A historical meeting took place in the Pope Paul VI Hall of Vatican City earlier this month. The place was packed with 5,200 enthusiastic people of all ages, members of cells of evangelization. They came from all continents, among them a group from China and 26 from Malta led by Fr Paul Fenech, founder of the Disciples of Jesus Community (DJC), which was recently recognised by the Church in Malta.
The meeting with the Pope was to celebrate the Vatican's definitive recognition of the International Organism at the Service of the Parish Cells of Evangelization (IOSPCE).
The journey started 30 years ago started when an Irish priest, Fr Michael Aivers, then parish priest of St Boniface in Pembroke Pines, Florida, heard what was going on in a Protestant church led by Pastor Yongi Cho in South Korea who founded parish evangelizing cells with the aim of promoting the spirit of evangelization. Fr Aivers decided to go to Seoul to see for himself and when he returned to his parish, he adapted this method to the Catholic tradition and in a few years witnessed a great transformation in his community. He wrote about his experience in an article entitled "A Parish On Fire", which was published in the periodical New Covenant". In 1987, this article came to the attention of Don PiGi Perini, who was parish priest of one of the oldest basilicas in Milan, that of Saint Eustorgio. He went to Florida accompanied by some of his parishioners to see this transformation with his own eyes. God used Don PiGi, not only to transform his own parish, as the year after he organized an international seminar about this method, and in 25 years succeeded in spreading it all over the world.
On the suggestion of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, Don PiGi and a number of promoters from different countries, among them Fr Paul, founded the IOSPCE with Statutes that had been approved ad experimentum in 2009, and now definitively.
Following the meeting with the Pope, Don PiGi nominated Fr Paul Fenech who was subsequently elected Vice President of the IOSPCE.