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MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO THE PONTIFICAL MISSION SOCIETIES
When they had come together, they asked him,
“Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom
to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you
to know times or seasons which the Father has
fixed by his own authority. But you shall
receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon
you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem
and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of
the earth”. When he had said this, as they were
looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took
him out of their sight (Acts 1:6-9).
The Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was
taken up into heaven and took his seat at the
right hand of God. Nonetheless, they went forth
and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked
with them and confirmed the word through
accompanying signs (Mk 16:19-20).
Then he led them [out] as far as Bethany, raised
his hands, and blessed them. As he blessed them,
he parted from them and was taken up to heaven.
They did him homage and then returned to
Jerusalem with great joy, and they were
continually in the temple praising God (Lk
24:50-53).
* * *
This year I had decided to participate in your
annual General Assembly on Thursday, 21 May, the
feast of the Ascension of the Lord. The Assembly
was subsequently cancelled because of the
pandemic that affects us all. I would now like
to send this Message in order to share what I
had intended to say to you personally. This
Christian feast, in the remarkable times in
which we are living, appears to me even more
fruitful as a source of reflection for the
journey and mission belonging to each one of us
and to the entire Church.
We celebrate the Ascension as a feast, yet it
commemorates the departure of Jesus from his
disciples and from this world. The Lord ascends
to heaven and the Eastern liturgy narrates the
astonishment of the angels in seeing a man who
in his flesh rises to be seated at the right
hand of the Father. Even so, while Christ is at
the point of ascending to heaven, the disciples,
who had seen him risen, still do not seem to
understand what is happening. He is about to
bring his Kingdom to fulfilment and they are
still caught up in their own ideas. They ask him
if he is going to restore the kingdom to Israel
(cf. Acts 1:6). Yet, when Christ leaves them,
instead of being sad, they return to Jerusalem
“with great joy”, as Luke tells us (cf. 24:52).
It would be odd if something had not occurred.
Indeed, Jesus had already promised them the
power of the Holy Spirit, who was to descend
upon them at Pentecost. This is the miracle that
changes everything. They become more confident
when they entrust everything to the Lord. They
are filled with joy. Moreover, that joy is the
fullness of consolation, the fullness of the
presence of the Lord.
Paul writes to the Galatians that the Apostles’
fullness of joy is not the effect of pleasant
feelings that make them happy. It is an
overflowing joy that can only be experienced as
a fruit and gift of the Holy Spirit (cf. 5:22).
Receiving the joy of the Spirit is a grace.
Moreover, it is the only force that enables us
to preach the Gospel and to confess our faith in
the Lord. Faith means bearing witness to the joy
that the Lord gives to us. A joy such as this
cannot be the result of our own efforts.
Jesus told his disciples that he would send them
the Spirit, the Comforter, prior to his
departure. In this way, he also entrusted the
apostolic work of the Church to the Spirit for
all time, until his return. The mystery of the
Ascension, together with the outpouring of the
Spirit at Pentecost, indelibly marks the mission
of the Church: it is the work of the Holy Spirit
and not the consequence of our ideas and
projects. This is the feature that makes
missionary activity bear fruit and preserves it
from the presumption of self-sufficiency, much
less the temptation to commandeer Christ’s
flesh, ascended to heaven, for narrowly
“clerical” projects and aims.
When the ongoing work and efficacy of the Holy
Spirit is not appreciated in the Church’s
mission, it means that even the most carefully
chosen missionary language becomes like “words
of human wisdom” aimed at glorifying oneself or
concealing one’s own interior deserts.
The joy of the Gospel
Salvation is an encounter with Jesus, who loves
and forgives us by sending the Spirit who
comforts and defends us. Salvation is not the
consequence of our missionary initiatives nor of
our talking about the incarnation of the Word.
For each one of us, salvation can take place
only through the lens of an encounter with the
one who calls us. For this reason, the mystery
of predilection begins and can only begin with
an outburst of joy and gratitude. The joy of the
Gospel is that “great joy” of the poor women who
on Easter morning went to the tomb of Christ,
found it empty, then encountered the risen Jesus
and raced home to tell the others (cf. Mt
28:8-10). Only because we have been chosen and
singled out can we bear witness to the glory of
the risen Christ before the entire world.
