Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The Holy Father Benedict XVI received the National directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) in audience on Friday, May 11, during their annual Assembly of the Board of Governors, which is being held in Rome. Below is the full text of the Pope’s speech
"Your Eminence, Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in Priesthood, dear brothers and sisters!
I extend to all of you my cordial greetings, beginning with Cardinal Fernando Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, whom I thank for his kind words and for the information concerning the activities of the Pontifical Mission Societies. I extend my gratitude to the Secretary Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai, to Adjunct Secretary Archbishop Piergiuseppe Vacchelli, President of the Pontifical Mission Societies, to the National directors and all employees, as well as to those who give generous service in the Dicastery. My thoughts and yours in this moment goes to Father Massimo Cenci, Undersecretary, who died suddenly. May the Lord reward him for all the work he accomplished in mission and service of the Holy See.
Today's meeting takes place during the annual Assembly of the Board of Governors of the Pontifical Mission Societies, to whom is entrusted the missionary cooperation of all the Churches in the world.
Evangelization, which is always urgent, in these times impels the Church to work with ever quickening steps on the path of the world, to bring knowledge of Christ to every man. Only in the Truth, in fact, that is Christ Himself, can humanity discover the meaning of existence, to find salvation and grow in justice and peace. Every man and every people has the right to receive the Gospel of truth. In this perspective, your commitment to celebrate the Year of Faith, to strengthen the commitment to spreading the Kingdom of God and knowledge of the Christian faith has a special meaning. This implies that those who have already met Jesus Christ, "a genuine and new conversion to the Lord, Savior of the world" (Apostolic Letter. Port Fidei, 6). The Christian communities "infact need to hear again the voice of the Bridegroom, who invites them to conversion, spurs them to doing new things and calls them to engage in the great work of the new evangelization" (John Paul II, Apost. Ap. Postsin . Ecclesia in Europa, 23). Jesus, the Incarnate Word, is always the center of proclamation, the reference point for the same methodology of the mission of evangelization, because He is the human face of God who wants to meet every man and woman to allow them to enter in communion with God, in his love. To walk through the highways of the world to proclaim the Gospel to all peoples of the earth and lead them to the meeting with the Lord, (cf. Apostolic Letter. Port Fidei, 7) requires therefore that the announcer has a personal and daily relationship with Christ, knows him and loves him deeply.
Today mission needs to renew its trust in the action of God; it needs intense prayer so that His Kingdom will be done on earth as in heaven. W need to invoke light and strength from the Holy Spirit, and commit ourselves with decision and generosity to usher in, in a sense, " a new era of proclamation of the Gospel … not only because, after two millennia, a major part of the human family still does not acknowledge Christ, but also because the situation in which the Church and the world find themselves at the threshold of the new millennium is particularly challenging for religious belief and the moral truths which spring from it" (John Paul II, Ecclesia in Asia, 29). I am therefore very pleased to encourage the project of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the Pontifical Mission Societies in supporting the Year of the Faith. This project provides a worldwide campaign, which, through the prayer of the Holy Rosary, accompany the work of evangelizing the world and for many of the baptized to rediscover and deepen the faith.
Dear friends, the proclamation of the Gospel on no few occasion brings misery and suffering; the growth of the Kingdom of God in the world, in fact, often comes at the cost of the blood of its servants. But, despite the problems and the tragic reality of persecution, the Church is not discouraged, she remains faithful to her Lord's command, the awareness that "tthroughout Christian history, martyrs, that is, "witnesses," have always been numerous and indispensable to the spread of the Gospel "(John Paul II, Redemptoris missio, 45). The message of Christ, past and present, cannot conform to the logic of this world, because it is prophecy and deliverance, it is the seed of a new humanity that is growing, and which only at the end of time will have its full realization.
To you is entrusted in a particular way, the task of supporting the ministers of the Gospel, helping them to "keep the joy of evangelizing, even when we must sow in tears" (Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation. Ap. Evangeli nuntiandi, 80). Your special commitment is to keep alive the missionary vocation of all Christ's disciples, because each of you, according to the charism received from the Holy Spirit, can take part in the universal mission given by the Risen Lord to his Church. Your work of animation and missionary formation is the soul of the pastoral care, because the missio ad gentes is the paradigm of all the action of the Apostolic Church. Be more visible and concrete expression of the communion of persons and means between the Churches, which, like communicating vessels, live the same vocation and missionary zeal, and in every corner of the world work to sow the Word of Truth to all peoples and cultures. I am sure you will continue to commit yourself, so that the local Churches assume, always more generously, their share of responsibility in the Church's universal mission. May the Virgin Mary, Queen of the Missions accompany you and support all your hard work in promoting awareness and missionary collaboration. With this hope, which I always keep in my prayers, I thank you and all those who cooperate in the cause of evangelization, and I cordially give to each of you my Apostolic Blessing." (SL) (Agenzia Fides 12/5/2012)
