AMERICA/URUGUAY - Message from the Bishop of Melo for World Mission Sunday: “The Church exists to evangelize. Announcing the Good News of Jesus is the mission of every Christian.”

Melo (Agenzia Fides) - “The Church, the community that all of us form as baptized, exists to evangelize. Announcing the Good News of Jesus is the mission of every Christian.” This is what Bishop Heriberto Bodeant of Melo (Uruguay) said in his Message for World Mission Sunday. Quoting the Holy Father Benedict XVI, the Prelate highlighted the exhortation to “spread awareness of Christ's missionary mandate” and recalled how in 2008 “a Bishop, sixteen priests, a religious, and two lay volunteers died as martyrs of the faith in missionary lands.” The Mission, however, “does not only need people, but it also needs material resources,” he added.
Making reference to the diocesan situation, Bishop Bodeant affirmed the existence “in the past and in the present,” “of priests and religious who have left their homeland to preach the Gospel among us” and that fact that “for us, a priest and recently, a young lay woman, are on the missions in Bolivia.” Obviously, “not all of us can live in missionary lands in this manner, but each one of us can contribute to supporting Catholic missionaries that live in difficult places,” the Bishop of Melo writes. The Message also recalls the aim of the collection that will be taken up in all the parishes of the world this Sunday, October 18: “many times we think that we can give very little, and that we also need support for our community. This is true. But it is also true that, since the early days of the Church, often the poorest were the ones who gave with the most generosity.” Therefore, “let us all contribute in our own possibilities, trusting that God will provide for our needs,” said Bishop Bodeant. (GT) (Agenzia Fides 13/10/2009)