Pontifical Mission Societies

“Evangelization today impels the Church to work with ever quickening steps on the path of the world, to bring knowledge of Christ to every man”, said Pope Benedict XVI Friday as he received the national directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies (known in several countries as Missio) during their annual meeting of the Board of Governors. Emer McCarthy reports Listen:

The Pontifical Mission Societies include the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith, the Pontifical Society of St. Peter the Apostle, the Pontifical Society of the Holy Childhood and the Pontifical Missionary Union. They all fall under the governance of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.

The Pope specifically asks the Pontifical Mission Societies to help bring the Good News of Christ to the world, especially in countries where the Church is new, young or poor. The Societies care for and support the younger churches until they are able to be self-sufficient. The four organisations also play a crucial role in combating poverty, disease, injustice and exploitation.

In his remarks to the group, Pope Benedict said: “Every man and every people has the right to receive the Gospel”. This because “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. "

Even today, he continued, there is a need for mission, although "in this phase of economic, cultural and political change, where often the human being feels alone, in anguish and despair, the messengers of the Gospel, even though announcers of hope and peace, continue to be persecuted like their Master and Lord".

The proclamation of the Gospel he said "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, can not 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. "

"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. "

"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 Missions Societies in supporting the Year of 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 " .

Pope Benedict also mourned the sudden passing of long time secretary of Propaganda Fide, Italian missionary priest Fr. Massimo Cenci PIME, who died Friday morning aged 68. He said “May the Lord reward him for all the work he accomplished in mission and service of Holy See. "

The Pontifical Mission Societies has 120 offices worldwide and is the only organisation which supports every one of the 1,069 mission dioceses of the world. But it does this exclusively through the generosity of Catholics.