By Staff Writer
A big church congress planned for Samoa this week is officially put back a year due to restrictions of the COVID-19 crisis.
The 5th World Apostolic Congress on Mercy or WACOM of the Catholic Church was scheduled this month for about a week from 10-15 of August in Samoa.
Congress organisers confirmed the official re-scheduling on the written advise of the WACOM coordinator in Africa, Bishop Martin Uzoukwu of Minna, Nigeria.
“I write to inform you that the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of New Evangelization at the Vatican has postponed the Fifth World Apostolic Congress on Mercy to be hosted by the Archdiocese of Samoa-Apia, Oceania from 10 – 15 August 2020,” read the message from Bishop Uzoukwu.
The postponement, he added, is due to “health concerns and travel restrictions in place at this time because of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
In August 2021, the Pontifical Council will host the fifth World Congress for the Promotion of New Evangelization and the Archdiocese of Samoa-Apia in the Polynesian country of Samoa.
It will be convened under the theme: “Divine Mercy: The Ocean of Love that Envelops the Whole World.”
The World Apostolic Congress on Mercy is a triennial event organized “to promote the culture of mercy in the Catholic Church and all over the world,” according to a statement on the Ugandan Bishops’ Conference website.
The last WACOM was held in Manila, Philippines in 2017. Before that, the third was in Bogotá in 2014, and the second in Kraków in 2011.
The first WACOM took place in Rome from 2 to 6 April 2008.
This is now the third major church conference scheduled for the year that has been canceled by the coronavirus pandemic.
The EFKS Church annual Malua Fonotele as well as the Methodist Church Koniferenisi have were also forced to be put forward to next year.