Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Fatima (Agenzia Fides) – Following the celebration of the National Missionary Congress, celebrated September 3-7 in Fatima (Portugal) (see Fides 4/9/2008), the participants issued a final statement indicating some of the main guidelines for taking up their missionary commitments in the parishes, dioceses, and on a national level.
Firstly, they mention that “the mission is a duty for every Christian,” which is applied to a specific place and time in history. In this sense, “the community experience of faith in family, in the parish, diocese, or communities of consecrated life is a credible testimony of the proclamation of God as Love.”
According to the Congress’ participants, thanks to the Second Vatican Council, there has been a new understanding of the Mission in which “each of us is sent to evangelize and at the same time receives evangelization. The Spirit is the protagonist in this mission and the local Church is where it is incarnated and lived.” There has also been an awakening to the sense of the Mission among the laity, which is a sign of the times. The text reads: “In this Year of Saint Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles with his journey of conversion and mission, is for us a model of what we should know better and imitate, especially in his zeal and the urgency with which he lived his mission of evangelization.”
With the hope that all that has been lived in the Congress can be placed into practice, the participants made a series of resolutions. Among them was that the Portuguese Bishops’ Conference (CEP) promote a better coordination and integration of the various areas of pastoral ministry, so that all may be filled with a missionary spirit and the desire for holiness. They also ask that the CEP issue a special document on the Mission in Portugal, so as to awaken all Christians in their missionary vocation. As for the local Churches, they should work to create structures and activities that promote awareness and the urgency of the mission, such as missionary groups, missionary weeks with special activities, a volunteer association, and “Fidei Donum” priests. In addition, it is asked that each diocese hold its own Diocesan Missionary Congress.
Another proposal presented called for the promotion of missionary formation on all levels, and fostering a spirit of solidarity and support in activities for sending and receiving missionaries among the various churches. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 8/9/2008)
