Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The Annual General Assembly of the Pontifical Mission Societies is taking place in Rome from 5 to 21 May (see Fides 4/4/2008). The pastoral-formative session on the 15 and 16 May closed on 17 May with a Concelebration of the Eucharist in Saint Peter's Basilica followed by an audience with the Holy Father. From the 19 to the 21 May the Assembly participants will listen to reports on the activity of the past year presented by the four general secretaries of the Pontifical Mission Societies, and then examine the accounts and discuss requests for subsidies. Archbishop Henryk Hoser, Secretary Adjunct of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples and President of the Pontifical Mission Societies was kind enough to give an interview to Fides.
Archbishop Hoser, the Annual General Assembly of the Pontifical Mission Societies now taking place in Rome. Who are the participants and what is the work plan?
According to the Statutes of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) every year, usually in the month of May, there is an Annual General Assembly of the Pontifical Mission Societies. The Assembly is convoked and presided by the President of the PMS, participants include the general secretaries of the four PMS as well as the under-secretaries of the section for relations with states of the Secretary of State, and of the Congregation for the Bishops and the Congregation for the Oriental Churches. In addition the assembly is attended by all the National Directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies from all over the world: 129 national directors representing nations on every continent.
The Assembly has two parts: a pastoral session and an administrative session. The first session treats missiological and pastoral themes and questions of organisation of special interest and importance, identified by the previous Annual General Assembly. This year we spoke about mission in today's globalised world and discussed the experience of new evangelisation. At the administrative session the general secretaries of the PMS present their reports on the year's activity, then the assembly examines proposals for assigning subsidies in answer to requests received .
However I would like to underline that the Annual General Assembly is first and foremost for the National Directors a special time for communion, prayer, study and sharing which enables them to return to their own country enriched and encouraged, also after the meeting with the Holy Father, whose words are always a source of light and strength. There is often a tendency to focus only on the bureaucratic aspects of these meetings- which in a way cannot be eliminated -, forgetting the fact that the Church is not a sort of “multinational organisation” which periodically calls its representatives all over the world to meet to approve the accounts. The Church is primarily a community of love, the love received from the Father and handed on by the Son through the power of the Holy Sprit. Love which we are called to spread in every corner of the earth. Therefore the PMS national directors are not “collectors and distributors of funds” they are primarily evangelisers and missionary pastoral animators for the whole People of God.
We usually speak in the plural about the Pontifical Mission Societies. Could you briefly remind us of the number and duties of these Societies ?
The Pontifical Mission Societies are four, but, although founded at different epochs, they form one institution and have one common purpose: to promote a universal missionary spirit among all the People of God, that is the Church.
The main task of the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith is to maintain in the Church the “Spirit of Pentecost” which impelled the Apostles to go to the ends of the earth, making them 'missionaries', fostering the participation of all the baptised in the work of proclaiming the Gospel though the example of their lives and with the contribution of their proper human capacities, including economic assistance. The Pontifical Society of Holy Childhood sustains educators in their efforts to instil mission awareness in children, to help them live in spiritual communion and sharing of material goods with other less fortunate boys and girls in poorer Churches.
The task of the Pontifical Society is to offer spiritual and economic support to Seminaries and Institutes of Religious Formation in mission territories. The task of the Pontifical Missionary Union, founded as the Missionary Union of the Clergy, is to "animate the animators” of the People of God, promoting missionary awareness among seminarians, priests and men and women religious. Pope Paul VI defined the Union, “the soul of the other three Pontifical Mission Societies”.
The Pontifical Mission Societies were founded in the 19th century at different times, and today they exist all over the world, even in countries once considered mission lands, which today send their own missionaries to other countries. We can say then that they were pioneers with regard to the missionary responsibility of every baptised Christian. And today how do they respond to this “prophetic” role in the Church, how do they see the future ?
Very often missionaries, in the past and still today, ask themselves the same question: how should we be missionaries in our day, how should we evangelise, what methods or ways should we use? The relationship between material development and the proclamation of God's Word, interreligious and inter-cultural dialogue, the economy, politics, the new world ethics, the invasion of “one thought”, relativism, being “politically correct” are the subject of many symposiums, research and conferences all over the world, in which missionaries also take part.
