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Rome - San Peter's square, September 2006

During the International Congress on CA, held from the 31st August to the 5th September 2004, many of the participants, coming from observer countries or from countries where CA is not established, showed a great interest in getting to know CA better so that evetually they could launch it in their own countries. This interest was also shown by participants who came from countries where CA exists but is rather a weak reality.
During its first meeting held in December 2004, the IFCA Secretariat (2004-2007) thus felt that one of its priorities was the promotion of CA. To see to this need, the Secretariat thought of setting up a CA Promotion Group (CAPG).

The main objective of CAPG is to promote CA in a wider context, that is, promoting lay apostolate within the life of the Church, as seen in the II Ecumenical Vatican Council, and to encourage the seting up of a CA which answered to the needs of the different countries.

In concrete terms they decided to:
• Launch programmes for the formation of lay people addressing them to the associative calling and to CA.
• Support countries, where CA does not exist,  in their initial efforts to set up CA.
• Help to consolidate CA in countries where this associative reality is weak.
• Give support with reference to the organization of CA
• Help in the formation of leaders and priest assistants

The CAPG was thus set up and its members had the opportunity to have formation sessions together during which they could share their associative experiences in the different contexts they came from. Together they could undertake to work out and “organize” a formation project based on basic principles with suggested methodologies and tools but which was flexible enough to be used in different situations.

During the 2005 meeting, in answer to the requests received and keeping in mind the resources available, three countries, where the experiment could start, were identified. This project had to be coordinated by the countries which make up the Secretariat: Bosnia Herzegovina (Europe – Italy and Romania), Kenya (Africa – Burundi and Italy), Guatemala, Nicaragua e Costarica (Central America – Argentina and Spain).

The partecipants who attended the 2005 meeting were nominated by the representatives of the five countries who are members of the Secretariat. Participants from another two member countries, Malta and Venezuela, were invited to join the CAPG and they took part in the meeting held in 2006.