Mission is a constant call to the peripheries – Pope Francis

Mission is a constant call to the peripheries – Pope Francis

Pope Francis has given his approval for an extraordinary ‘month of mission’ in 2019 to reinvigorate and renew the missionary spirit and action of the Church.

October 2019 was chosen for the month of prayer because it will be the 100th anniversary of Pope Benedict XV’s 1919 apostolic letter, Maximum Illud on the propagation of the faith throughout the world. “In this very important document…on mission, the Pope [Benedict XV] recalls how necessary a life of holiness is for the effectiveness of the apostolate,” Pope Francis said.

Zeal

Now more than ever the Church and the world need men and women known for their “zeal and holiness” to proclaim the Gospel and show mercy to everyone, he added.

“The world vitally needs the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” the Pope wrote in his message for World Mission Sunday 2017.

“Through the Church, Christ continues his mission as the Good Samaritan, caring for the bleeding wounds of humanity, and as the Good Shepherd, constantly seeking out those who wander along winding paths that lead nowhere,” the Pope wrote in the message.

World Mission Sunday is celebrated this weekend on October 22.

The Church’s mission “is not to spread a religious ideology, much less to propose a lofty ethical teaching,” he wrote. Rather it is sharing the transformative power and joy of Christ and his word, which helps people become free of selfishness, “narrowness, conflict, racism and tribalism.”

“The Church’s mission impels us to undertake a constant pilgrimage across the various deserts of life, through the different experiences of hunger and thirst for truth and justice,” and inspires the faithful to be in “constant exodus” toward the peripheries and in “constant exile” toward the kingdom of heaven.

Welcoming a proposal from the pontifical mission societies and the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, the Pope said the special concentration on mission during the month of October 2019 would help “renew the love and passion” of proclaiming the Gospel to everyone.