Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) – “The present day calls the entire Church to listen to what the Spirit is saying through this time of epochal changes which must not be borne but rather oriented with the power of the Spirit towards the coming of the Kingdom. We would like to assimilate the passion of Saint Paul who asked for no other recompense than to preach the Gospel freely to all peoples”. This is part of a message issued by the recent Italian national meeting of the Pontifical Mission Societies held 1-4 July in Sassone Frattocchie, Rome, attended by 270 delegates PMS regional directors, diocesan directors, lay diocesan delegates and PMS lay leaders from all 94 of Italy’s dioceses. Taking up the request of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, which called for “reflection on the creation and valorisation of new lay ministries of a missionary nature” the Meeting focused on the identity and role of PMS lay leaders at the regional, diocesan and parish levels.
The message reads: “We are aware of the challenges facing the Church today and of the vastness of the field of evangelisation. Among them we are dramatically conscious of the need for re-evangelisation in the West…Only an authentic Church, which follows in the footsteps of Christ, can be a light which shines, evangelises and attracts.” It was also underlined that the Pontifical Mission Societies, which operate all over the world, are not the only organisation for missionary cooperation, neither are they alternative to the local Church, indeed they work with it making their specific contribution; it is therefore necessary to work in communion with all missionary forces, recognising their charisma and specificity, and form at all levels church structures a network of leaders, whose identity, competence and responsibilities the meeting identified. Particular importance was given to the family as “subject of missionary cooperation and activity” as demanded of its fundamental missionary vocation: “We commit ourselves to finding new and appropriate ways for the family to fulfil its missionary vocation through the four basic modalities, prayer, formation, service and solidarity.”
During the meeting, PMS National Director for Italy, Mgr Giuseppe Andreozzi gave some figures which indicate the consistence of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Italy: 10,000 members of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith; 25,000 adoptive parents who support the formation of 5,000 seminarians through the Society of St Peter Apostle; more than 5,000 members of the Pontifical Missionary Union (106 of them bishops); Missionary Childhood Society widely diffused; growing within the PMS, the Opera Apostolica and the Missionary Youth Movement SL (Fides Service 7/7/2003 EM lines 32 Words: 412)
