Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - Last year, the fund available decreased, and this trend is expected to continue, despite the commitment and creative work of the national Directors to guarantee the same contribution and for the economic crisis to prolong. This is the global observation expressed Fr. Lehane Timothy Barrett, SVD, General Secretary of the Pontifical Mission for the Propagation of Faith, in the Annual General Assembly of the Pontifical Mission Societies, in progress in Rome (see Fides 06/05/2011, 11/05/2011 ). Fr. Lehane highlighted another trend: the increasing contribution given to the "younger Churches" and the constant decrease to the Churches of ancient Christianity. This situation, which forced to limit the number of projects supported, at the same time provides an opportunity to review many things, both nationally and internationally, and to plan appropriate strategies “to restore consciousness and the sense of the missionary call that makes the Church. " "The decrease in availability of our funding - said the General Secretary - can be used to improve the promotion of the missions in our local Churches, and converted into a training process."
Fr. Lehane underlined therefore the importance of developing closer cooperation to implement the guidelines and criteria adopted by the General Assembly: collaboration concerning the International Secretariat, of National Directors, of Bishops and leaders of projects, institutions and religious congregations. Of particular importance then is the relationship with the diocesan directors who are "the engine and motivators of work and training, and raise dialogue with our collaborators in the local Churches." To build missionary awareness and the consequent baptism obligation of every believer to support the mission of the Church, mass media plays a decisive role: "we must use the media to evangelize our missionary feeling, and to proclaim that each of us has the responsibility to support the work of evangelization of the Church. "
In January 2012 we will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the death of Pauline Jaricot, founder of PMPF, who started just from the poor, the Association for the Propagation of Faith in a difficult era for France. Even today we are experiencing difficult times, said Fr. Lehane, but not for this we have to stop working hard to generate greater missionary awareness that is able to meet the needs of the universal Church. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 05/12/2011)
