Cardinal Vegliò inaugurates 23rd World Congress of the Apostleship of the Sea

November 19, 2012 - The growing problems concerning the life and work of seafarers make the maritime world a fertile terrain for evangelization. Cardinal Antonio Maria Vegliò, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People said this on Monday in his inaugural address at the 23rd World Congress of the Apostleship of the Sea in the Vatican, Nov. 19-23. Over 400 delegates from 70 countries are discussing the theme "New Evangelisation in the Maritime World". The Apostleship of the Sea (AOS) is the Catholic Church’s service to the world’s seafarers and fishers, mostly through the Stella Maris centres at ports. Cardinal Vegliò noted that seafarers, fishers and their families have special needs because being forced to be far from their Christian communities for entire months, they are beyond the reach of the Church's ordinary pastoral care. The cardinal said the growing problems concerning the seafarers' life and work, the challenges raised by the new and often restrictive rules, and the world economic crisis make the Apostleship of the Sea evangelize in rather difficult conditions. Despite all these difficulties, the cardinal said, the maritime world is a fertile terrain for evangelization. The New Evangelization and the Year of the Faith invite every chaplain and volunteer of the Apostleship of the Sea to deepen their faith, to believe in the Gospel message, and to go forward to proclaim the Gospel to those who do not know it and to rekindle in this way that “smouldering wick” through Christian witness. This Christian witness, he said, must be given through a ministry of on-going presence, service and solidarity. For the seafarers who arrive in foreign ports, far from the city, the presence of an Apostleship of the Sea center with the chaplain and volunteers is always a beacon of light for those who have sailed for weeks only in the company of themselves, Cardinal Vegliò added.