The volunteering of the Social Action Board of the CARF Foundation. (PAS) is organizing its traditional charity market to raise funds for the formation of seminarians and diocesan priests and religious men and women from all over the world.
The flea market, now in its 28th edition, will be held from November 26 to 30 on the premises of the parish of St. Louis of the French, on the 9 Padilla St.Madrid, every day from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm.
The PAS volunteers have been organizing this flea market for many years, whose main objective is to cooperate with the diocesan Church around the world.
Thanks to the sale of furniture restoredantiques, antiques, some works of art, garments, etc. vintageThe project, which includes handmade baby clothes, household goods and decorative items, is used to finance study aids and, above all, to contribute to the cost of the backpacks of sacred vessels that seminarians who graduate and return to their countries receive.
Come and contribute to a great cause! Help the CARF Foundation continue to form committed priests, while finding special gifts for your loved ones, we are waiting for you!
The charity flea market, one of the most traditional in the Spanish capital, is once again being held in the rooms of the parish of San Luis de los Franceses in the Salamanca district. "This year is the twenty-eighth edition, a great success," say Carmen and Rosana, PAS coordinators.
Thanks to the work of PAS volunteers, the flea market has a wide variety of furniture, dresses and baby clothes handmade by the volunteers themselves, you can also find artwork, vintage cutlery, among other things.
The proceeds go to cover the formation expenses of seminarians, diocesan priests and religious sisters and brothers around the world. In addition, it also helps us to cover the expenses of the sacred vessel backpacks that each seminarian receives at the end of his studies in Rome and Pamplona (Sedes Sapientiae and Bidasoa seminaries).
From early in the morning, many antique dealers, faithful to their annual appointment and aware of the value and quality of the objects on sale, will come to the premises of Padilla Street, 9.
Rosana Diez-Canseco and Carmen Ortega, as presidents of the board of trustees, have led a team, mostly female, whose work reaches its peak at the flea market, but which is carried out throughout the year. Month after month, the volunteers receive and catalog the objects to be offered for sale, restore the furniture, knit the baby clothes and embroider the albs that will also be given to the seminarians.
These backpacks contain everything needed to celebrate Mass anywhere in the world: a small silk altar cloth, chalice, paten, ciborium, two cruets, stole, hyssop, chrism oil, cincture, a custom-made alb and even two candles and a crucifix.
Emmanuel, Paul, Modest, Halalisane, Thomas, John... are some of the names of the 19 seminarians who will graduate this year from the Bidasoa International Seminary (Pamplona) and who are studying at the University of Navarra.
All of them will receive, from the PAS leaders, their backpacks with liturgical objects and the albs sewn to measure for each of the seminarians.
With this help, they will be able to celebrate the Eucharist and the sacraments with dignity, whether in a remote village in Latin America or in Africa where the presence of priests is scarce.
The backpack and all its contents, which cost 600 euros, is made by Granda, a renowned artisan workshop of liturgical objects located in Madrid. The charity market is one of the events that help us cover this cost.
Every year some 300 seminarians are trained between Pamplona and Rome. And approximately 1,700 diocesan priests at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, in Rome, and in the Ecclesiastical Faculties of the University of Navarra, in Pamplona, in addition to a hundred people in consecrated life.
