Cursillo Encounter kicks off at Palms

Participants in the 20th Asia-Pacific Cursillo Encounter, which the CNMI is hosting for the second time in 10 years, will wrap up their two-day affair late in the afternoon today at the Palms Resort Saipan in Tanapag.

The 80 delegates from six nations, including Australia, Vietnam, Korea, Taiwan, Guam and the CNMI, began the Encounter yesterday with inspirational speeches in line with this year’s theme, “Renewing Our Commitment: Be a friend, make a friend, and bring a friend to Christ.”

Cursillo spiritual director Rev. Fr. Ryan P. Jimenez, who is the acting president of the CNMI Cursillo Movement, recollected how the movement has evolved over the years.

He said the pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James at the historic Cathedral of Santiago in Spain has a special connection to the early beginnings of the Cursillo Movement.

“Our history as a movement can be traced back to the spiritual renewal activities on the Spanish island of Majorca. The late Eduardo Bonnin, our movement’s founder, together with other lay persons, led in preparing young men for pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James at Compostela,” Jimenez said.

He said this preparation took the form of little courses in Christianity, hence the word “Cursillo.”

Saipan was chosen to host the gathering again during the 19th APE in Sydney, where Jimenez was one of the delegates from the CNMI in 2006.

He said the Saipan delegates were inspired by the theme of that event, thus reflecting this year’s theme.

Saipan also hosted the 13th APE in 1999.

Expounding on the importance of the theme, Jimenez said, “We need to be a friend before we can make friends with fellow pilgrims.”

The Cursillo Movement is a ministry within the Catholic Church that started in Spain in the early 1940s.

The name Cursillo, which literally means “a short course,” is associated with the three-day Weekend, which is only one aspect of the Cursillo Movement, where participants learn some basic courses in Christianity. Members of the Movement meet regularly for prayer, sharing, leadership modules and apostolic work.

The first Cursillo Weekend in the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa took place on July 2-5, 1993, at the Korean Catholic Center.

With the guidance of Bishop Tomas A. Camacho and lay volunteers from the CNMI and Guam, participation has grown to where there are more than 200 members of the Cursillo Movement at present in the CNMI.

On the last day of the Encounter tomorrow, all participants will attend the 9am Mass at Mount Cathedral.