Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) - “The first and most important duty of a National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies is to increase missionary awareness among the people of God to help every Christian realise his or her radical calling to be a witness to Christ and carry His Gospel, each according to his or her ability to the ends of the earth”. Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples said this in the opening address for the Annual General Assembly of the Pontifical Mission Societies yesterday May 6, attended by 117 national directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies from all over the world. The Assembly is being held in Ciampino (Rome) and will conclude on 14 May.
This work of increasing missionary awareness depends on active and sincere cooperation on the part of bishops, priests, men and women Religious and lay Catholics, Cardinal Sepe said launching an appeal to help “our sister Churches from which we receive news almost every day, and which we cannot forget, in difficult situations and which need to be sustained by prayers and sacrifices, (I am thinking of persecuted Churches) and with material assistance (this is the case of young Churches organising themselves in view of becoming self-supporting)”. The Cardinal then asked those present to keep these Churches in mind when discussing the distribution of subsidies.
The Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples voiced satisfaction for experience of missionary animation all over the world, fruits of concrete initiatives involving adults, young people and children and he recalled his own experience during the Second American Mission Congress (CAM 2) in Guatemala last November. This animation the Cardinal said, “must be extended to invite those who are indifferent or still distant to take part”.
Lastly Cardinal Sepe urged the National Directors to look to the future with a free and sincere heart to work in communion responding to the call received to a special vocation: to work for the missionary Church. He said he hoped the days of work would be days of full communion, united efforts and energies, to fulfil the mission to evangelise all peoples and especially for the work of revising and updating the Statues of the Pontifical Mission Societies, which will be done during this Assembly, a necessary task since the existing statues were approved by the Pope in 1980.
During the work of the first day it was announced that the Opus Securitatis (OS), pension system for retired priest, hitherto a centralised structure into a structure under the responsibility of the Bishops. At the afternoon session a draft edition of the new Pontifical Mission Societies handbook was presented and illustrated by Mgr. John E. Kozar, National PMS Director in the United States. Presenting the handbook, Mgr. Kozar said that a new edition was necessary to correct some mistakes and offer practical norms for greater efficiency and transparency in the missionary world. During the first day it was decided that Annual General Assembly of the Pontifical Mission Societies, will be held 4 to 13 May 2005, in Lyons, France, on the occasion of the completion of restoration work on the home where Pauline Jaricot, foundress of the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith was born and raised. (R.G.) (Agenzia Fides 7/5/2004; Righe 41; Parole 564)
