EUROPE/ITALY - Missio Italia's social campaign "#nonpossiamotacere" (We cannot be silent) starts in October

Saturday, 2 October 2021

Rome (Agenzia Fides) - With the start of Missionary October, the social campaign "#nonpossiamotacere" was launched by the Missio Foundation (National Direction of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Italy) with the diocesan missionary centers. Every day of the month, tidbits of what “cannot be kept silent” will be shared on the social networks of the Foundation and of the dioceses that want it, just as Pope Francis invites to do in his Message for World Mission Day 2021.
The Pope in fact urges us to have the same courage as Peter and John who, before the leaders of the people and the elders, were not afraid to say: "We cannot but speak about what we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:20). This is the same answer that missionaries give when they are asked about the reasons for their departure: once you discover how the Gospel fills your life, you cannot keep it to yourself. As explained in the Missio note, the social campaign includes one post per day that recounts experiences of missionary commitment in supporting peace, proclaiming hope, building the future and sharing joy. Four aspects of mission are explored during the four weeks of the mission month, with as many photos symbolizing the themes, published every Monday and accompanied by phrases from Pope Francis extrapolated from his Message for this year's World Mission Sunday. Every day of the month, short videos produced by different diocesan missionary centers are published on different social networks, presenting local realities in which witness and prophecy are experienced first hand. "Witnesses and Prophets" is the slogan chosen by Missio Italy for World Missions Day 2021. The director of Missio, Father Giuseppe Pizzoli, explains that this theme completes the triennial missionary training course designed as a development of the Extraordinary Missionary Month of 'October 2019: "Baptized and Sent": rediscovering the missionary vocation which belongs to all the baptized (2019); "Weavers of fraternity": living the project of Jesus as disciples who love as He loved (2020); "Witnesses and prophets": proclaiming the Kingdom of God, which will come and which has already germinated among us (2021). With the theme "Witnesses and Prophets", "we are therefore called to look at this time in which we are living and the reality that surrounds us with eyes of trust and hope", says Father Pizzoli, "we are certain that even in the midst of the pandemic and the crises that will accompany us for a long time to come, the Lord has never abandoned us and continues to accompany us. God's Kingdom is not just a promise for a future that still seems too distant to us. His Kingdom has already been inaugurated, it is already present: we know how to read its signs and, as authentic missionaries, we make it known so that it may be a regenerating hope for all". As always, the National Direction of the Pontifical Mission Societies, together with the other branches of the Missio Foundation, has prepared various aids for reflection, prayer and animation of Missionary October and World Mission Day, at the service of Dioceses, parishes and all Christian communities. (SL) (Agenzia Fides, 2/10/2021)


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