MEXICO CITY — He was a skinny Jesus, with a fake beard, and he bent his body under the cross.

Walking slowly behind a car with loudspeakers broadcasting prayers, he led a crowd in the Stations of the Cross through the streets of Santa Anita.

A priest guided the prayers as the pilgrims stumbled uphill, near the estuary of the Mission River in Baja California, Mexico.

After the rainy season, spring spread its green cloak here, dotted with yellows, and the river ran swollen down to the Pacific.

It was a similar scene in towns and villages throughout Mexico this week as thousands of families took part in the traditional Good Friday march. And, like Santa Anita, many of the towns also got a visit from a Megamision team.

In Mexico, as in the United States and other countries, an army of youths and families traveled to remote towns and went door to door, sharing the Word of God with poor families and inviting them to receive the sacraments.

Most of the participants were members of Juventud Misionera and Familia Misionera — roughly translated as Missionary Youth and Missionary Family. They are part of the Regnum Christi movement of the Legion of Christ, and they are responding to Pope John Paul II’s call to all Catholics to collaborate in the New Evangelization by helping priests and bishops proclaim the Gospel.

Legionary priests accompanying the weeklong Megamision celebrated Mass, heard confessions, and performed baptisms and wedding ceremonies.

“We also carry out nutrition education and health activities along with the evangelization as part of our mission and commitment to the poor,” said Osvaldo Moreno, a spokesman for the movement.

The emphasis of Megamision in this Year of the Eucharist was to promote appreciation for the Eucharist. The mission involved 8,000 youths, 2,500 families, 120 Legionaries, 250 consecrated women of Regnum Christi and more than 250 doctors under the auspices of Misiones Médicas (Medical Missions). They planned to reach out to 25,000 communities and 1,000 parishes.

“Missionaries have been raised in the womb of Catholic families and as for the Megamision are prepared in their local headquarters,” explained Juan Salvador López, director of Juventud Misionera in Mexico. They receive four days of catechetical instruction and go on a half-day retreat.

“It is obvious that four days of instruction and half of a day of retreat won’t make a miracle,” López conceded. “The Holy Spirit does it.”

Made in Mexico

Megamissions are now conducted in 31 countries around the world. But they began in Mexico. Juventud Misionera started in 1986, when about 100 young Catholics organized the first mission in the town of Cotija in the state of Michoacan, the birthplace of Legion of Christ founder Father Marcial Maciel.

During Holy Week 1994, Juventud Misionera organized the first Megamission with the participation of 1,500 youths. Back then, 36 families joined the effort, establishing a precedent for Familia Misionera.

In 1996, again in Cotija, a group of doctors from the United States and Mexico carried out the first Medical Mission, working free of charge.

Missionary Youth and Missionary Family are coordinated by a national committee based in Mexico City. The movement is divided into three branches for families, young men and young women. Each of the branches has regional directors distributed throughout the country. The unit directors oversee groups of 7 to 15 members. These are the units that visit remote towns. Throughout the year, they follow up with periodic visits to the communities.

During the mission, Familia Misionera follows a daily itinerary that starts at 7 in the morning and ends at 8 at night. They pray, conduct meditations, make door-to-door visits, organize sports activities for youth, lead catechism sessions, pray the rosary and support the local priest with the reenactment of the Stations of the Cross and other parish activities.

Megamission participants wear a distinctive white T-shirt and a red, orange or yellow bandana around their necks. Reflecting their pilgrim and missionary spirit, the T-shirt bears a logo inspired by the crozier of Pope John Paul — the staff depicting the crucifixion that has become emblematic of this “Pilgrim and Missionary Pope”.

 Worldwide Missionary Youth and Missionary Family have visited more than 20,000 towns in 31 countries, knocked on more than 7 million doors, involved about 160,000 youths and 14,350 families, and offered 42,437 free medical visits with more than 860 surgeries.

“Bringing together families, youths and priests in favor of evangelization is an immense task the Legionaries of Christ are achieving,” commented Father Florentino Durazo, who directs a diocesan school of theology for lay people in Tijuana.

For participant Gerardo Robledo, Megamission was both a “unique family experience of socialization with my wife and children, and also a Catholic experience in spreading what we are taught in the church on Sundays.”

One of the most moving testimonies comes from a remote region in Yucatan, where Father Almicar Rosado in the town of Sotuta showed reluctance when the Missionary Family arrived in his parish. But at the end of Holy Week, he told the young missionaries, “I was considering asking to be removed to another location. I was feeling very lonely here. But now, thanks to your testimony of generosity and joy, I am willing to stay for all the time you keep supporting me.”

Alfredo Ortega-Trillo

writes from Mexico City.