I think we must be aware of the reality around us, we must be able to read “the signs of the times”, while at the same time taking care not to be carried away too easily in lengthy examination or ideologised interpretations of reality, which in the end can leave us paralysed or demoralised. The answer to many question is offered in a Letter dated May 27, 2007 which the Holy Father Benedict XVI addressed to the Catholic bishops, priests, consecrated persons and the lay faithful of the Church in the People's Republic of China, which can be applied to all countries and all continents. The Holy Father writes: “ Today, as in the past, to proclaim the Gospel means to preach and bear witness to Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, the new Man, conqueror of sin and death. He enables human beings to enter into a new dimension, where mercy and love shown even to enemies can bear witness to the victory of the Cross over all weakness and human wretchedness. In your country too, the proclamation of Christ crucified and risen will be possible to the extent that, with fidelity to the Gospel, in communion with the Successor of the Apostle Peter and with the universal Church, you are able to put into practice the signs of love and unity” (n.3).
I think it is important to call attention to two concepts which can serve as guidelines for the activity of the PMS in the future. The first concept is taken from the “Doctrinal Note on certain aspects of Evangelisation”, made public on 3 December 2007, which states that the term evangelisation in the broad sense summarises the whole mission of the Church: her whole life consists in fact in “traditio Evangelii”, the proclamation and handing on of the Gospel, which in ultimate essence is identified with Jesus Christ. Therefore evangelisation means not only teaching a doctrine but also announcing the Lord Jesus in word and deed, being witnesses of his active presence in the world.
The second theme is the necessity to be heralds, missionaries of Hope to the world which appears ever more desperate and hopeless and almost smothered by a culture of death. The recent encyclical of the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, , Spe Salvi, is of great missiological value. The good news of hope becomes in fact the distinguishing mark of Christians compared to those who have not received this gift: “ We see how decisively the self-understanding of the early Christians was shaped by their having received the gift of a trustworthy hope, when we compare the Christian life with life prior to faith, or with the situation of the followers of other religions. Paul reminds the Ephesians that before their encounter with Christ they were “without hope and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12).” (Spe Salvi n. 2). As missionaries it is our duty to hand on the rich content of this Encyclical, each in the context in which we work.
In our times doctors and other healthcare workers are increasingly important and not only in developing countries. You are a doctor and you have years of missionary experience in Africa. What connection is there between medicine and mission ?
The medical aspect of mission is important and ever present, since the human person is composed of spiritual, material, corporal and biological elements. Just as the Lord Jesus went from village to village healing the soul and body of those he met, so the Church continues His mission, and does the same. Neither of these aspects can be overlooked.
In mission countries there are always structures which offer specific and professional care to the body, caring for the sick. Medical care is very different in rich countries compared with poor countries, - mostly mission territories -. In rich countries is it more costly because it uses sophisticated apparatus, especially in the field of diagnosis and surgery. All this does not exist in what we could call "poor" medical care.
The second difference is that in mission countries only generic medicines, the least expensive are used, and there is no access to new pharmaceutical molecules which can change the destiny of a person affected by long term or chronic diseases including AIDS. There is then at the level of medical care “unjust distribution” between poor and rich, and it is increasing.
“Missionary medicine” practised at clinics, hospitals, dispensaries… which in these countries have to meet the needs of the majority of the population, always sees the whole person, not just the illness or the part which is ill. We have maintained this principle compared with very technical medical care which has become a sort of medical engineering. We consider patients in the context in which they live, their economic situation which effects health. It is enough to think of the tragedy of hunger which in poor countries kills large numbers of children and young people. The infant mortality rate in Africa is at least 10 times the rate in Europe.
Medicine can also help to heal the soul. If we see the suffering of the sick, if we can give value to this suffering even if it is impossible to reduce it, sick people become our travelling companions, as we all walk along the Way of the Cross. In mission countries I met many women like “Mother Teresa”, working silently, unknown, but living the same love and sacrifice as Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.
I believe the Church's presence in the world of medicine is even more important today seeing the development of various aspects which give rise to concern at the level of bio-ethics. For example matters concerning the intimate life of the married couple, human sexuality, childbearing, are almost completely decided by technical experts, who often have little respect for the human character of these faculties which serve to communicate love and transmit life. This is the real drama of our epoch, and not only in mission territories. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 19/5/2008; righe 141, parole 1.848)
