Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Madrid (Agenzia Fides) – This Sunday, March 1, is Latin American Missionary Day, organized by the Bishops' Commission for the Missions and a collaboration among the Dioceses of the Spanish Bishops' Conference. The theme this year is “America with Christ lives the mission” and makes reference to two important events: the American Missionary Congress (CAM 3) that was celebrated this past August in the city of Quito (Ecuador) and the Pauline Year, in the context of the Synod of Bishops on the Word of God in the life and mission of the Church, celebrated in Rome in October 2008.
With the CAM 3, there has been an attempt made to establish new relations among the particular Churches in America, to place the entire continent in a “state of mission” and promote the new evangelization and the Ad Gentes mission through the Continental Mission. Thus, from Spain “we wish to continue supporting and living out these missionary tasks, side-by-side with our sister-churches in Latin America,” said Bishop Ramon del Hoyo of Jaen, President of the Commission for the Missions, in the Message presenting the event. The Spanish Bishops themselves, during their Assembly in November, “approved the Pastoral Instruction of great missionary relevance for our particular Churches, entitled: “The Mission Ad Gentes in Spain at Present,” in which they mentioned their commitment to the Church's universal mission and the urgent need to announce the Gospel of Jesus Christ, following the example of the Apostle to the Gentiles.”
The Pontifical Commission for Latin America has also issued a Message for Latin American Missionary Day 2009, signed by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, President of the Pontifical Commission, and Archbishop Octavio Ruiz Arenas, Vice-President, in which they greet all the faithful in Spain, encouraging them to proclaim their faith in Christ with a renewed missionary spirit.
The Commission also recalls that the Day is being celebrated amidst two important ecclesial events. Firstly, the Year dedicated to the figure of Saint Paul the Apostle, “whose example seems particularly enlightening in seeing what the Christian preaching requires.” There is also the recent Synod of Bishops, whose reflections “the Church on the various continents is trying to receive and place in practice in a concrete manner in the pastoral work and the life of the faithful...this bishops' assembly was a privileged occasion to place the Word of God at the center of our lives and to embrace it in the depths of our being.” They are two events that lead us to “reaffirm our awareness of the universality of the missionary call.”
The very celebration itself of this Day invites us “to once more look upon the situation in Latin America, in all its complexity, as it is experiencing drastic changes in political, economic, social, and religious life, which have a considerable influence (which is not always positive) on people's personal lives and therefore, demand careful attention from the Church.”
The Pontifical Commission says that “the abundance of offers made by technology and the nearly unlimited access to information are realities in our present culture that, although good in themselves as a sign of human progress, have brought with them a deep crisis in meaning and values, and the serious difficulty which is increasingly more common among people: seeing the outside world with objectivity and entering into contact with the Truth.”
The social, economic, and political fabric of Latin America is also marked by misery and the growing rift between rich and poor, in which there seems to be ideological models that have been shown to be ineffective in responding to social problems.”
The text also mentioned that “the political and social realities are not the ones that contain the response to the crisis in values.” On the contrary, this response can be obtained only if God is placed in the center.
Latin America “should reaffirm the Christian values that are in the roots of their culture and their traditions. There is an urgent need to make the light of the Gospel reach public, cultural, economic, and political life.” The Pontifical Commission observes that in light of the present faith crisis in Latina America, “we need to make Christ known and announce His Word with zeal to all people on the continent, and in order to do so, we should establish our missionary work and our entire lives on the rock which is the Word of God.”
The Message of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America concludes by renewing the invitation “to the missionary commitment on the Continent of Hope” and encourages priests and religious who “feel the zeal and desire in their hearts, to be bearers of the Word 'to the ends of the Earth,' not to be afraid to respond with generosity to the apostolic mission that presents itself on the horizon.” (RG) (Agenzia Fides 25/2/2009)
