Mission Sunday: TPMS invites Catholics to hope, faith, action
On the eve of the 98th World Mission Day, scheduled for October 20, the Pontifical Mission Societies are releasing a video to present the faces and voices of missionaries working in the four corners of the world.
By Lorena Leonardi
“As we embark on this journey together, we ask you to be not mere spectators but active participants in the mission of the Church. It is more than an invitation and a call to be part of something bigger. This is our moment: together we can bring hope, faith and action to the four corners of the earth. »
This is the message of the video broadcast by the Pontifical Mission Societies (TPMS) on the occasion of the 98th World Mission Sunday 2024, celebrated on Sunday October 20, on the theme “Go and invite everyone to the banquet” (cf. Mt 22:9).
Celebrate community
“The banquet,” explains the narrator of the video, produced with the collaboration of TPMS sections around the world, “is a celebration of community, an open dialogue of faith and a testimony of our commitment to welcoming, above all, our brothers and sisters on the margins of society.
The three-minute video features footage of the work being done by missionaries around the world, featuring their faces and voices, as well as those of national directors and lay people involved in TPMS.
A special guest, Cardinal Soane Patita Paini Mafi, Bishop of Tonga, also makes an appearance. Each of the brief interventions focuses on the words “go”, “invite”, “proclaim the Gospel”, “celebrate”, “share”, “justice”, “joy” and “fraternity”.
At the forefront of re-evangelization
The president of the Pontifical Mission Societies, Archbishop Emilio Nappa, said it is the mission of every Christian to proclaim the Gospel.
“Everything we do is to make this possible,” he said. “It is the Gospel that guides us, and the task of the Pontifical Mission Societies is to make the mission known while collecting spiritual fruits and financial sacrifices to be redistributed according to the needs of the local Churches.”
This vocation, added the Archbishop, “also pushes us to the frontier of re-evangelization in the Churches of ancient Christianity, particularly in the West, where the number of Christians is decreasing.”
Evangelism, concluded the president of TPMS, is truly “immersing oneself in the culture of others to discover together the values of the Gospel. The Pontifical Mission Societies are a great treasure, also because of their synodal nature and their tradition, with which they continue to serve the universal Church, in the name and on behalf of the Pope. »
