Pope Francis addresses directors of Pontifical Mission Societies

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis met on Friday with the National Directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies. In his remarks to the Directors, who hailed from every part of the globe, the Holy Father focused on the urgency of the need to carry out the Church’s work of preaching the Gospel, and the particular role that the Pontifical Mission Societies play in carrying it out. “There are,” said Pope Francis, “so many people who have not yet known and met Christ, and it is urgent that we find new forms and new ways to [help] the grace of God touch the heart of every man and every woman.” Listen:

Calling the work of evangelizing both challenging and exciting, Pope Francis encouraged the national directors to continue their commitment, so that the local Churches in the countries where they operate might ever more generously assume their responsibilities in the advancement of the Church's universal mission.

Invoking Mary, Star of evangelization, Pope Francis made his own the words of Paul VI, who said, “may the world of our time, which is searching, sometimes with anguish, sometimes with hope, be enabled to receive the Good News not from evangelizers who are dejected, discouraged, impatient or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with fervor, who have first received the joy of Christ, and who are willing to risk their lives so that the kingdom may be proclaimed and the Church established in the midst of the world. (Evangelii nuntiandi, 80)”