Yesterday morning, the Holy Father met with representatives from all the Pontifical Mission Societies in the Sala Clementina at the Vatican Apostolic Palace. Here is an English-language translation of the speech he addressed to them.
I am particularly happy, dear brothers and sisters, to meet with you for the first time, National Directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies (otherwise known as the Pontifical Mission Works, or POM), from all corners of the world. I warmly greet His Eminence, Fernando Cardinal Filoni, and thank him for the service he exercises as Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, as well as for the words which he has addressed to me today on your behalf. Cardinal Filoni also has another responsibility at this time: he is a professor. He comes to me to teach me about the Church. Yes, he comes to me and tells me: this diocese is like this, like that, and like that ... I know the Church thanks to his lessons. These are lessons that can't be paid for, because he teaches free of charge. I also wish to greet the Secretary, Monsignor Savio Hon Tai-Fai; the Adjunct Secretary, Monsignor Protase Rugambwa, and all the collaborators who work in the Dicastery and in the Pontifical Mission Works, priests, religious men and women, and the laity.
1. I want to tell you how precious you are to me because you help to keep alive the activity of evangelization, the paradigm of all the Church's activity. Missionary work is a paradigm of every action of the Church; we must all have a paradigmatic attitude. In effect, the Bishop of Rome is called to be Pastor not only to his particular Church, but also to all the Churches, so that the Gospel can be preached even to the ends of the earth. In this respect, the Pontifical Mission Works are a privileged instrument in the hands of the Pope, who is principally a sign of the unity and the universality of the Church (cf. Lumen gentium, 23). They are called Pontifical because they are at the direct disposition of the Bishop of Rome, with the specific task of ensuring the offering to all the precious gift of the Gospel. They are fully present, indeed necessary still today, because there are so many people who have not yet known and encountered Christ, and it is a matter of urgency that we find new forms and new methods so that the grace of God can touch the heart of every man and every woman, and bring them to Him. We are not simple, but important instruments; we have received the gift of faith, not so that we might hold on to or hide it, but that we might spread it, because it can illumine the path of so many of our brothers.
2. Certainly, the mission that awaits you is a difficult one, but with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, it becomes an exciting mission. We all experience our own poverty, our weakness as we bring the precious treasure of the Gospel to the world, but we must continually repeat the words of Saint Paul: We ... have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that it appears that this extraordinary power belongs to God, and does not come from us (2 Cor 4:7). This should always give us courage: the knowledge that the strength of evangelization comes from God and belongs to Him. We are called to open ourselves more and more to the action of the Holy Spirit, and to offer our entire beings as instruments of the mercy of God, of his tenderness, of his love for every man and every woman, above all for the poor, the excluded and those who are most distant. This applies to every Christian, to the entire Church; it is not a facultative mission, not a facultative mission but an essential one. As Saint Paul said, Preaching the gospel gives me nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion and I should be in trouble if I failed to do it (1 Cor 9:16). God's salvation is for everyone!
3. To you, dear National Directors, I repeat the invitation that Paul VI first issued, almost fifty years ago, to jealously care for the universal duty of the Mission Societies, which have the honour, the responsibility, the duty to sustain the mission (to announce the Gospel), to administer necessary aid. (Speech to the Pontifical Missionary Societies, May 14, 1965). Never tire of teaching every Christian, even those who are infants, to be genuinely united in a universal and missionary spirit, and to encourage the entire community to sustain and to help the missions as they are able (cf. Vatican Coucil II, Decree Ad gentes, 38). Make sure that the Pontifical Mission Societies continue in the wake of their centuries-old tradition, of animating and forming the Churches by opening them to an ever-deepening understanding of their mission of evangelization. It is right that the Pontifical Mission Societies are also placed under the pastoral care of Bishops because in this way they are rooted to the life of the particular Churches (Statutes of the Pontifical Mission Societies, n. 17); but you must truly become privileged instruments for education in the universal missionary spirit, promoting and ever growing communion and collaboration between the Churches so that the Gospel may be proclaimed to the whole world. In the face of temptation for the community to close in on itself, an ever-more-frequent temptation in these times, you must be all the more vigilant to attend to the real problems, your competence is to enrich the mission to the people, to prophetically bear witness that the life of the Church and the life and of the Churches is mission, a universal mission. The episcopal ministry and all ministries are certainly for the building up of the Christian community, but they are also positions of service to the community through the Church for the mission of evangelization. In this context, I invite you to pay particular attention to the young Churches, which often must operate in difficult climates, climates of discrimination and persecution, because they are supported and assisted in their testimony by the word and by the action of the Gospel.
Dear brothers and sisters, renewing my gratitude to all of you, I encourage you to continue your commitment so that the local Churches may ever more generously assume their share of our responsibility for the universal mission of the Church. Invoking Mary, the Star of Evangelization, I make my own, the words of Paul VI, words which seem as though they were written only yesterday. The Pope said: May the world of our time, which is searching, sometimes with anguish, sometimes with hope, be enabled to receive the Good News not from evangelizers who are dejected, discouraged, impatient or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with fervor, who have first received the joy of Christ, and who are willing to risk their lives so that the kingdom may be proclaimed and the Church established in the midst of the world. (Apostolic Letter, Evangelii nuntiandi, 80). Thank you.
To you, to your collaborators, to your families, and to all those who you hold close to your heart, upon your missionary work, to all I give the Blessing.
