CHURCH IN PUERTO RICO OFFERS 24-HOUR PRAYER ENCOUNTER AMID PROTESTS

Catholic News Agency
07/25/2019

San Juan, Puerto Rico — The Puerto Rican bishops' conference announced it would hold a 24-hour prayer encounter the weekend of July 26/27, in the face of the territory's social and governmental instability.

Protesters have been calling for the resignation of Governor Ricardo Rossello.

Earlier this month, crude messages from a group chat among Rosello and some of his team were published in the media.

More remotely, his administration has faced pressure over corruption and its response to the territory's debt crisis, economic recession, and Hurricane Maria, which devastated the island in 2017.

Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello announced July 25th he is resigning effective Aug. 2.

The Puerto Rican bishops' conference said July 20 that it will hold a day-long prayer encounter at the National Sanctuary of Mary, Mother of Divine Providence in San Juan. The encounter will begin and end with Mass on the evenings of July 26 and 27, with Eucharistic Adoration in between.

“We invite the People of God to participate and to unite in prayer at a crucial moment of the history of Puerto Rico,” read the message signed by Bishop Ruben Antonio Gonzalez Medina of Ponce and Bishop Eusebio Ramos Morales of Caguas, the president and secretary, respectively, of the bishops' conference.

The bishops emphasized that the encounter was to be an opportunity to contribute to the correction of Puerto Rico's “complicated social, political, and economic situations.”

“Under the mantel of the Virgin Mary, Mother of Divine Providence, Patron of the whole of the Puerto Rican nation, let us implore the mercy of God for our people and that the wisdom of the Holy Spirit be poured out upon our leaders,” the bishops concluded.

“Let us make this convocation in faith and in confidence in God the Father who walks with his people.”

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