More than 1,300 young people aged between 18 to 33 will crowd 13 rural areas and a juvenile prison in Paraguay from Holy Tuesday to Easter, with the aim of announcing the Good News to about 20,000 young people and adults who have scarce possibility to listen to it.

“The faith of this young people is solid and so many of them end up continuing their commitment to the Church”, said Fr. Pedro Kühlcke, ecclesiastical councillor for Catholic University Missions (MUC):

Each area has received young people for three consecutive years, to give these communities solidity. “In many of these communities, for many reasons, due to distance, accessibility of roads when it rains, or the scarcity of priests, mass is celebrated once a month or even less frequently”, explain the organizers.

“This is why – says Bruno, one of participant,  – in the first house we entered, made of earth and straw” (typical of the Paraguayan countryside), “I realized that for that lady we would have been what most resembled a living Christ”.

“Often, the Guaranì language spoken in most of Paraguay but very rarely spoken in big cities – is difficult to understand what people tell us. But what counts is our attitude of listening”.
Rubén, a Chilean resident in Paraguay, confesses: “I met God in the eyes full of life of children, in the loving reception I received from the very first moment. I pray for this mission”.

The Catholic University Missions (MUC), have reached the 18th edition inspired by the homonymous initiative of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, and are animated and promoted by young people of different charisms and ecclesial movements.

The joy, the enthusiasm and the family spirit, but also the profound spirituality, characteristic of the Paraguayan people, move this young people, who will visit the inhabitants of the villages home by home bringing with them the Bible and the image of the most beloved Virgin Mary. Almost 56% of the population of Paraguay is under 30 years of age.