Pope encourages Pontifical Mission Societies

Despite problems and persecutions, the Church is never discouraged, but always remains faithful to the Lord’s mandate, fully aware that, as always, martyrs, i.e. witnesses have been numerous and indispensable in the path of the Gospel in the history of Christianity. Pope Benedict XVI made the point on Friday in the Vatican while addressing 117 national directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) who are holding their annual general body meeting in Rome, May 7-12. There are four Pontifical Mission Societies, namely, Propagation of the Faith, St. Peter the Apostle, Holy Childhood and Missionary Union, and have as their primary purpose the promotion of universal missionary spirit, a spirit of prayer and sacrifice among all baptized Catholics in support for the worldwide mission of the Church. Pope Benedict told the national PMS directors that the message of Christ, can never play to the tune of the world, because his message is prophecy and liberation, it is the seed of a new humanity that grows, and will reach its full realization only at the end of time. Pope Benedict encouraged the Pontifical Mission Societies to keep alive the missionary vocation of all the disciples of Christ, saying, “the mission to those who do not know Christ as yet is the model of the entire apostolic action of the Church. He urged them to continue to be the visible and concrete expression of the communion of persons and of churches, which as communicating vessels, live the same vocation and missionary outreach, and in every angle of the earth strive to sow the world of truth among all peoples and cultures.