The Church Must Not Renounce Her Missionary Role

At midday today the Holy Father received the participants in the General Assembly of the Pontifical Missionary Works, which reports to the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.

  The Pope highlighted in his address that “the Church must constantly renew her commitment to bringing Christ to the people, to continue her messianic mission for the coming of the Kingdom of God … It is therefore necessary to continue the work of evangelisation with renewed enthusiasm … to lead humankind to the true freedom of the sons of God, against all forms of slavery. It is necessary to cast the net of the Gospel into the waters of history to lead mankind toward the land of God”.

  “But in order that there be a decisive commitment to evangelisation, it is necessary that all Christians and communities truly believe that the ‘Word of God is the saving truth needed by all men in all times’. If this conviction of faith is not deeply rooted in our life, we are not able to feel the passion and the beauty of announcing it”.

  After highlighting that “everyone must be involved in this ‘missio ad gentes’: bishops, priests, religious and laity”, Benedict XVI remarked that “it is necessary, therefore, to devote special attention to ensuring that all sectors of pastoral care, of the catechesis, of charity, are characterised by a missionary element: the Church is a mission”.       MORE….