Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – “World Mission Day is an appropriate occasion for better understanding that witness of love, soul of the mission, concerns everyone” Pope Benedict XVI writes in his Message for World Mission Sunday 2006. Missionaries are a front line supported by the prayers and material offerings of hosts of children, young people, adults and elderly people, indispensable for the Church’s missionary activity. “I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and to the Pontifical Missionary Societies – the message continues - They coordinate with dedication the world-wide efforts of all who contribute to the work of those in the front line of missionary activities”. For almost two hundred years the Pontifical Mission Societies have prayed, worked and collected offerings to support the universal mission that Jesus entrusted to his Church. To know more about the significance and extent of this commitment Fides spoke with the President of the Pontifical Mission Societies Archbishop Henryk Hoser, SAC.

Archbishop, the Pontifical Mission Societies are known mainly for collecting funds on Mission Sunday the penultimate Sunday in October. Is that all they do?

Certainly World Mission Sunday, this year will be the 80th such Day, is the event of greatest commitment and visibility for the Pontifical Mission Societies, also outside the strictly ecclesial environment: general mobilisation is fostered by means of posters, leaflets, radio and TV programmes, numerous initiatives organised with love and creativity for this occasion by mission animators all over the world. To reach this result, behind efforts on the annual Day, there is a year of intense activity often involving considerable sacrifice, of spiritual animation, missionary formation, awareness raising on the situation in mission territories. Our National Directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies, 110 all over the world, and their staff are mainly the ones who shoulder responsibility for increasing awareness and forming Catholics to fulfil their duty to support to the best of their ability the men and women sent to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This happens also in countries where Catholics are only a tiny minority and the young Churches were founded by missionaries only a few years ago: therefore Mission Sunday is truly a world, universal and Catholic event.
As Pope Benedict XVI writes in his Message for Mission Sunday 2006, “to serve the Gospel can never be considered a solitary adventure, but a binding duty for every community. Along with all those who operate on the front line of evangelization - and here I remember with gratitude all missionaries - I also think of many others, children, young and old who by their prayers and cooperation in many ways contribute to the spreading of the Kingdom of God on earth. My wish is that this participation may always increase through the contribution of all”.
By no means therefore is the activity of the Pontifical Mission Societies confined to the work of one Day or simply a few initiatives for the month of October, it is vast and varied: its limit is the whole world. Collecting funds for the missions is only one of its tasks, and not even the main one which is instead spiritual animation in view of spiritual cooperation, or prayer. As it is stated in the recently revised Statute, the missionary cooperation promoted by the Pontifical Mission Societies concerns the whole life of the Christian, both individual and collective. The essential basis for such missionary cooperation lies “in profound and intense work of animation and formation. This is indispensable so that all the faithful may have a lively awareness of their responsibility before the world, cultivate in themselves a truly Catholic spirit and direct their strengths towards the work of evangelisation” (Statute of the Pontifical Mission Societies 2005 , 21).

What is the value of collecting offerings?

It is an act of brotherhood, of communion between rich Churches and poor Churches, to support our common missionary duty towards non Christians. This wave of assistance however is not one-way, rich donor countries and poor receiving countries: even in their poverty the poor countries give for the missions, and I might say even with greater generosity! Tiny amounts given in Africa or certain parts of Latin America may almost disappear compared to collections in Italy and Spain, but for Africans these amounts are enormous. And this happens at every latitude: even Churches which until recently could only receive assistance in funds and missionary personnel, are now fully involved, going without the superfluous and indeed even the necessary, in order to help to support younger Churches. Local Catholic Churches in Europe which in the past sent out so many missionaries today for a variety of reasons are experiencing a period of restriction. Today no small number of priests come to minister in Europe from countries of Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Asia where today Catholic seminaries are full, thanks to the work of missionaries. Others go on mission in parts of their own country or on other continents. This growing sense of missionary responsibility in poor Churches should encourage renewed generosity in older Churches.

