EUROPE/SPAIN - “We are the Church precisely because we send missionaries…missionaries are most obvious proof that we are Church ” says Archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Antonio Ma Rouco Varela, in a pastoral letter for Diocesan Mission Day in Madrid.

Madrid (Fides Service) -Madrid Archdiocese will celebrate Diocesan Mission Day on Sunday 6 the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity and Pro Orantibus Day for persons consecrated to the contemplative life who offer their life for the Church’s mission. For the occasion Cardinal Antonio Ma Rouco Varela, Archbishop of Madrid and President of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference issued a Pastoral Letter addressed the whole diocese and in particular to missionaries and families of missionaries thanking them on behalf of the local Church and encouraging them and reminding them that “those who have encountered Christ cannot be silent because the essence of being a Christian is mission ”.
Recalling the Encyclical “Redemptoris Missio” by John Paul II, the Cardinal underlines the missionary nature of the Church which must be present and active in every local Church. Every local Church including those whose members are newly converted, is missionary by nature, it is evangelised and evangeliser. Evangelising activity of the Christian community, in its own territory and then in other places, as sharing in the universal mission, is the clearest sign of maturity of faith (cfr RM, 49b).
The coinciding of this Day with the liturgical celebration of the Mystery of the Trinity is not accidental, because the Unity of Love between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the very root of the Church and her missionary dimension” the Cardinal writes. Illustrating the significance of the Day’s slogan - “We are the Church: we send missionaries!” - tells Madrid’s missionaries: “We are the Church precisely because we send missionaries; you are also encouragement and impulse to the whole diocesan community and you are the most obvious proof that we are Church.”
Further on the Cardinal writes: “the slogan of the Diocesan Mission Day illustrates explicitly that mission and communion are radically inseparable in the Church. The second part, “we send missionaries”, is not a consequence instead it is an explanation of the first part, , “we are Church”. By saying then “we send”, in the first person plural it is clear that it is the Church, whose essence is communion. Therefore the Bishop and the ecclesial community are not on the margin, on the contrary they are in solidarity with the sending; they keep contact with those sent, they pray for them and help them in their material needs”. (R.Z.) (Agenzia Fides 27/5/2004 - Righe 28; Parole 377)