By Deborah Castellano Lubov
“Today, as in the days after Pentecost, the Church, led by the Holy Spirit, pursues Her journey through history with trust, joy and courage as She proclaims the name of Jesus and the salvation born of faith in the saving truth of the Gospel. The Pontifical Mission Societies are an important part of this great effort.”
Pope Leo XIV gave this encouragement to the Societies on Thursday morning in the Vatican on the occasion of their General Assembly.
“In their work of coordinating missionary formation and animating a missionary spirit on the local level,” he urged, “I would ask the National Directors to give priority to visiting dioceses, parishes and communities, and in this way to help the faithful to recognize the fundamental importance of the missions and supporting our brothers and sisters in those areas of our world where the Church is young and growing.”
Speaking in English, the Holy Father, who remembered his own time as a missionary, commended those representing more than 120 countries before him for their meaningful work for the Church in the world.
‘I can personally attest’
“I begin by expressing my gratitude to you and your associates for your dedicated service, which is indispensable to the Church’s mission of evangelization, as I can personally attest from my years of pastoral ministry in Peru.”
“The Pontifical Mission Societies are effectively the ‘primary means,’” he stated, of “awakening missionary responsibility among all the baptized and supporting ecclesial communities in areas where the Church is young.”
In this context, the Pope drew attention to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, “which provides aid for pastoral and catechetical programmes, the building of new churches, healthcare, and educational needs in mission territories” and the Society of the Holy Childhood, which provides support for Christian formation programmes for children, in addition to caring for their basic needs and protection.
Likewise, he cited the Society of Saint Peter the Apostle to “help cultivate missionary vocations, priestly and religious,” and the Missionary Union “committed to forming priests, religious men and women, and all the people of God for the Church’s missionary work.”
Our world needs to hear Gospel message of God’s love
The promotion of apostolic zeal among the People of God, Pope Leo underscored, “remains an essential aspect of the Church’s renewal as envisioned by the Second Vatican Council, and is all the more urgent in our own day.”
“Our world, wounded by war, violence, and injustice,” he insisted, “needs to hear the Gospel message of God’s love and to experience the reconciling power of Christ’s grace.”
In this sense, the Church herself, the Holy Father reaffirmed, is increasingly called to be “a missionary Church that opens its arms to the world, proclaims the Word … and becomes a leaven of harmony for humanity.”
Urgency to bring Christ to all people
Given this, Pope Leo XIV said, “We are to bring to all peoples, indeed to all creatures, the Gospel promise of true and lasting peace, which is possible because, in the words of Pope Francis, “the Lord has overcome the world and its constant conflict ‘by making peace through the blood of His Cross.’”
Hence, he suggested, “we see the importance of fostering a spirit of missionary discipleship in all the baptized and a sense of the urgency of bringing Christ to all people.”
The Pope expressed his gratitude to them and their associates for their efforts each year in promoting World Mission Sunday on the second-to-last Sunday of October, “which is of immense help to me in my solicitude for the Churches in areas under the care of the Dicastery for Evangelization.”
In Christ, we are one family of God
Before concluding his remarks, the Pope chose to reflect on two distinctive elements of the Societies’ identity, namely communion and universality.
“As Societies committed to sharing in the missionary mandate of the Pope and the College of Bishops,” he explained, “you are called to cultivate and further promote within your members the vision of the Church as the communion of believers, enlivened by the Holy Spirit, who enables us to enter into the perfect communion and harmony of the blessed Trinity.”
“Indeed,” he marveled, “it is in the Trinity that all things find their unity.”
With this sentiment, Pope Leo said, “This dimension of our Christian life and mission is close to my heart, and is reflected in the words of Saint Augustine that I chose for my episcopal service and for my papal ministry: In Illo uno unum. Christ is our Saviour and in Him we are one, a family of God, beyond the rich variety of our languages, cultures and experiences.”
The richness that comes from knowing Jesus Christ
The appreciation of our communion as members of the Body of Christ, the Holy Father explained, naturally “opens us to the universal dimension of the Church’s mission of evangelization,” and “inspires us to transcend the confines of our individual parishes, dioceses and nations, in order to share with every nation and people the surpassing richness of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. ”
Finally, Pope Leo concluded by reminding them that the Holy Year challenges all of us to be “pilgrims of hope,” and thus, before entrusting them, their benefactors, and “their important work” to the Blessed Mother, encouraged them to be “missionaries of hope among all peoples.” – Vatican News
