Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) - More than 1,500 people are expected to attend the Italian national Mission Congress 27 to 30 September in Montesilvano, Pescara, to reflect on the present missionary situation of the Church in Italy and to identify paths and means to render ecclesial communities ever more open to the Evangelisation of Peoples and mission ad gentes. On the eve of this important even for the Italian church dedicated to the theme “Communion and co-responsibility for Mission”, Fides spoke to the national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Italy Mgr. Giuseppe Andreozzi, who is also director of the Italian Bishops’ Conference office for missionary cooperation.
Mgr. Andreozzi, why have a Mission Congress?
This will be the third mission congress since Vatican II. The first was held in Verona in 1990 and the second in Bellaria in 1998. This third one will be both a point of arrival and a point of departure on the path to increase awareness of the necessity and urgency of mission ad gentes and the fundamental value of mission for the life of the Church and to call every individual to become a protagonist of mission . We hope this Congress will elaborate mission contents on the basis of pastoral guidelines issued by the Italian Bishops for this decade, “Communicating the Gospel in a changing world”, underling the centrality of the parish. We will try to help parishes act locally but think globally offering them concrete tools for missionary commitment to include in ordinary pastoral.
Who will come to the Congress ?
The national Mission Congress is not only for “experts in the field” it is for bishops, clergy, pastoral workers in every sector, people involved in voluntary mission, movements, associations. We are expecting about 1,500 participants including about 30 bishops and about 400 priests. It is therefore a Mission Congress because its objective is mission ad gentes, but it is not a congress for the missionary world, it is a congress for the entire Church in Italy.
How is the Italian Church faring today with regard to its mission ad gentes?
If we look at numbers of missionary sent abroad, Italy is still in second place after Spain. Today there are more than 14,000, Italian missionaries overseas including 600 Fidei donum priests, 2.500 missionary priests, 7.000 men and women religious, 1.000 lay persons including missionary families, more than 2.000 people sent by church movements. About the ¾ of dioceses in Italy have on-going relations with mission countries, half the dioceses are directly twinned with mission dioceses, many parishes support mission initiatives and many bishops visit the missions with which they cooperate regularly every year. With summer mission initiatives organised by parishes, schools, movements, every year thousands of children come into contact with the missionary world and many actually experience mission service in mission territories. Economic aid flows generously through many paths: we come to hear of countless touching stories of people who help the life of the missions. Recently I had a letter from a married couple in their eighties who sent a large part of their life savings as a donation for the missions. They thought the money would be more useful to them than to the missions. Apart from the figures, always difficult to calculate with precision, we realise that much remains to be done to ensure that is less preached and more practised.
In concrete what do you hope the Congress will bring?
Beginning with its slogan, the congress will underline to special themes: “Communion and co-responsibility with mission”. In fact, despite our numbers, the Church in Italy does not look very missionary in its aspect. One object of the congress therefore is to make missionary efforts converge in a common plan which does not affect diversity and the rightful space for all, but it does recall one basic principle: mission is the not work of solitary agents. A second goal is co-responsibility: overcome the mentality of delegating which many still have with regard to responsibility for the missions. Of course we cannot all go on mission, but even in the shade of our own parish bell tower we can have the universal mission at heart. We need formation if we want every baptised person to realise his or her missionary duty: co-responsibility therefore calls for education and formation of consciences also with concrete mission experiences. Education to co-responsibility should also activate mission ad gentes at home: I am thinking of the 3 million immigrants in our country half of them non Christians.
What is the role of the Pontifical Mission Societies in this process ?
Undoubtedly the Pontifical Mission Societies are indispensable for this path which they can make easier if they remain faithful to their charisma and role. There is need of the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the faith to help people understand that of all the pastoral urgencies in Italy today the first is still to announce the Gospel to all peoples. We need the Pontifical Society of St Peter Apostle so that cooperation among Churches may support and promote formation of local pastoral operators. We need the Pontifical Society of Holy Childhood to help children build bridges of brotherhood and solidarity with their peers all over the world. We need the Pontifical Missionary Union so that those directly responsible for the formation of the communities realise that the “the whole Church is for all the Churches”, as Blessed Father Padre Manna wanted. While missionary responsibility of dioceses and organisations has grown in Italy we must work to see that the centre of pastoral activity is always the service to universality guaranteed by the Pontifical Mission Societies. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 23/9/2004 - Righe 75 ; Parole 941)
