A ZENIT DAILY DISPATCH

A ZENIT DAILY DISPATCH

School of the Cross

Supporting the Priestly Ministry

VATICAN CITY, 29 JUNE 2006 (ZENIT)

Here is the description of the School of the Cross which appears in the Directory of International Associations of the Faithful, published by the Pontifical Council for the Laity.

Official name: School of the Cross

Established: 1965

History: School of the Cross was founded in the rural parish of St. Isidro Labrador, in the Diocese of Villarhermosa, Mexico, by Father Francisco Javier Asencio Dávalos, a professed brother of the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit.

After spreading to about a thousand parishes and virtually all the dioceses of Mexico, in 1987 it was established by the Church authorities as a national association of the faithful, and within a few years it reached the United States of America.

On May 22, 1994, the Pontifical Council for the Laity decreed Escuela de la Cruz to be an international association of the faithful of Pontifical right.

Identity: School of the Cross participates in the Church's mission by creating communities of apostles to bear witness to the spirituality of the cross in the spiritual order and the temporal order.

The members of the association undertake to live in intimate union with the crucified heart of Jesus Christ, priest-victim-altar, to "be priests with their priest," and in particular to support their own parish priest in the performance of his ministry. They are united by the realization that they are sons of God, chosen by Jesus to take part in his mission by helping one another to live the Gospel and the spirituality of the cross, to the heroism of love.

Organization: Only men may join School of the Cross, both laymen (indigenous, small farmers and workers living in the most deprived parishes) and priests, responsible for the pastoral care of a parish. The association is structured into small groups of 5-9 people.

Membership: School of the Cross has about 200,000 lay members and almost 200 parish priests, and is present in two North American countries.

Headquarters:

Escuela de la Cruz
Mirador s/n, Esq. Andador Cocos
Col. El Rosal
10600 M. Contreras
D.F. — Mexico

Tel. (52) 56-683943 — Fax 55-953583

© Copyright 2006 — Libreria Editrice Vaticana [adapted]
ZE06062929
 

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