Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – “I am especially pleased today to be able to send out in various parts of the world, more than 200 new families, who with great generosity have made themselves available and are leaving on mission, thus joining their efforts to the nearly 600 already operating on the five continents. Dear families, may the faith you have received as a gift be as a light on the candlestick, capable of showing mankind the way to Heaven. With the same sentiments I am sending out 13 new 'missiones ad gentes'. They will be called to create a new ecclesial presence in highly secularised areas of various countries, or in places where Christ's message has not yet reached.” The Holy Father addressed these words to the members of the Neo-Catechumenal Way, who were received in Audience in the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican, 17 January.
After greeting the priests and seminarians from the "Redemptoris Mater" diocesan seminaries of Europe, whom he urged “to remain enamoured of Christ and His Church, transmitting to the world the joy of having met the Lord and of being able to serve Him”, the Pope addressed the following words to the itinerant catechists and those from the Neo-Catechumenal community of Rome and Lazio and, with particular affection to the "communitates in missionem": “You have abandoned, that is to say, the security of your home communities in order to go to distant and uncomfortable places, accepting to be sent to help parishes in need and to seek the lost sheep and bring them back to Christ's fold. In any suffering or emptiness you may experience, feel yourselves united to the suffering of Christ on the cross, and to His desire to reach our many brothers and sisters still distant from faith and truth, to bring them back to the house of the Father.”
In his Address the Holy Father recalled two recent milestones: the drafting and final approval of the Statues of the Neo-Catechumenal Way and the approval of the 'Catechetical Directory of the Neo-Catechumenal Way'. “With these seals of ecclesial approval, the Lord today confirms this precious tool which is the Way and again entrusts it to you so that, in filial obedience to the Holy See and the pastors of the Church, you may contribute with renewed energy and ardour to the radical and joyful rediscovery of the gift of Baptism, and offer your own original contribution to the cause of new evangelisation”. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 18/01/2011)