In the past Mission Sunday was the only event in support of missionary activity, but today there are all manner of initiatives throughout the year …

Thanks to progress in communications today there is greater awareness and attention with regard to millions of people living in territories where the Catholic Church has been present for centuries and which were known until recently only thanks to reports from missionaries. We see all kinds of initiatives, twinning, adoptions, exchange of visits, contact via the Internet…with Churches in mission territories. Perhaps not all are aware of the danger that Churches which establish this contact with other richer Churches may benefit from consistent and continual assistance, whereas others in difficulty have no help at all due to geographical position, logistic difficulties or other problems, or perhaps simply because less resourceful. This is why the Pontifical Mission Societies has a Universal Solidarity Fund, precisely to ensure equal distribution of subsidies and that help reaches those most in need. The Fund is like a river from which everyone may draw water to drink but into which a thousand rivers must pour.

How are funds for mission collected and with what criteria are they distributed?

Funds collected on Mission Sunday, legacies left by benefactors, monies collected with various initiatives of missionary animation are sent by National Directors to the General Secretariats in Rome and deposited in the Universal Fund. Then, during the Annual General Assembly of the Pontifical Mission Societies, usually held in May, all the National Directors together, with the guidance of the President and General Secretaries of the four Pontifical Mission Societies, discuss requests sent in from Churches in need for assistance to build churches or chapels, or pastoral centres, to support the formation of seminarians, catechists, to promote initiatives for education of children. The AGM on the basis of the monies available and with criteria of equity and justice decides how subsidies are assigned.

Do the Pontifical Mission Societies manage to meet all the requests which they receive?

Every year thousands of requests come in from all over the world and unfortunately the Universal Solidarity Fund is not large enough to allow us to meet them all. In fact in recent years people are giving less for the missions and more to initiatives for development. Many good Catholics think it is right to give consistently to support associations, agencies, groups working for development whereas those who support initiatives to promote spiritual growth are increasingly less. It is easy to find people willing to support a farm project, but not many are ready to give to build a church or a seminary, to print a catechism or a liturgical book in a local language.
Recently on 10 September while in Munich the Pope made a remark which could be easily applied to every so-called ‘developed’ country. The Pope said the Bishops he receives in the Vatican speak with gratitude of the generosity of German Catholics. However one African Bishop told the Pope: "If I present a social project in Germany I find doors open immediately but if my project is for evangelisation there is some reserve". And the Holy Father commented: “Clearly some people have the idea that social projects should be urgently undertaken, while anything dealing with God or even the Catholic faith is of limited and lesser urgency. Yet the experience of those Bishops is that evangelization itself should be foremost, that the God of Jesus Christ must be known, believed in and loved, and that hearts must be converted if progress is to be made on social issues”.

What is then the missionary’s principal task?

It is urgent to realise that our principal duty is to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ because with the message of the Gospel deeply rooted in the mind and heart it will be possible to build a reconciled society, founded on principles of equality, justice and solidarity… Our greatest treasure is Jesus Christ and He is the treasure that we are called to share with those who have never encountered Him. Material wealth, technical structures, the most modern equipment in some non-evangelised situations rather than a gift can be an incentive to fight for power, to use violence, or ensconce oneself in a comfortable situation. If we carry Jesus Christ to people in his entirety, in his greatness, we will be preparing the soil for authentic development and human promotion which only in this way will have sound and lasting foundations. “To be missionaries, is to tend, like the Good Samaritan, to the needs of all, particularly those of the poor and the needy, because he who loves with the heart of Christ, searches not for his own interest but only for the glory of God and the good of his neighbour. In this lies the secret of the apostolic fruitfulness in missionary work which crosses frontiers and cultures, reaches all peoples and spreads to the utmost ends of the world” (Benedict XVI, Message for Mission Sunday 2006). (Agenzia Fides 21/10/2006)