At 4.00 pm, in the Seminary, a meeting will be held on the theme of ecumenism and interreligious dialogue, followed at 6.00 pm by the meeting with the city’s Islamic Community in the Agrigento Mosque in Piazza Ravanusella.
On Saturday 6 July at 7:00 pm in the open-air church of the Parish of San Leone, Don Aldo Sciabbarrasi, director of the Center for the Mission, will preside over the Holy Mass animated by the Diocesan Choir directed by Maestro Graziella Fazzi. At 8:00 pm at the small port of San Leone, in the presence of religious, civil and military authorities, a torchlight procession will begin in memory of the migrants who died at sea, which will reach Piazzale Giglia where a floral tribute will be paid to those who died at sea, followed by a concert by the Diocesan Choir directed by Maestro Graziella Fazzi. The Combonian Lay Missionaries of Agrigento and the volunteers of Nyumba Yetu Onlus have already announced their participation in the torchlight procession.
Sunday 7 July: Morning dedicated to the celebrations of the “Black Saint” between faith, popular traditions and folklore. At 09:00 the group will participate in the Holy Mass at the San Calogero Sanctuary. In the afternoon, visit to the Archaeological Park of the Valley of the Temples. On Monday 8 July the participants will return to their dioceses.
