Mission and transcendence, the Pope greets his messengers

On Saturday Pope Benedict XVI welcomed participants at the Pontifical Missions Society (PMS) General Assembly to the Vatican, led by the newly appointed head of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, Archbishop Fernando Filoni.

The Pontifical Mission Societies have, as their primary purpose the Promotion of a Universal Missionary Spirit, a spirit of prayer and sacrifice among all Catholics to gather support for the worldwide mission of the Church. They include the Society for the propagation of the faith, the Holy childhood association, the Society of Peter Apostle and the Pontifical missionary union of priest and religious.

Today, this "family" of mission societies is the Church's primary means to inform Catholics about her worldwide missionary work and encourage their active participation in those efforts - is through prayer and sacrifice.


Describing their work as “invaluable” Pope Benedict asked them to bring a light of hope to a world suffering from ‘new forms of slavery’. He spoke of the so-called first world, wealthy and rich but uncertain about his future, and of emerging countries, where a profit driven globalisation has increased the mass of the poor, the immigrant and the oppressed – two different realities - both in need of the ‘big hope’, the God with the human face

The Church continued the Pope must constantly renew its commitment to mission, to
proclaiming the Word of God, which ‘is the duty of all disciples of Christ’. Pope Benedict said everyone must be involved in the missio ad gentes: Bishops, priests, religious and laity. He said special care must be taken to ensure that all areas of pastoral care, catechesis, charity are characterized by the missionary dimension: the Church is mission.

The Gospel messenger, he continued “must remain under the rule of the Word and nourish himself with the Sacraments: this is the lifeblood on which his existence and missionary ministry depends. Only deeply rooted in Christ and his Word are we able to resist the temptation to reduce evangelization to a purely human or social project, hiding or silencing the transcendent dimension of salvation offered by God in Christ. It 's a Word that should be explicitly witnessed and proclaimed, because without a consistent witness it is less understandable and believable. Although we often feel inadequate, poor, incapable, we must always retain confidence in the power of God, who puts his treasure in “jars of clay" , so that it is He who to act through us.