VATICAN - "Mission of compassion" and co-responsibility between dioceses in the universal Church

Friday, 29 January 2021 world mission day pontifical mission societies missionary animation mission missionaries

VATICAN

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Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - "In the Message for World Mission Day 2021, Pope Francis recalls that the current situation of the pandemic has brought to the fore and amplified the pain, the solitude, the poverty, which highlight that 'need for redemption', to which God in Christ is not a stranger, as the Pope writes. Today in the face of this suffering we do not announce ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord. This is why we hear the words of hope resound in the Message: He is not here, he has risen", said Archbishop Giampietro Dal Toso, Assistant Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and President of the Pontifical Mission Societies, to Agenzia Fides, commenting on the Message released today.
"Those words - he continues - give the necessary audacity to creatively search for all possible ways of living compassion. In this time of pandemic, the Pope affirms, that the mission of compassion capable of making the necessary distance a place of encounter, care and promotion is urgent. With this spirit - the Archbishop remarked - we hope that the principle of co-responsibility that is at the basis of our experience as Pontifical Mission Societies, where everyone feels challenged by the needs of the other, will grow. For this reason, as underlined in a recent letter sent by the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples to the Bishops of about 1,100 ecclesiastical circumscriptions who annually receive a contribution from the Pontifical Mission Societies, the largest and most structured dioceses in mission territories, recipients of the ordinary subsidy, can renounce it and hand it over, so that it is redistributed to smaller and poorer and therefore more tried churches".
These are subsidies from the “Universal Solidarity Fund” (USF), the result of the universal collection held all over the world on World Mission Sunday, celebrated every year on the penultimate Sunday in October. "The territories under the jurisdiction of Propaganda Fide - dioceses, apostolic vicariates, apostolic prefectures, apostolic administrations,“sui iuris” missions - are found above all in the poorest areas of the world. We intend to provoke an impetus of solidarity within the universal Church, to improve the distribution of funds: if there are dioceses or bishops capable of carrying out the pastoral life thanks to local resources, they could voluntarily renounce the subsidy, in whole or in part, thus allowing poorer dioceses to obtain a greater contribution", explains Msgr. Dal Toso.
The subsidies allocated by the Pontifical Mission Societies "only support pastoral projects by providing for specific expenses related to the work of evangelization, the life of the local Churches, the formation of the clergy, religious and catechists", the Archbishop recalls, explaining that "this work is very important for the future of the Church in the five continents". The contribution offered and delivered by the PMS is precious and significant for the territories that receive it. The PMS support, for example, diocesan or interdiocesan Seminaries and offer financial support to retired bishops, often the only means they have in the poorest regions, where Catholics are a minority and the local community does not have the economic capacity to support them.
In addition to the usual collection for Mission Day, Pope Francis set up a "Special Covid Emergency Fund" at the PMS in 2020 to help the Churches of the poorest countries deal with the pandemic and its economic repercussions. Thanks to this special fund, over 250 projects have been supported, with interventions carried out in 41 countries and 229 between archdioceses, dioceses, apostolic vicariates and episcopal conferences, for a value of over 1.85 million dollars.
Overall, the Pontifical Mission Societies in 2020 distributed about 130 million dollars, destined for mission territories. Subsidies from the PMS last year funded 2,870 projects in mission territories for the education and protection of children; 79,380 major and minor seminarians and 8,094 novices in their formation courses; the birth and construction of 751 new churches on the five continents.
The 2020 collection was marked by the economic crisis following the pandemic. (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 29/1/2021)