CHARLOTTE — Pope Francis has set October 2019 as an Extraordinary Missionary Month to foster greater awareness of “missio ad gentes” (“mission to all peoples”) and to animate the missionary transformation of Church life and pastoral activity.
World Mission Sunday will be celebrated this year on Oct. 20. A special collection will be taken up in all parishes Oct. 19-20 to further the work of the Holy Father and the Propagation of the Faith around the world.
In his message for World Mission Sunday 2019 entitled, “Baptized and Sent: The Church of Christ on Mission in the World,” Pope Francis expressed his hope that celebrating this Extraordinary Missionary Month will “help us first to rediscover the missionary dimension of our faith in Jesus Christ, a faith graciously bestowed on us in baptism.
“Our filial relationship with God is not something simply private, but always in relation to the Church. Through our communion with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we, together with so many of our other brothers and sisters, are born to new life. This divine life is not a product for sale – we do not practice proselytism – but a treasure to be given, communicated and proclaimed: that is the meaning of mission,” he said.
Promoted by the Pontifical Mission Societies, World Mission Sunday is the annual worldwide Eucharistic celebration for the Missions and missionaries of the world. The special second collection taken up during Masses Oct. 19-20 is a global effort for the entire Church to provide for the building up of more than 1,000 local churches in Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands and parts of Latin America and Europe.
Through the work of these churches and their witness to Christ, the poor receive practical help and experience God’s love and mercy, His hope and peace.
“The Pontifical Mission Societies serve the Church’s universality as a global network of support for the Pope in his missionary commitment by prayer, the soul of mission, and charitable offerings from Christians throughout the world,” Pope Francis said.
He further explained that their donations assist the pope in the evangelization efforts of particular Churches (the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith), in the formation of local clergy (the Pontifical Society of St. Peter the Apostle), in raising missionary awareness in children (Pontifical Society of Missionary Childhood) and in encouraging the missionary dimension of Christian faith (Pontifical Missionary Union).
The Holy Father added, “In renewing my support for these Societies, I trust that the extraordinary Missionary Month of October 2019 will contribute to the renewal of their missionary service to my ministry.”
For more information about the Pontifical Mission Societies, go to www.propfaith.net/onefamilyinmission/default.aspx.
— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter. Pontifical Mission Societies contributed.