WELCOME TO H. E. Most REV. MONSIGNOR VICTOR MONDELLO

METROPOLITAN ARCHBISHOP OF REGGIO CALABRIA – BOVA
PRESIDENT OF THE CALABRA EPISCOPAL CONFERENCE
(Catanzaro, Politeama Theatre, May 11, 2006)

Your Excellency,
in faith and with joy in our hearts, we welcome you, Shepherd of the Very ancient Metropolitan Archdiocese of Reggio Calabria – Bova, President of the Calabra Episcopal Conference. Your presence is to us support in the faith, comfort in the hope, help to live with renewed commitment our mission of “Witnesses of Risen Christ, hope of the World”, a spur to be humble servants of Christ’s charity in favour of every man.
“The communion in the truth. Ministries and charismas in the service of the Christian identity and mission” is the theme that you will deal with for us on this second day of the First National Convention of the Apostolic Movement, in the perspective and in preparation for the Congress of Verona that the Italian Church will celebrate next October, 16-20.
It is the authority of you Shepherds to ensure that the ministries and charismas always remain in the truth and mission willed by our heavenly Father.
It is Your specific service to discern the charismas, determining their conformity to the truth that reigns in the Church of God and of which You are the custodians until the end of time, and with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit harmonizing them, guiding them, and supporting them, so that from the communion of the many gifts of the Spirit, the Church’s mission is an increasingly bright light shining among men.
Your Excellency, the Apostolic Movement, founded on November 3, 1979 through Mrs. Maria Marino, nourishes the charismas of announcing and reminding the Gospel with the truth and grace that come from the ordained ministry; lives them in the Church in obedience to its Shepherds, in communion with every other Group, Association, and Movement in the Church; feeds them with the power of the Eucharist and the grace of the other sacraments. Supports them with its great love for the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, that invokes with the Holy Rosary.
With this certainty of faith and truth, in this communion of charismas and ministries, all the Apostolic Movement, supported by its President Concetta Marraffa, wanted to celebrate this Convention.
May the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, prepare our hearts to hear the Word of the Vicars of her Divine Son; but also to keep it in our heart, with the same love with which she kept in hers every wonder that the Lord worked in and around her.
A cordial greeting to those who have taken part in this Convention. May the joy of this day pervade your life and through you spread throughout the world. I thank each one of you individually: Excellencies the Bishops, Reverend Priests, Deacons, Male and female religious persons, Consecrated lay women, holy people of God, and Civil and Military Authorities.

To you, Your Excellency, our thanks along with the prayer with which we daily accompany your ministry of Bishop and Vicar of Jesus Christ.

Catanzaro May 11, 2006

Monsignor Costantino Di Bruno
Central Ecclesiastical Assistant of the Apostolic Movement