Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Madrid (Fides Service) - While the annual general assembly of the Pontifical Mission Societies is being held in Lyon, France, we publish an interview with the national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Spain, Archbishop Francisco Pérez González, who is also Spain’s Military Ordinary, in which he speaks of activity of missionary animation in the past 12 months and prospects for the future.
“In 2004 we focused on making Christian communities, parishes in particular, more aware of the importance of mission. We organised special catechism meetings with children to prepare them for Missionary Childhood Day and with young people in preparation for World Youth Day in Germany. Besides our three annual campaigns for Mission Sunday, Holy Childhood Day and the Day Local Mission Vocations which are very demanding activities, we also tried to give more attention to the Pontifical Missionary Union.” Spain has always been very aware of the need for mission and it has always been the country which sends the highest number of missionaries. The national director said the people are very generous in their support and cooperation: “We receive many donations and many wills are left to the Pontifical Mission Societies. The present situation heightens interest for mission ad gentes, especially among our young people many of whom are restless and unsatisfied by dominant materialism. In Summer at least 10,000 young people take part in missionary experiences, mission camps, and some even go to spend some time at missions abroad”.
Among future objectives Archbishop Pérez includes the need to increase awareness that “we are all missionaries” especially among the children, who are called to be “missionaries of tomorrow”. “Many of our missionaries working in various different countries have told me that as children they were members of Holy Childhood and that this helped them realise and pursue their vocation. We also strive to increase awareness among the sick, including sick children. We have great faith in the help of a little girl called Pilar Cimadevilla, Pilina, a member of the Union of Sick Missionaries who died at the age of ten, fifty years ago. The process for her beatification has started. Pilina had a great love for the Eucharist. She went to Mass every day and stayed on to pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament. She offered her suffering for the missions. I encourage our children to take Pilina as an example. They are praying for her beatification and also that she will help them be faithful to Jesus.”
Archbishop Pérez does not hide the difficulties in missionary animation although he is aware that “mission is sustained by the crucified Christ”. First of all the materialist and hedonist ideology in Europe and in Spain. “Young people are at a difficult time because many think life is only amusement. This is why it is important to form children and young people. We try to overcome their selfishness by encouraging them to show solidarity with less fortunate people and poor countries and to realise the meaning of new evangelisation: to love God and our brothers and sisters. We also note a concerning absence of hope at times even in the Church which should be the source of hope since hope is found only in Jesus Christ.”
In a society permeated by a secular, hedonist and materialist mentality “the PMS must enter the heart of every diocese and be the transversal spirit of all pastoral activity - Archbishop Pérez concluded- . Today there can be no pastoral work without a missionary experience, a sense of missionary spirit. Today every person longs for God and mission means precisely leading men and women to God”. (RZ/RG) (Agenzia Fides 11/5/2005 - Righe 46; Parole 630)
