Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) - On the second day of the International Congress 50th anniversary Encyclical Fidei Donum (see Agenzia Fides 21/4/2007) the participants listened to a conference by the secretary general of the Italian Bishops' Conference Bishop Giuseppe Betori, who spoke about “National coordination of Fidei Donum priests, in view of common missionary planning among sending and receiving Churches ”.
“Fidei Donum priests, although still one of the smallest mission subjects (not more than 3-4% of all the Catholic missionaries in the world), have offered surprising results to the life of our communities” said Bishop Betori, adding that “Churches of ancient tradition which in the past sent the highest number of Fidei Donum, are now experiencing a serious crisis in vocations, whereas the younger Churches are only now beginning to open to this service”. The Bishop then said that no other missionary subject contributes in such a capillary way as he Fidei Donum, “to being cooperation among Churches so close to the direct experience of the persons and life of the diocese”.
After setting the Fidei Donum phenomenon in a correct ecclesiology Bishop Betori said “in the Church today there exists a great passion for evangelisation although it us unable to express itself with all the necessary potential. When what is at stake is the proclamation of the Gospel or the salvation of souls,- as one used to say -,justifying human reasons of individualism and interests also institutional should disappear. Only in this way proclamation will have the image and power of the Church rather than those of its agents”.
In the light of this awareness in recent years the missionary image of the local Church has become richer and more composite, there has emerged the figure of the lay Catholic in missionary service: “Alone, although not rarely as a family, an increasing number of lay faithful approach diocesan missionary centres asking to live a period of apostolic service on mission… bearers of their own modalities which reshape missionary service, lay missionaries have found in the Fidei Donum model inspiration for an identity. It is opportune for Bishops' Conferences ever more directly provide the means to support this service with conventions of guarantee and assistance”.
Among the limits emerging from 50 years of experience the Bishop mentioned “an idea that mission sometimes to concerned with “doing”, protagonism of the sending Church, the difficulty to accept at the return, the people and the riches of the Churches in which the Fidei Donum have served”. Today ancient Churches are sending less because of a drop in vocations and the very idea of mission is questioned, as a result of secularisation and the presence of many non Christian immigrants: “the Fidei Donum experience reminds us that precisely in this new present situation, a missionary departure of priests or laity is a precious treasure for the whole sending community. Not only because it expresses the value of the gift, but also because it presupposes the acceptance, while on mission and even more on returning, the experience of a sister Church; also because it reawakens the sense of universal mission of a Church, which must now be spent for new evangelisation also in countries of ancient Christianity.”
Since fifty years on the Fidei Donum experience has “much to say and to give to our communities ”, Bishop Betori indicated some concrete prospects at various levels. At the diocesan level it is necessary to have a Mission Animation Office under the responsibility of the Bishop; adopt a diocesan missionary plan; involve the receiving Church more fully. At the inter-diocesan and regional level there can be different forms of collaboration to sustain and encourage the Fidei Donum experience: inter-diocesan departures, common paths of formation, accompaniment of lay missionaries. At the national level Bishop Betori mentioned certain priorities: give importance to dioceses as sending subjects, making room for all missionary subjects present; importance to the experience of returned Fidei Donum; promote lay Fidei Donum mission helping to define more precisely the identity and modality of formation, accompaniment, service; more re-elaboration of the Fidei Donum experience to give rise to new and shared forms of pastoral experience; monitor the presence of priests hailing from mission countries. Bishop Betori concluded. “Fifty years on the motivations which started the Fidei Donum experience are still valid…the goals of pastoral charity, although changed with the times, are still valid and urgent. Today we are called to extend still further our horizons towards the great continent of Asia”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 11/5/2007; righe 60, parole 838)
