EUROPE/SPAIN - National Days for Mission Delegates- “The whole Church, every particular Church and every member of the Church, is entrusted with the task to evangelise peoples to the ends of the earth ”

Madrid (Fides Service) - In his intervention on 22 May at the National Days for Mission Delegates event held in Madrid, on the occasion of the annual meeting of Spain's PMS diocesan directors, Archbishop Henryk Hoser, secretary adjunct of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples and president of the Pontifical Mission Societies (see Fides 21/5/2007) spoke about the Fidei Donum encyclical issued by Pope Pius XII 50 years ago.
Archbishop Hoser said that the Encyclical addressed to the bishops of the world emphasises the universality of the mission and the responsibility of every Christian to spread the gift of faith received. He mentioned two poles of the missionary encyclical: the pole of the faith, the true motive for missionary commitment and being a missionary, and secondly the anthropological pole, the fact that a Christian, a follower of Christ, cannot remain indifferent to the situation of the world, especially of Africa. The first thing Christ asks of his disciples Archbishop Hoser said "is to see and assess the situation of life, the available energies, to be awake and on guard and to read the signs of the times with intelligence". In his conference the Archbishop underlined the brilliant and modern vision of the challenges and problems which Pius XII had 50 years ago with regard to Africa and which unfortunately still exist.
On the same day 23 May there was a presentation of missionary institution OCSHA (Work of Hispanic-American Priestly Cooperation), NGO "Misión America" and SCAM (United Service of Missionary Animation) organisation. Rev Anastasio Gil, president of the Spanish Bishops' Commission for Mission and cooperation among Churches and vice director of the PMS Spain and president of Misión America spoke of the origin, nature and history of the organisation founded in November 1993. In this recent period it has supported 233 pastoral projects equal to 455.636,29 Euro worth of aid for programmes in Peru, Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil, Spain, Uruguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras and Chile. The meeting approved 114 projects for the value of 3.691.035,93 Euro for social programmes in 14 countries in Latin America and 5 in Africa.
Fr. Laureano Rojo, Comboni Superior Provincial in Spain and SCAM president illustrated missionary work as part of ordinary diocesan pastoral and the importance of the presence and witness of missionaries. This is an ecclesial service from and for local Churches. In Spain SCAM is involved in missionary animation and formation. SCAM members include 11 congregations of women religious, 8 congregations of men religious, OCASHA and IEME (Spanish Institute for Foreign Missions).
On the 24 May the last day of the Meeting Fr Vito del Prete, Secretary General of the Pontifical Missionary Union spoke on the theme, 'All the Churches for all the World'. He said the theme of World Mission Sunday focuses on this theme which was also the subject of an international congress on Fidei Donum priests held in Rome in early May. "The theme was chosen by the Pope - said Fr. Vito - to commemorate, re-launch and update the missionary reality of Fidei Donum priests the most comprehensible, immediate and effective expression of the responsibility of every local Church to obey Christ's missionary mandate".
The theme could be read as follows: "The whole Church, every particular Church and every member of the Church, is entrusted with the task to evangelise peoples to the ends of the earth". Therefore the elements which define the subject of World Mission Sunday are two: “Every Church, the whole world. The universality of the mission that Christ entrusted to his community: universality of missionaries and universality of the receivers of evangelisation”.
Fr. Vito del Prete recalled that all local Churches are bound to participate in universal mission ad gentes because "missions in other countries cannot be undertaken with scarce personnel and institutions". Moreover "faith is strengthened when it is shared. A diocese, a Christian community, not involved in evangelisation will soon experience a crisis of faith". Every bishop therefore must "see in his particular Church the image of the "universal" Church because the one Catholic Church is constituted in and by the local Churches ". So we can say "mission ad gentes is a constitutive part of the local Church, because it is fundamental for the Christian life". (RG) (Agenzia Fides 25/5/2007; righe 56, parole 768)