Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) - " Hungry for bread, hungry for God " is the theme chosen by the Pontifical Mission Societies in Italy for World Mission Day 24 October. It is also the underlying theme for formative activities of missionary animation and cooperation organised throughout Italy for 2004/2005. The recent national Mission Congress, which stated in a final message "only if we are able to evangelise in communion, 'missio ad gentes' will be the very heart of the Church’s activity and not the work of a few", renewed enthusiasm to promote old and new means for collections in parishes and in many other places where people come together, involving young people most of all with their inexhaustible creativity.
Charity, is donation not only almsgiving, it is a gift of self and sharing of resources. With the fruit of this charity the society for the Propagation for the Faith supports at least 5,000 projects in Africa, Asia, America and Oceania and even in Europe in eastern Europe particularly to help all the peoples of the earth form one family of God.
Italians and Italian dioceses are known for their generosity. In 2003 the sum collected by dioceses was assigned as follows: 10.973.217,10 Euro for the Society of the Propagation of the Faith and 51.658,06 Euro for Catechists; 2.787.566,89 Euro St Peter Apostle; 2.604.965,17 Euro for Holy Childhood.
The slogan "hunger for bread, hunger for God", at the beginning of the Year of the Eucharist, is a challenge and a project for all. According to Mgr. Giuseppe Andreozzi, National Director of PMS in Italy, " the motto is an original way of saying that around Jesus in the Eucharist the Church continues to understand that she is a sacrament of universal salvation" and Mgr. Angelo Sceppacerca, secretary of Italian branch of the pontifical mission society for the Propagation of the Faith, recalls that "even the smallest act is great when it is motivated by passion to proclaim the Gospel ".
World Mission Day is an opportunity to savour communion with more than a thousand local Churches in mission lands from Darfur in Sudan to Colombia , from South Africa to Sri Lanka, from Japan to Caribbean, from Australia to Georgia, from Iraq to the smallest communities in our own country and an occasion to be lived to the full. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 22/10/2004; Righe 30, Parole 396)
