Pope Francis to meet Neo-catechumens on February 1

Vatican City, 15 January 2014: Pope Francis will receive in audience the representatives of the Neocatechumenal Way on 1^st February. The meeting is scheduled to be held at 11.00 am in the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican. About 10 thousand people are expected to attend the meet. The event will be an opportunity to kick off a new 17 "Missio ad Gentes", small groups of evangelization ready to go to the different countries to which they were assigned.

The Holy Father, with a special prayer and a solemn blessing, will send about 75 families who have offered their willingness to leave everything (work, home, family... ) and go on a mission in any city in the world. Each ‘Missio ad Gentes’ (meaning literally ‘mission to the nations’) consists of 4 families with their children (usually large families), a priest, a seminarian and two unmarried women (for a total of 25-30 people per "Mission").

Currently the Missio ad Gentes are already present in 52 cities with a total of about 230 families. All teams are invited to the audience - (catechists, leaders of the Way in different countries), the rectors of seminaries Redemptoris Mater, the new families that will be sent together with the priests, seminarians and women in mission, all priests and seminarians in Redemptoris Mater seminaries in Europe and eventually the pastors and leaders of the first communities in each parish of Europe.

Missions are those “particular undertakings by which the heralds of the Gospel, sent out by the Church and going forth into the whole world, carry out the task of preaching the Gospel and planting the Church among peoples or groups who do not yet believe in Christ. . . . The proper purpose of this missionary activity is evangelization” (Ad Gentes, no. 6). (the Latin word, ‘Ad Gentes’ means ‘to the nations’.
Source: VR Sedoc