Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Fides Service) - A solemn Concelebration of Mass in St Peter’s Basilica on Saturday 18 September was the closing event of a study seminar for newly appointed Bishops of mission territories organised by the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, which brought 118 Bishops from all over the world to Rome for two weeks. “Holiness helps the Church to grow, it instils hopes in human hearts and adheres effectively to the missionary command of the Lord: ‘go out into the whole world and preach the Gospel”, Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, who presided the Mass, told the Bishops who represented 34 countries in Africa, Asia, America and Oceania.
“Here on the Vatican Hill, Peter bore witness to his love and loyalty to Christ; from here his Successors continue the petrine ministry for the good of the universal Church and the whole of humanity. My dear brother Bishops -Cardinal Sepe said -, you are about to leave the tomb of Peter where you have renewed your fidelity to Christ and to the Church, to return strengthened to your dioceses to continue the great mission of the successors of the Apostles entrusted to you by Jesus Christ”.
The Holy Spirit continues to accompany the Church on her mission for the evangelisation of the nations, in every age and to the ends of the earth, “but which world are we called to evangelise?” the Cardinal asked in his homily. It is a world marked by the fragmentation of values, theological pluralism, relativism, but also by a new demand for meaning which opens to hope and to solidarity. To announce the Gospel in this context, the first necessity is holiness: “Be holy Bishops, so you may be forgers of saints in this new millennium! - the Cardinal urged the Bishops - Incarnate the Gospel you preach above all by testimony of life! To incarnate Christ means first of all to accept him unconditionally without restriction, letting ourselves be won and not interposing the wall of our human interests and our egoism”.
In particular the Prefect of the Missionary Congregation called on the Bishops to tend to the portion of the flock entrusted to them always remaining open to “co-responsibility for the universal Church and the missionary Church”, to cultivate a spirit of communion (“Make the Church a home and school of communion”, MNI 43) with the Successor of Peter, within Bishops’ Conferences and with the priests of the diocese; to achieve “sound vocational pastoral” on which depends the future of the Church; to value the collaboration of the laity “many of whom operate on the frontiers of mission ”.
Cardinal Sepe closed with this exhortation: “We have before us a great missionary challenge which, despite the difficulties, we wish to meet because we are sure that Christ is with us always”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 20/9/2004; Righe 33 - Parole 447)
