Mission, Pope Francis' "main road"

By Stefania Falasca*

We publish extensive excerpts from the chapter dedicated to the mission in Stefania Falasca's book “Papa Francesco. La Via maestra” (Pope Francis, the Main Road. Edizioni San Paolo, 2025). The volume recounts the essential path followed by the Magisterium of Pope Francis during his pontificate (2013-2025).

Rome (Fides Agency) - The renewed missionary spirit called for by the Second Vatican Council takes place in a basic way: firstly through encounter, then through words, because proclaiming the Gospel is bearing witness to God's merciful love.
This could not be but the first of the main roads of the Council that Pope Francis wanted to revisit in his teaching. It's the main road that leads to the center of his message, but also to the very heart of passing on the faith today. A path that—from the first exhortation Evangelii gaudium, through the papal catechesis of the general audiences dedicated to rediscovering the “passion for evangelization” at the sources of “apostolic zeal”—is always there to begin again, to indicate what is vitally important, what moves and constitutes the very identity of the Church. It is the Way: the mission, “the oxygen of Christian life.”
The proclamation of the Gospel “is not optional or marginal,” but “a vital dimension, since the Church was born apostolic and missionary.”
“Mission, therefore, Pope Francis repeats, “is oxygen for Christian life, and without it becomes sick and withers and becomes ugly, ugly.” And Francis has always reiterated the essential things for the Church, which is born missionary and is called to be a witness to the proclamation of Christ's salvation:

“Our proclamation begins today, where we live. And it does not begin by trying to convince others, certainly not by convincing them, but by witnessing every day to the beauty of the Love that looked upon us and lifted us up. And it will be this beauty, communing this beauty, that will convince people, not us, but the Lord himself. We are those who proclaim the Lord; we do not proclaim ourselves, nor do we proclaim a political party or an ideology.”

This statement says it all. It explains what the mission is, where it comes from, how it works, and the way it continues today.
During his papacy, Pope Francis has given a lot of attention to this vital part of the Church's apostolic work, drawing mainly from the Bible and suggesting at every opportunity that mission is not the exclusive domain of specialized professionals or selected ecclesial subjects, since its dynamics draw from the very heart of the Mystery of Salvation and its paths concern the faith of the Church in the historical events of the world.

There are three key points that are continually reiterated in his teaching regarding mission.

First: “Without Him we can do nothing,” as Francis states in the reference text on mission, on what it means to proclaim the Gospel in the world today. He repeated this several times on May 11, 2023, when he received the members of the Conference of Italian Missionary Institutes:
“The mission is first and foremost a mystery of Grace. The mission is not our work, but God's; we do not do it alone, but moved by the Spirit and docile to his action.”

Thus, Pope Francis once again pointed out to the entire Church what the living source of every apostolic work is, as well as its dynamic. For the Successor of the Apostles, the experience of the Apostles is in fact a paradigm that is valid for all time:

“Just think of how things happen freely in the of the Apostles, without coercion... no stratagems are needed to become proclaimers of the Gospel. Baptism is enough. The mission, the Church reaching out, is not a program to be carried out by an effort of will. It is Christ who brings the Church out of herself. The mission is His work.”
(…).

As he described in a key speech on mission addressed to the Pontifical Mission Societies:
“Salvation is the encounter with Jesus, who loves us and forgives us, sending us the Spirit who comforts and defends us. Salvation is not the consequence of our missionary initiatives, nor even of our discourse on the Incarnation of the Word. Salvation for each of us can only come through the gaze of the encounter with Him who calls us. For this reason, the mystery of predilection begins and can only begin in an outburst of joy and gratitude.”

Second: “You cannot evangelize without witness.” Proclaiming the Gospel “is more than a simple transmission of doctrine and morals.” Proclaiming the Gospel “is first and foremost bearing witness to a personal encounter with Jesus Christ.” For this reason, witness to Christ is “the first means of evangelization” and “an essential condition for its effectiveness.” In his catechesis, Pope Francis cited extensively the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, the magisterial text of Paul VI, which he described as the “Magna Carta of evangelization in the contemporary world [...] always relevant, as if it had been written yesterday.”

Points and highlights from the papal catechesis emphasized how, in the present time, the words of Paul VI in Evangelii Nuntiandi seem increasingly prophetic when he recognized that “contemporary men listen more willingly to witnesses than to teachers,” or “if they listen to teachers, they do so because they are witnesses.” Witness, continued the Bishop of Rome, also includes the “professed faith” and is manifested above all in the change that Christ himself works in his witnesses, in those who, precisely in this change, bear witness to him. It is faith “that transforms us, that transforms our relationships, the criteria and values that determine our choices.” For this reason, the Bishop of Rome pointed out, witness is not manifested as a “performance” exhibited by witnesses, but rather represents the reflection of a “journey of holiness” that draws from the sacramental source of Baptism, which is also a “gift of God” and “requires to be accepted and made fruitful for ourselves and for others.”

Third: this is the key point he often emphasized in this context: “The mission of the Church is not proselytism.” The mission “is not a business or a corporate project, nor is it a humanitarian organization. The community of Jesus' disciples,” said Pope Francis, “is missionary, not proselytizing,” because “being missionary, being apostolic, evangelizing is not the same as proselytizing. It is the Holy Spirit who is the author, not a human effort to conquer.”

At the beginning of the catechetical cycle on evangelization, he therefore quoted once again the expression used by Pope Benedict XVI on May 13, 2007, in Aparecida, in his homily at the opening Mass of the Fifth General Conference of the Latin American Bishops:

“The Church does not proselytize. Rather, it grows through attraction. One does not follow Christ, much less become his herald and that of his Gospel, because of a decision made around a table or because of an overly active self-motivation, but because of an attraction based on love. This attraction is found in the dynamics of every authentic apostolic work, in every authentic missionary act.”

It is not, therefore, the result of efforts and cosmetic operations to make the image of the Church more “appealing” or to gain approval through marketing strategies. The appeal referred to by Pope Francis is a prerogative of the living. It is what Christ himself, the Risen One, can exercise today on the hearts of his apostles, his missionaries, and even those who do not seek him. And for this reason, throughout his preaching, he has made clear the deception of proselytism that distinguishes authentic missionaries from recruiters of followers who want to do without Christ.

For Pope Francis, “proselytism is everywhere there is the idea of growing the Church without the attraction of Christ and the work of the Spirit, focusing everything on some kind of discourse.” So, first of all, proselytism cuts Christ himself and the Holy Spirit out of the mission, even when it claims to speak and act in the name of Christ. “Proselytism is always violent—because it cannot tolerate the freedom and gratuitousness with which faith can be transmitted by grace, from person to person.” For this reason, Pope Francis reminds us, proselytism is not only a thing of the past, but can also be found today in parishes, communities, movements, and religious congregations. Attraction, on the other hand, is something else entirely. It is the opposite of proselytism: “It is a witness that leads us to Jesus.” In short, what Pope Francis points to as perpetually successful is precisely this ever-living dynamic of mission, which is to “let yourself be guided by the Holy Spirit: let Him be the one who urges you to proclaim Christ. Through witness, through daily martyrdom. And if necessary, even with words.” (Fides Agency 4/5/2025).

*Writer, columnist for Avvenire, Vice President of the Vatican Foundation John Paul I

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