Your Eminence,
Brother Bishops,
Dear National Directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies!
1. It is with great pleasure that I “welcome” all
of you in the house of Peter, here in the Vatican, after another
year of missionary service in your churches throughout the world.
I am very happy to meet you, because you are, in a special way,
“the tireless workers of the mercy of God and his peace”
(Catechesis, Thursday 14 April 2004).
I warmly greet and thank Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Prefect of
the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, for his words
addressed to me on behalf of all of you.
2. Dear Brothers, in the tumultuous times that humanity is living,
the Pontifical Mission Societies, that are at the service of the
Churches in the world, represent a sure point of reference for
those who are searching for the saving truth. It is to these,
in fact, that, proclaiming Christ, you show the Way to salvation.
The message you offer is a message of love and hope. Through the
missionary animation you carry out to fulfill the mandate of Christ,
Savior of all men, you collaborate in bringing the “Good
News” to the farthest ends of the earth. The Living Christ
continues to offer to all, without distinction, his message of
salvation.
3. The hope, of which you are heralds, comes through the death
and resurrection of Christ. For this reason, you must have a special
consideration for those peoples of the world where the pain is
greater and the need more acute: the peoples of the so-called
Third World. Your commitment is side by side with the missionaries
of the Gospel, who preach solidarity and love and sacrifice themselves
for peace, at times to the point of giving one’s life for
“the love of Christ overwhelms us” (2 Cor 5, 14).
Therefore, you are the men from Cyrene who help the Savior carry
his Cross in every person who suffers and dies. You are truly
authentic missionaries in a world that is now globalized, where
suffering for the sake of Truth and Justice goes beyond every
national border.
When you take on the sufferings of other peoples and work to alleviate
their great need for support, you are also working to help your
own people break out of the binds of selfishness, of the suffocating
effects of abundance, and of emptiness and behaviors which can
be beneath the dignity of human beings. It is not just a matter
of giving alms, as my venerable Predecessor Pope Pius XII wrote,
but of fulfilling a duty which is integral to our Christian identity,
to help those in need.
May you, then, be messengers of the Resurrection and the Life,
as your Founders and Foundresses were. It is you, together with
the entire Church, who must proclaim the risen Christ. With the
Apostle John, you too can say: “Something which has existed
since the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with
our own eyes, which we have watched and touched with our own hands,
the Word of Life”, this we announce to you (1John 1, 1).
When you meditate with sincere faith on the words of Christ and
work in his spirit, you know that his words apply to you: “In
so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of
mine, you did it to me” (Mt 25, 40).
4. It is comforting to me to know that you are working on updating
your Statutes. This shows the will to continue to fulfill your
mission of “mercy and peace” ever more and ever better.
May the Spirit of the risen Lord show you, as he did the Apostles,
his will in choosing new ways of cooperation in the mission to
bring Truth, Justice and Peace to all men of our time, in accordance
with the Gospel.
The task of the General Assembly of your Superior Council is nothing
but the search for the ways of God, for a mission renewed in a
continuously changing world. You are moved by the drive to bring
love and mercy to all people who are brothers and sisters in the
one family of humanity. Therefore, I exhort you to collaborate,
as you are already doing, with the Congregation for the Evangelization
of Peoples, in the continued search of “new ways”
for spreading the Gospel. Missionary animation and cooperation
are, by definition, the very reason for your existence and the
only purpose of your tireless “anxiety for all the churches”
(2 Cor 11,28), in view of the salvation of the world.
5. It is with this awareness that I extend my most cordial wish
for an ever generous commitment, even in the midst of every kind
of difficulty. I am certain that “the joys and the hopes,
the griefs and anxieties of the men of this age, especially those
who are poor or in any way afflicted” are also yours (cfr.
Gaudium et Spes, 1). This is the consequence of living in the
love of “the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the merciful
Father and the God who gives every possible encouragement, who
supports us in every hardship ” (2 Cor 1,3-4).
May this Apostolic Blessing, which I bestow on you with all my
heart, be a sign of this divine consolation.
