EUROPE/PORTUGAL - Cardinal Sepe greets Boa Nova Mission Society gathered in Fatima for 75° anniversary: “You are a precious gift for the Church in Portugal and the whole Church because with fidelity you incarnate that which is its primary duty which cannot be renounced: Evangelisation”

Fatima (Agenzia Fides) - “We have come to Fatima to thank God for you the Boa Nova Missionaries, a community of apostles which welcomed the Good News with love and like Mary has dedicated its existence to it. In these 75 years of Society life you have worked hard to fulfil the missionary mandate which the Lord entrusted to his Church”. This was how Card. Crescenzio Sepe addressed the Boa Nova Missionaries (SMBN), on Sunday June 19 during a Mass which he presided in Fatima. This year the Society of Boa Novo Missionaries is celebrating its 75th anniversary with various initiatives (see Fides 18/6/2005).
In his homily the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples spoke of the present day “slackening of missionary spirit… at times even in the Church, missionary activity is questioned”. The reply comes from Pope Benedict XVI who said recently addressing the clergy of Rome, his own diocese: “If we have found the Lord and if for us he is the light and joy of life, can we be certain that others who have not found Christ are not lacking something essential and that it is not our duty to offer them this essential truth?”.
Boa Nova Mission Society was born of the apostolic zeal of the Portuguese Bishops and the universal concern of Pope Pius XI. “Two essential aspects which constitute your identity- the Cardinal said -. Go therefore with confidence and trust along these paths. Build communion within your Society, increase the orientation of your work to mission ad gentes, promote on sound spiritual foundations for formation of candidates to the priesthood in Portugal and in the young Churches were you are working, serve the local Churches in the most humble and most difficult duties”.
After encouraging Boa Nova Missionaries “to walk ahead sure of your vocation in close union with Christ”, at the end of the homily the Cardinal called for a new impulse of mission: “From this Marian Shrine at the feet of Our Lady of Fatima I wish to make a call for mission ad Gentes. Humanity anxiously longs for the light and truth of the love of Christ. There is no more passionate work than mission, there is no higher calling than the vocation to co-operate - like Mary - in the apostolic mission of the Church to regenerate mankind”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 20/6/2005, righe 28, parole 401)