Discourse of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
for the encounter with National Directors of the
Pontifical Mission Societies
I am particularly happy, dear brothers and sisters, to meet with you for the first time, National Directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies (otherwise known as the Pontifical Mission Works, or POM), from all corners of the world. I warmly greet His Eminence, Fernando Cardinal Filoni, and thank him for the service he exercises as Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, as well as for the words which he has addressed to me today on your behalf. Cardinal Filoni also has another responsibility at this time: he is a professor. He comes to me to teach me about the Church. Yes, he comes to me and tells me: this diocese is like this, like that, and like that ... I know the Church thanks to his lessons. These are lessons that can't be paid for, because he teaches free of charge. I also wish to greet the Secretary, Monsignor Savio Hon Tai-Fai; the Adjunct Secretary, Monsignor Protase Rugambwa, and all the collaborators who work in the Dicastery and in the Pontifical Mission Works, priests, religious men and women, and the laity.
1. I want to tell you how precious you are to me because you help to keep alive the activity of evangelization, the paradigm of all the Church's activity. Missionary work is a paradigm of every action of the Church; we must all have a paradigmatic attitude. In effect, the Bishop of Rome is called to be Pastor not only to his particular Church, but also to all the Churches, so that the Gospel can be preached even to the ends of the earth. In this respect, the Pontifical Mission Works are a privileged instrument in the hands of the Pope, who is principally a sign of the unity and the universality of the Church (cf. Lumen gentium, 23). They are called Pontifical because they are at the direct disposition of the Bishop of Rome, with the specific task of ensuring the offering to all the precious gift of the Gospel. They are fully present, indeed necessary still today, because there are so many people who have not yet known and encountered Christ, and it is a matter of urgency that we find new forms and new methods so that the grace of God can touch the heart of every man and every woman, and bring them to Him. We are not simple, but important instruments; we have received the gift of faith, not so that we might hold on to or hide it, but that we might spread it, because it can illumine the path of so many of our brothers.
2. Certainly, the mission that awaits you is a difficult one, but with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, it becomes an exciting mission. We all experience our own poverty, our weakness as we bring the precious treasure of the Gospel to the world, but we must continually repeat the words of Saint Paul: We ... have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that it appears that this extraordinary power belongs to God, and does not come from us (2 Cor 4:7). This should always give us courage: the knowledge that the strength of evangelization comes from God and belongs to Him. We are called to open ourselves more and more to the action of the Holy Spirit, and to offer our entire beings as instruments of the mercy of God, of his tenderness, of his love for every man and every woman, above all for the poor, the excluded and those who are most distant. This applies to every Christian, to the entire Church; it is not a facultative mission, not a facultative mission but an essential one. As Saint Paul said, Preaching the gospel gives me nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion and I should be in trouble if I failed to do it (1 Cor 9:16). God's salvation is for everyone!
3. To you, dear National Directors, I repeat the invitation that Paul VI first issued, almost fifty years ago, to jealously care for the universal duty of the Mission Societies, which have the honour, the responsibility, the duty to sustain the mission (to announce the Gospel), to administer necessary aid. (Speech to the Pontifical Missionary Societies, May 14, 1965). Never tire of teaching every Christian, even those who are infants, to be genuinely united in a universal and missionary spirit, and to encourage the entire community to sustain and to help the missions as they are able (cf. Vatican Coucil II, Decree Ad gentes, 38). Make sure that the Pontifical Mission Societies continue in the wake of their centuries-old tradition, of animating and forming the Churches by opening them to an ever-deepening understanding of their mission of evangelization. It is right that the Pontifical Mission Societies are also placed under the pastoral care of Bishops because in this way they are rooted to the life of the particular Churches (Statutes of the Pontifical Mission Societies, n. 17); but you must truly become privileged instruments for education in the universal missionary spirit, promoting and ever growing communion and collaboration between the Churches so that the Gospel may be proclaimed to the whole world. In the face of temptation for the community to close in on itself, an ever-more-frequent temptation in these times, you must be all the more vigilant to attend to the real problems, your competence is to enrich the mission to the people, to prophetically bear witness that the life of the Church and the life and of the Churches is mission, a universal mission. The episcopal ministry and all ministries are certainly for the building up of the Christian community, but they are also positions of service to the community through the Church for the mission of evangelization. In this context, I invite you to pay particular attention to the young Churches, which often must operate in difficult climates, climates of discrimination and persecution, because they are supported and assisted in their testimony by the word and by the action of the Gospel.
Dear brothers and sisters, renewing my gratitude to all of you, I encourage you to continue your commitment so that the local Churches may ever more generously assume their share of our responsibility for the universal mission of the Church. Invoking Mary, the Star of Evangelization, I make my own, the words of Paul VI, words which seem as though they were written only yesterday. The Pope said: May the world of our time, which is searching, sometimes with anguish, sometimes with hope, be enabled to receive the Good News not from evangelizers who are dejected, discouraged, impatient or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with fervor, who have first received the joy of Christ, and who are willing to risk their lives so that the kingdom may be proclaimed and the Church established in the midst of the world. (Apostolic Letter, Evangelii nuntiandi, 80). Thank you.
To you, to your collaborators, to your families, and to all those who you hold close to your heart, upon your missionary work, to all I give the Blessing.
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