EUROPE/ITALY - “Go out with enthusiasm to embrace your mission!” Cardinal Sepe said during the Mass to open the Catholic Action International Congress. “You are missionaries of daily life and bearers of hopes which are strong and founded”

Rome (Fides Service) - “The task of announcing Jesus Christ Church falls to the Church as such, the whole Church and therefore to each one of her sons and daughters. Therefore we all, because of baptism are sent like Christ, a missionary called to share the Good News of salvation with all men and women to the ends of the earth. Catholic Action, if it wishes truly to be ‘a gift of the Spirit for the Church of our day’ and if it desires to undertake ‘journey to holiness’ at the start of this third Christian millennium, cannot fail to feel it is authentically ‘missionary’”. Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples said as he presided a Mass on 31 August to open of the International Catholic Action Congress taking place at Domus Pacis in Rome.
“Going beyond all geographical, historical and cultural borders, the field of your missionary activity is immense - Cardinal Sepe said in his homily-. It is enough to think of the evangelisation of culture, the necessity to insert the power of the Gospel into the reality of the family, work, the media, sport, leisure time. Mission is a Christian animation of the social order and public, national and international life. On the other hand your collaboration in the world enables you to exercise great influence on the surrounding environment, broadening prospects and horizons for many men and women, explaining the hopes which you nourish.”
To fulfil our missionary vocation it is necessary to allow the Holy Spirit the enter our hearts, the Cardinal recalled, “the Spirit consecrates us and offers us the gift of charity which is source of holiness and ecclesial communion”. We cannot be salt and light for others unless we are committed to becoming holy. “If we are truly holy we will also be missionaries” the Cardinal said recalling that charity “is within everyone’s reach” because it is freely given by the Spirit, and that “formation to holiness is the primary objective of Catholic Action”.
“Yours presence in the Church is not generic it does not evade daily life because you are committed to doing everything to ensure that the life of every man and woman finds in Christ its fullness of meaning... You are missionaries of daily life, bearers of hopes which are sure and founded”. By way of conclusion, after underlining mentioned Catholic Action’s loyalty to the Pope and the bishops, the Cardinal encouraged those present: “Continue to be missionaries and apostles in the environments in which the Lord has placed you. Broaden the horizons to the Catholicity and universality of the Church”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 1/9/2004 - Righe 31; Parole 439)