In every human context witnesses are those who
vouch for what someone else has done. In this
sense, and only in this sense, can we be
witnesses of Christ and his Spirit. As described
in the conclusion of the Gospel of Mark, after
the Ascension the apostles and disciples “went
forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord
worked with them and confirmed the word through
accompanying signs” (16:20). By his Spirit,
Christ testifies to himself through the works
that he fulfils in and with us. As Saint
Augustine explains, the Church would not pray to
the Lord to ask that faith be given to those who
do not know Christ unless she believed that it
is God himself who directs and draws our wills
towards himself. The Church would not make her
children pray to the Lord to persevere in the
faith of Christ if she did not believe that it
is the Lord himself who possesses our hearts.
Indeed, if she asked him for these things, but
thought that she could give them to herself, it
would mean that all her prayers would be empty
words, rote formulas or platitudes imposed by
ecclesiastical custom rather than authentic
prayer (cf. On the Gift of Perseverance. To
Prosper and Hilary, 23, 63).
Unless we realize that faith is a gift of God,
even the prayers which the Church raises to God
are meaningless. Nor do they reflect a sincere
passion for the happiness and salvation of
others and for those who do not recognize the
risen Christ, however much time we may spend on
planning for the conversion of the world to
Christianity.
If we recognize that the Holy Spirit ignites and
preserves the faith in our hearts, everything
changes. Indeed, the Spirit enkindles and
enlivens the Church’s mission, bestowing all
those individual accents and styles that make
the proclamation of the Gospel and the
confession of the Christian faith something
different from all political, cultural,
psychological or religious forms of proselytism.
I considered many of these features of mission
in my Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium,
and here I shall recall a few of them.
Attractiveness. The mystery of the Redemption
entered into and continues to work in the world
through an attraction that can draw the hearts
of men and women because it is and appears more
alluring than the seductions which appeal to the
selfishness that is a result of sin. As Jesus
says in the Gospel of John, “No one can come to
me unless the Father who sent me draw him”
(6:44). The Church has always insisted that this
is the reason why we follow Jesus and proclaim
his Gospel: through the force of attraction
wrought by Christ himself and by his Spirit. The
Church, as Pope Benedict XVI has said, grows in
the world through attraction and not through
proselytism (cf. Homily, Mass for the
Inauguration of the Fifth General Conference of
the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean,
Aparecida, 13 May 2007: AAS 99 [2007], 437).
Saint Augustine says that Christ reveals himself
by attracting us. Moreover, he cites the poet
Virgil, who states that all are attracted to
what gives them pleasure. Jesus does not just
persuade our wills, but awakens our pleasure
(Commentary on the Gospel of John, 26, 4). If
one follows Jesus, happy to be attracted by him,
others will take notice. They may even be
astonished. The joy that radiates from those
attracted by Christ and by his Spirit is what
can make any missionary initiative fruitful.
Gratitude and Gratuitousness. The joy of
proclaiming the Gospel always shines brightly
against the backdrop of a grateful memory. The
Apostles never forgot the moment that Jesus
touched their hearts: “It was about four in the
afternoon” (Jn 1:39). The reality of the Church
shines forth whenever gratitude is manifested
within her by the free initiative of God, for
“he loved us” first (1 Jn 4:10) and “it is only
God who gives the growth” (1 Cor 3:7). The
loving predilection of God surprises us, and
surprise by its very nature cannot be owned or
imposed by us. One cannot be “necessarily
surprised”. Only in this way can the miracle of
gratuitousness, the gratuitous gift of self,
blossom. Nor can missionary fervour ever be
obtained as the result of reasoning or
calculation. To be “in a state of mission” is a
reflection of gratitude. It is the response of
one who by gratitude is made docile to the
Spirit and is therefore free. Without a
recognition of the predilection of the Lord, who
inspires gratitude in us, even knowledge of the
truth and of God himself would, presented as a
goal to be achieved by our own efforts, in fact
become a “letter that brings death” (cf. 2 Cor
3:6), as Saint Paul and Saint Augustine were the
first to point out. Only in the freedom of
gratitude can one truly know the Lord, whereas
it is useless and above all improper to insist
on presenting missionary activity and the
proclamation of the Gospel as if they were a
binding duty, a kind of “contractual obligation”
on the part of the baptized.
