Saturday, August 13, 2011

John Paul II, missionary: a book by Father Giuseppe Buono

Father Giuseppe Buono, of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions of Naples, was in Indonesia, on a tour which included the capital, Jakarta, and then Java and Bali. 

He was accompanied on the trip by two doctors and three lay people involved in missionary animation. 

Fr. Giuseppe Buono is the author of a book focusing on missionary and Marian teaching of John Paul II called "with Mary on the roads of the world", published on the occasion of the beatification of the Polish pope.

An Indonesian-language translation of the work was done by Yohana Halimah, a graduate in missiology of Rome’s Urbaniana University, a member of the national leadership of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Indonesia. 

Yoahana Halimah is also head of the John Paul II missionary community, a private association of lay faithful of universal character that is intended to fulfill the mission of the Church especially through prayer and witness of life, according to the teachings of John Paul II especially those contained in the encyclical Redemptoris Missio (1990).

Fr. Giuseppe Buono was invited to go to Indonesia by the National Director of Pontifical Mission Societies in Indonesia, the archbishop of Jakarta and the John Paul II Missionary Community. 

The first presentation took place at the headquarters of the Indonesian Bishops' Conference in Jakarta, Saturday, Aug. 13. 

Sunday 14 there will be a presentation for the Catholic community and will take place in the Community of the Xaverian Missionaries in Jakarta. 

The book offers a preface by Msgr. Juan-Esquerda Bifet and the testimonies of three cardinals who were very close to Pope John Paul II: Jozef Tomko, former Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Stanislaw Dziwisz, the pope's private secretary and Robert Sarah, president of "Cor Unum ".

Card. Sarah recalls the missionary inspiration of Pope John Paul II: "He traveled all over the world in order to proclaim the Gospel, to confirm his brothers in faith, to console the Church, meet man."