VATICAN - “Being missionaries today”: interview with Cardinal Joachim Meisner

Wednesday, 15 March 2006

Vatican City (Fides Service) - German Cardinal Joachim Meisner Archbishop of Koln was one of the speakers at a recent International Convention to mark the 40th anniversary of Vatican II’s Ad Gentes decree on missionary activity, organised in Rome by the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples and Urban University. The Cardinal kindly responded to a few questions put by Fides.

In your conference you said to be authentic a Christian must be missionary. In view of this truth what must be the priorities for local Churches today?
The Church is the heir of the people of God in the Old Testament, the Jewish People, called for those who had not yet been called, and the Church, the people of God of the New Testament is also called for those not yet called. Joseph in Egypt was chosen to save his eleven brothers who were not chosen, and he is saved because he saved the eleven brothers who were not chosen. This is true for the Church as well: the church is the Church of Jesus only if she is always on the path of mission. Everything the Church is or has, she received from Jesus Christ. And what she possesses is not for herself but for others. Therefore only if she receives with one hand and gives the gifts received from Jesus with the other is she the Church of Jesus Christ. This must be a fundamental experience for every Christian: we are sent, we are missionaries.

You were speaking at the Urban University. In your opinion how can Urban University best prepare future missionaries?
Well, actually I thought, I have been a Cardinal for such a long time - 23 years - and this is my first visit to Urban College. This is not a very good sign. I also wondered: if it were not for Urban University would people realise that the universal Church is also missionary? Propaganda Fide and Urban College are a symbol which expresses the fact that the Church must never forget she is on mission to evangelise all peoples. This is the first point. Secondly I would say: It is a good thing that we have a University which focuses especially on the work of carrying the Gospel to pagans, to non believers and I expect this College, the professors, to help students grow in self awareness in what it means to be a Catholic. At times I have the impression that Catholics have a sort of inferiority complex, we think we are like the last of the Mohican Indians, leftovers from the Middle Ages, whereas instead the exact opposite is true. We are the first pioneers of a future of which most men and women know nothing. This should fill every student with a deep Catholic awareness and a humble conviction of victory. Of course students must also become experts in precise methods of missionary pastoral. But methods are only a means and as such of secondary importance: the most important thing is the joy which comes from knowing God, from knowing what we believe this joy is our strength.

Your Eminence you are known to be deeply devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary and a frequent visitor at Marian shrines, Fatima in particular. In your opinion what impact did the Message of Fatima have on the missionary awareness of individual Christian and the Church?
In fact Mary was the first missionary. In her home in Nazareth she receives Christ through the working of the Holy Spirit and immediately sets off in haste, not slowly, across the mountains to visit her cousin Elisabeth and to stay and help her in the time of need. This teaches us something important about mission. A person filled with the Holy Spirit does not sit at home, he or she hastens to help others. Mary comes to help her cousin Elisabeth and sings the first canticle in the New Testament: she enters the home of Elizabeth who sings the first Marian antiphon: “Blessed are you because you believed” and Mary replies with the Magnificat, the most beautiful song of praise we Christians possess. This tells us that the Holy Spirit is help, the Holy Spirit is One who loosens the tongue and makes us sing, One who gives life. Mary helps Elisabeth give birth to a son. And when I say Mary is the first missionary, the Holy Spirit is also the first missionary. Because what we see in Mary is the working of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit urges us to set out, gives helps, gives life and loosens our tongue to sing Christ’s praise: those two women singing rather than grumbling are the Church which advances with Mary.
As to the question whether the message of Fatima was important for modern Europe and the rest of the world I would say: I had only heard about Fatima from others and was not particularly impressed I must say. Since I was moved to Koln only nine months before the fall of the Berlin Wall Pope John Paul II asked me to preside on 13 May 1990 the first major pilgrimage after the fall of communism. He said that as Bishop of Berlin I had been bishop of two very different models of societies, communism and capitalism. He told me: you are the right person to preside this celebration. It was only then that I really understood the meaning of the message of Fatima for mission in the modern world. Six months before communism put out the light - the light of faith - in eastern Europe, at the other end of Europe, in Portugal, through an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary that light was lit again and for the whole of Europe. What is more Mary appeared not in the universities or to scholars, she took her message to the greyness of normal daily life and appeared to three poor but keenly intelligent children. She entrusted them with the extraordinary message for Europe and for the world that, with Mary’s help, communism would be undermined and that Mary would kindle the light of faith again in the East. This is the amazing message of Fatima which changed modern political and human life more than any politician would have imagined.

One last brief question: you have known the present Pope for many years. In your opinion what impulse will he give the Church as a whole and to her missionary activity in particular?
I believe that with his charisma as a theologian like the Church Fathers the Pope will open the Church to wider horizons and help her realise that for societies at every latitude and longitude she is of extraordinary importance because she carries the message of Christ. Christ is the solution to every human problem. I think globalisation makes us ever more keenly aware that the only solution is the one offered by the Gospel. The Pope will render this concept very plausible. He has demonstrated this already with his first encyclical which will be accepted by Christians of all denominations, by non Christians religions and even by non believers. I read recently in one German newspaper: So we can expect much from him, after all only with the help of the Holy Spirit could the cardinals elect a pope of 78. I am convinced that Divine Providence has great plans and that we will all be astonished to see what this Pope brings. (Agenzia Fides 15/3/2006; righe 89, parole 1.304)


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