AMERICA/MEXICO - “Double efforts to free humanity of most tragic form of poverty: ignorance of Jesus Christ and of humanity’s vocation and final destiny” Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples message to participants at Mexico’s 13th National Mission Congress

Wednesday, 30 November 2005

Mérida-Yucatàn (Fides Service) - With an address of welcome by Archbishop Emilio Carlos Berlie Belaunzarán of Yucatán, and a solemn Mass presided by the Archbishop of Mexico City diocese Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, Mexico 13th National Mission Congress opens today under the banner of communion and mission with the theme “Eucharist source and centre of the Church’s Communion and Mission” and slogan “In Communion with Christ let’s go on Mission!”. Some 5,000 people are attending the Congress organised by the Bishops’ Conference and the national Pontifical Mission Societies office. As a tangible sign to mark the event a new Cristo Misionero Centro will be blessed and inaugurated today.
In a special message to the participants recalling that Pope Benedict XVI has often stressed the need to “tackle with decision the urgent work of Christian formation for the faithful”, Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, calls on the Church in Mexico in a secularised, immoral and relativist society to “double efforts to free humanity of most tragic form of poverty: ignorance of Jesus Christ and of humanity’s vocation and final destiny”.
To those who see missionary work as a way of imposing personal convictions on others and say it should be replaced with interreligious dialogue the Cardinal says firmly and clearly that when the Church preaches Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word and calls people to convert their hearts, it is not because it wishes to impose its convictions or gain control: “The missionary mandate is in the life of the Church, an inward impulse which comes from God, it is carried out in obedience not to any human plan but to God’s will to save all mankind, his plan for salvation”. The Church’s first duty is to announce to all men and women that Christ who was crucified and is Risen is the only Saviour of the world.
“The Church serves mankind by announcing the truth of Jesus Christ, Son of the living God that all men and women may have in Him new life and be fully realised. The mission of the Church is formative, educational, maternal” the message says. In this context Cardinal Sepe recalls the urgency of mission and first announcement of the faith because the number of those who have not heard of Christ and are not members of the Church increases steadily and it can no longer be taken for granted that most people around us know the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Catholics cannot remain immobile in front of the vast horizon of mission, it is necessary to start evangelisation by invoking the Spirit, discovering places where the Spirit blows.
The programme of the 13th National Mission Congress includes conferences, reflection, Mass, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Missionary Rosary work groups, a mission parade and an mission exhibition, testimonials from missionaries and moments of sharing. Well known experts will speak on a variety of themes including: “Eucharist and Mission”, “Communion and Mission”, “the universal Mission” “the Pontifical Mission Societies”. The closing Mass with the sending of missionaries presided by papal nuncio to Mexico Archbishop Giuseppe Bertello will be held at Kukulcán Park (RZ) (Agenzia Fides 30/11/2005; righe 41, parole 554)


Share: