Visit to Chile and Argentina
VISIT TO CHILE AND ARGENTINA
Connie Garcia and Noel Lynch recently undertook a three-week visit to Chile and Argentina for the purpose of visiting the various councils and attending a Congress. In Chile 295 officers from all the councils attached to the Senatus attended this three-day Congress, which proved a great opportunity to exchange experiences with the legionaries who were very interested to hear about new works done elsewhere. An example of this is the apostolate in southern Chile, where native Indians are prominent in the Legion. The Legion is growing in Chile. Since the last census about 1,000 new praesidia have been set up. There is a great respect for the Senatus and correspondence with the distant councils is very good.
After a week with the legionaries of Chile, Connie and Noel flew over the snow-capped Andes to start a two-week visit to the legionaries of the 5 councils affiliated to Concilium in Argentina; during all their time in Argentina they were accompanied and greatly assisted by Noelia García, President of the Senatus of Buenos Aires. They spent 2 to 3 days with each council, travelling by night on the buses and covering approximately 5,000 kilometres. Starting in Buenos Aires, the Senatus officers arranged an interview with the Archbishop and Primate of Argentina, Cardinal Poli. His Eminence was very interested in Connie’s report of her Legion experience in Ireland and her praesidium the University of Bogota He asked for statistics on the Legion in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires and said he would be very pleased to attend the ceremony marking the closure of the Alfie Lambe Cause, after which all documents will be sent to Rome.
During a visit to Corrientes, the trio attended a general Regia meeting surrounded by legionaries asking questions and exchanging experiences. They also did street-contact with local legionaries. Next they visited Salta Senatus before going on to Cordobo Senatus and Rosario Regia where the Spiritual Director and all the officers are young adults. The final council visit was to Buenos Aires Senatus, perhaps geographically, the largest Senatus in the world, stretching to Antarctica in the South Pole. At the end of the visit to the councils they had a meeting with Isabel Fernandez and Guadalupe Morad, historians for the Cause of Alfie Lambe, both stressing the need to show that there was a real interest in the Cause. A meeting also took place with Irene Sauer, who over many years has done a lot of work on the Cause
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