Cardinals to participate in Panama church history celebration

THE SPANISH Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, on behalf of Pope Francisco , and Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes , Archbishop of Managua, will participate in the closing of the celebration in Panama of the fifth Centenary of the first diocese on the mainland. 

A statement on Wednesday says Efe news agency, said Cañizares , prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments , and Brenes, will chair the Saturday Mass XLIV Meeting to be held at the Arena Roberto Duran of the capital from 4 pm local time. 

Bishops of Panama and Central America will also participate.
The celebrations for the 500th anniversary of the first diocese of in America, under the patronage of Santa María La Antigua, Patroness of Panama , begin on Friday evening with a " Great Encounter of Faith " to be held on the Cinta Costera.
In that event the Colombian participate preacher Fray Nelson Medina , as well as national Catholic singers, and there will be Eucharistic adoration and the presence of priests available for confession , said the bishops in their statement.
At the beginning of the Jubilee year, the Archbishop of Panama, José Domingo Ulloa , highlighted the historical significance of the memorial on the grounds that “from the first firm diocese the seeds of the gospel were spread and other dioceses, and other ecclesiastical jurisdictions created in the Americas.”
The archbishop noted the linkage of religious celebration commemorating the September 25, 2013 V Centenary of the discovery of the South Sea (Pacific Ocean) by Vasco Núñez de Balboa (1475-1519).
"It's to celebrate the history of our walk , not only as a church but as a nation, and how Panama has always been a platform, for from here the colonizers could get to the other places they had discovered the Ulloa said.