Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI
Thursday, 22 May 2025
VaticanMedia
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – The “world, wounded by war, violence and injustice” needs to hear the Gospel message of God’s love and to experience the reconciling power of Christ’s grace.” Therefore, today it is all the more urgent to “bring Christ to all people.” And the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) “are effectively the “primary means” of awakening missionary responsibility among all the baptized and supporting ecclesial communities in areas where the Church is young.” With these words, Pope Leo XIV expressed his personal gratitude to the network during an audience with the participants of the General Assembly of the Pontifical Mission Societies at the Vatican. The General Assembly is currently meeting in Rome at the International College of San Lorenzo da Brindisi (see Fides, 21/5/2025).A total of 115 national directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies from all five continents participated in the audience, along with the General Secretaries and staff of the international secretariats in Rome, under the leadership of Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization (Section for First Evangelization and the New Particular Churches). Also present were the Secretary of the Dicastery, Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukwu, and the Adjunct Secretary, Archbishop Samuele Sangalli.Pope Leo and the Pontifical Mission SocietiesThe new Bishop of Rome knows the work of the Pontifical Mission Societies from his own experience (see Fides, 10/5/2025). Also in his address today, in which he referred to his many years of missionary experience in Peru, the Successor of Peter said that the work of the Pontifical Mission Societies “is indispensable to the Church’s mission of evangelization, as I can personally attest from my own pastoral experience in the years of my ministry serving in Peru.” Pope Leo also recalled the specific tasks of the four Missionary Societies that were born from the missionary creativity and “sensus fidei” of the People of God and have become, over time, an integral part of the Missionary Dicastery: the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith, which – as the Pope recalled – “provides aid for pastoral and catechetical programmes, the building of new churches, healthcare, and educational needs in mission territories”; 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”; and the Missionary Society of Saint Peter the Apostle, which “helps to cultivate missionary vocations, priestly and religious,” and the Pontifical Missionary Union, which is dedicated to “forming priests, religious men and women, and all the people of God for the Church’s missionary activity.”A worldwide network at the service of apostolic zeal”The promotion of apostolic zeal among the People of God ,” Pope Leo emphasized in his address, “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,” at a time when “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,” Pope Leo reiterated, “are an important part of this great effort.”The Pope recalled the worldwide annual efforts of the Pontifical Mission Societies “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 which are under the care of the Dicastery for Evangelization.” He also asked the National Directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies, in particular, “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.”The Special Bond Between the Pontifical Mission Societies and the Successor of PeterIn his address, Pope Leo also highlighted “communion” and “universality” as the two “distinctive elements of your identity as Pontifical Mission Societies,” both of which emphasize the special bond between the Pontifical Mission Societies and the Successor of Peter.“As Societies committed to sharing in the missionary mandate of the Pope and the College of Bishops,” the Pope 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, it is in the Trinity that all things find their unity. 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 now 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.”Leaven of “Missionary Zeal”The experience of communion “as members of the Body of Christ,” according to the Pope, “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.” And precisely “a renewed focus on the Church’s unity and universality corresponds precisely to the authentic charism of the Pontifical Mission Societies.” This charism,” added the Bishop of Rome, “should inspire the process of renewal of the statutes that you have initiated,” on a path aimed at “strengthening the members of the Pontifical Societies throughout the world in their vocation to be a leaven of missionary zeal within the People of God.” (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 22/5/2025)
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