The territory began the jubilee celebration on August 21 during a time when everything is “in the process of change.”
Photo: Commission for the Management of Religious Heritage – Diocese of Portalegre-Castelo Branco
Castelo Branco, August 27, 2024 (Ecclesia) – The Diocese of Portalegre-Castelo Branco began the celebration of its 475th anniversary on August 21, affirming that it is necessary to be creative in evangelizing at a time when everything is “in the process of change.”
“Change will always be underway; it is in the midst of it that we must know how to live, that we must know how to read the signs of the times, and that we must evangelize,” stated the diocesan bishop in the first issue of “The Word that Unites.”
“The Word that Unites” is a weekly publication that, until the end of the civil year, will disseminate historical and general cultural information to aid the experience of Sunday, where the bishop of the Diocese of Portalegre-Castelo Branco, D. Antonino Dias, signs the section “In a word” in each issue, with the rest of the content being the responsibility each week of various members of the Presbyteral Council.
“For 475 years we have been a diocese! We imagine the joy of that first hour with the publication of the Papal Bull that defined its territory, with the appointment of its first bishop, and with the choice of a church to serve as its headquarters until the construction of the cathedral. We do not believe that everything was a bed of roses. We know, however, that diocesan history has been shaped, including the expansion of its territory due to the restructuring of dioceses in Portugal. And here we are.”
In the first text of the section “In a Word”, the bishop of the Diocese of Portalegre-Castelo Branco recalls that “many things have changed, and other changes are continuing at an accelerated pace,” and the future depends on how one faces “the present prophetically.”
Photos: Ecclesia Agency
The way of being and existing has changed, youth interests and daily demands have changed, families are undergoing a significant identity crisis, schools and their roles in education have changed, we have changed, existential priorities are different, centers of interest have shifted, everything changes because the world changes,” he states.
D. Antonino Dias asserts that “if everything has changed or is in the process of change, it would be very strange and useless for someone to plant their feet on the ground saying that they will not move from here, wanting to stop change,” and he challenges evangelization based on reading the ongoing change.
In the first publication carried out within the jubilee of the diocese, Canon Bonifácio Bernardo provides information about the history of the Catholic Church in the territory, recalling that the diocese of Portalegre was created by Pope Paul III on August 21, 1549, with the first bishop being D. Julião de Alva (1550-1560). It became known as Portalegre-Castelo Branco in 1957, after the integration of almost all parishes of Castelo Branco, which had only three bishops between 1771-1881.
Photo Archive Journal Reconquista, Se of Castelo Branco
The Diocese of Portalegre-Castelo Branco currently has 161 parishes, distributed across five regions (Archpriesthood of Abrantes 33 parishes, Castelo Branco 44, Ponte de Sor 27, Portalegre 22, and Sertã 35), 62 priests, 13 permanent deacons, and hundreds of extraordinary ministers of Communion, Sunday Celebration, and Funerals, and Catechists; work in the region is also carried out by religious from 13 institutes of Consecrated Life and three secular institutes, by associations, lay movements, and 39 charities.
In the next two months, the parishes of the various archpriesthoods will commemorate the jubilee with a pilgrimage to the Holy Door: on September 15, the archpriesthood of Portalegre; on the 22nd, Castelo Branco; and on the 29th, Sertã; in October, the archpriesthood of Ponte de Sor will pilgrimage on the 6th and Abrantes on the 20th.
The Jubilee of the Diocese of Portalegre-Castelo Branco is also marked by the exhibition “A New Diocese – 475 Years,” inaugurated at the cathedral of Portalegre on August 21, which consists of five sections: “A New Diocese,” “The Government – The Bishops,” “The Government – The Chapter,” “The Cathedral,” and “The Worship.”
PR