Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Fides) - Here is the official message addressed to Pope Benedict XVI by Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples .
MOST HOLY FATHER
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" (Mk 11,9).
Interpreting the sentiments of devotion and filial affection of the missionary Church, the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples joins the festive choir of the whole Church to thank God for the election of your Holiness as Bishop of Rome and Supreme Pontiff of the universal Church.
Wishing you a ministry both intense and fecund, we desire from this moment to assure you of the entire missionary Church Ad Gentes’ loyalty and faithful obedience to your Magisterium. Your Holiness can rely on the full and generous communion of the 1,100 ecclesiastical circumscriptions entrusted to the care of Propaganda Fide. You will have the collaboration of the Bishops of our young Churches, the prompt support of the priests, the industriousness of the missionaries, men and women religious and catechists, the filial love of the faithful and prayerful and tangible cooperation on the part of this missionary Congregation.
“Apostle by vocation, chosen to proclaim the Gospel of God” (Rom 1,1), you have been called by the Holy Spirit to guide the Church around the first bends of the third millennium, in the footsteps of our beloved and lamented Pontiff John Paul II. Aware that we have received the faith not to keep it for ourselves but to give it to those who have yet to hear the message of truth and grace of Our Lord Jesus, we ask you to lead us along the paths of the world to proclaim with deeds and words the Good News of salvation, remembering what St Paul the apostle said to the disciple Timothy: “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingly power: proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching.” [2 Tim 4,1-2].
Aware of these times of anxiety and moral relativism we beg you Holy Father to help us to be faithful to the mission to proclaim the Gospel entrusted to us by the Lord.
As we confirm our faith in the ministry of Peter, now your ministry as his Successor and to whom the Lord has entrusted his Church, we ask you to pray for the Gospel workers in the young Churches in mission territories and for all of us who work in the vineyard of the Lord. Please precede and accompany us on our mission Ad Gentes with your apostolic Blessing.
Crescenzio Card. Sepe, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.
(Agenzia Fides 25/4/2005)
