REPORT OF MLC PORTUGAL

FOR THE ICCFM

2004-2007

Portugal, through the Christian Home Movement (MLC), was present in 2004 in California, at the IX ICCFM World Assembly. There it presented its candidacy to organize the X ICCFM World Assembly, which is now realized in the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima, congregating more than 200 participants, of which 160 are foreigners and 38 nationals.

To organize of this Assembly, in addition to the MLC, it had the foremost support of the Secular Institute of the Cooperators of the Family, both institutions founded by Monsignor Joaquim Alves Bras, without which a great part of the work would have been rendered ridiculously impossible.

With the visit of the International President Couple and the Gauci couple in 2005, a great part of project, including the program, was drawn, with one consideration being to link it to the Commemoration of the Ninetieth Anniversary of the Apparition in this sacred place with the Legacy of Our Lady of Fatima to the Family.

Moreover, to add to the preparation of this Assembly, in the last three years, the MLC consolidated the potency and the dynamism of its action, so much in the number of its cells as in its introduction in the diocese of Madrid, Spain, and, in Portugal, in the diocese of Guarda. It made a guide for the catechumens of two new cells during one year, from the methodology of the revision of life, applied to the statutes of the Movement, that were then followed by three new cells.

In the year 2004/05, the MLC studied, in monthly meetings, the subject "The Family, Promoter of the Dignity and of the Vocation of the Woman", on the basis of the Apostolic Letter of John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem.

In the year 2005/06, the general subject of study reflected on the stages of human life, under the principle: "The Family, Generator and Educator of Sons and Grandsons."

In the year 2006/07, the study had as its base the Encyclical of Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, according to the principle, "The Family, Community of Love.”

In addition to the monthly meetings, the Movement provided its members and other families customary parties and fellowships, in special moments of the year, such as Christmas, the feast of the Holy Family, the feast day of the Founder; spiritual retreats; days of reflection; actions of formation; days of prayer. During two years, it promoted encounters for engaged couples.

During two years, it promoted, with the remaining Institutions of the same Founder, a national pilgrimage of the Family Blasiana to Fatima.

The MLC integrates the Group of the Family, within the center of the National Council of Movements and Works, congregating three times a year, with the aim of sharing activities and bridging relationships among Movements.

Fatima, July 28, 2007

Antonio Moniz and Maria Celeste Moniz

President Couple of the MLC