EUROPE/SPAIN - The PMS Director: "Spreading the message of Jesus’ love is a mission that involves all the baptized"

Monday, 27 July 2020 evangelization   pontifical mission societies   pope francis   missio ad gentes  

Madrid (Agenzia Fides) - "We have received the Holy Father’s message with great enthusiasm. We sincerely believe that it is not a simple protocol speech, but a message aimed at renewing the missionary spirit of the Church". This is what Father José Maria Calderon, National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) in Spain reports in an interview with Fides, commenting on the Message that Pope Francis sent to the PMS on May 21, solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord.
"This message - he continues - addressed expressly to the PMS National Directions, is also addressed to particular Churches, where a profound and serious revision of their structures is needed to make them even more missionary. As Pope Francis said in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium: " I invite everyone to be bold and creative in this task of rethinking the goals, structures, style and methods of evangelization in their respective communities".
The Pontifical Mission Societies are an integral part of the Catholic Church and offer "constant spiritual and material support - underlines Fr. Calderon - so that missionaries can proclaim the Gospel and collaborate in the personal and social development of the people among whom they carry out their work. The PMS are therefore not a simple tool of gathering of churches, much less a foundation or a non-governmental organization (NGO) that works for the poor - continues the Director - but the organism of the Church to which Francis asks that their distinctive character is to share the love for the Church, a reflection of love for Christ, lived and manifested in silence, without boasting, without delimiting one's own ground".
In an increasingly frenetic and competitive society, where a culture of waste and indifference often imposes itself, "all of us baptized and therefore missionaries, are called to peacefully propose the message of love that Jesus came to teach us": "In this document, the Pope reminds us of a fundamental thing - concludes Fr. José - namely that the mission of the Church is that accomplished through those who believe and love Jesus Christ, with the profound conviction and authority of those who have been made disciples of baptism". (ES) (Agenzia Fides, 27/7/2020)


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