Humility. Since truth and faith, happiness and
salvation are not our own possessions, a goal
achieved by our own merits, then the Gospel of
Christ can be proclaimed with humility. One can
never think of serving the Church’s mission by
employing arrogance as individuals and through
bureaucracies, with the pride of one who
misunderstands even the gift of the sacraments
and the most authentic words of the Christian
faith, seeing them as merited rewards. One
cannot be humble out of good manners or the
desire to appear attractive. We are humble when
we follow Christ, who said to his disciples:
“Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of
heart” (Mt 11:29). Saint Augustine asks why,
after the resurrection, Jesus let himself be
seen by his disciples and not by those who had
crucified him, concluding that Jesus did not
want to give the impression of “challenging his
killers in some way. For Jesus, it was actually
more important to teach humility to his friends,
rather than uphold the truth before his enemies”
(Sermon 284, 6).
To facilitate, not to complicate. Another
authentic feature of missionary work is its
imitation of the patience of Jesus, who always
showed mercy to others as they continued to
grow. A small step forward in the midst of great
human limitations can be more pleasing before
God than the great strides made by those who go
through life without great difficulties. A
missionary heart recognizes the real condition
of real people, with their own limits, sins and
frailties in order to become “weak among the
weak” (cf. 1 Cor 9:22). “Going forth” on mission
to reach human peripheries does not mean
wandering without direction and meaning, like
those frustrated vendors who complain that
people are too unsophisticated to be interested
in their wares. Sometimes this means slowing our
pace in order to lead a person who is still by
the wayside. At times this means imitating the
father in the parable of the prodigal son, who
leaves the doors open and looks out each day
awaiting the return of his son (cf. Lk 15:20).
The Church is not a customs office and anyone
who participates in the mission of the Church is
called not to impose unnecessary burdens on
people already worn out or to require demanding
programmes of formation in order to enjoy what
the Lord gives easily, or to erect obstacles to
the will of Jesus, who prays for each of us and
wants to heal and save everyone.
Proximity to life “in progress”. Jesus met his
first disciples on the shore of the Sea of
Galilee while they were focused on their work.
He did not meet them at a convention, a training
workshop, or in the Temple. It has always been
the case that the proclamation of Jesus’
salvation reaches people right where they are
and just how they are in the midst of their
lives in progress. Amid the needs, hopes and
problems of everyday life we find the place
where one who has acknowledged the love of
Christ and received the gift of the Holy Spirit
can offer an account of his or her faith, hope,
and charity to those who ask for it. By
journeying together with others, alongside
everyone. Especially given the times in which we
live, this has nothing to do with designing
“specialized” training programmes, creating
parallel worlds, or constructing “slogans” that
merely echo our own thoughts and concerns. I
have elsewhere spoken of those in the Church who
proclaim loudly that “this is the hour of the
laity”, while in the meantime the clock seems to
have stopped.
The “sensus fidei” of the People of God. There
is one reality in the world that has a kind of
“feel” for the Holy Spirit and his workings. It
is the People of God, called and loved by Jesus,
who for their part continue to seek him amid the
difficulties of their lives. The People of God
beg for the gift of his Spirit: entrusting their
expectation to the simple words of their prayers
and never entertaining the presumption of their
own self-sufficiency. The holy People of God are
gathered together and anointed by the Lord, and
in virtue of this anointing are made infallible
“in credendo”, as the Tradition of the Church
teaches. The working of the Holy Spirit equips
the faithful People with an “instinct” of faith,
the sensus fidei, which helps them not to err
when believing the things of God, even if they
do not know the theological arguments and
formulas that define the gifts they experience.
The mystery of the pilgrim people, who with
their popular piety travel to shrines and
entrust themselves to Jesus, Mary and the
saints, draws from this and shows that it is
connatural to the free and gratuitous initiative
of God, apart from our pastoral planning.
A special care for the little ones and the poor.
Any missionary impulse, if derived from the Holy
Spirit, manifests predilection for the poor and
vulnerable as a sign and reflection of the
Lord’s own preference for them. Those directly
involved with the Church’s missionary
initiatives and structures should never justify
their lack of concern for the poor with the
excuse, widely used in particular ecclesiastical
circles, of having to concentrate their energies
on certain priorities for the mission. For the
Church, a preference for the poor is not
optional.
All these demands and approaches are part of the
Church’s mission, guided by the Holy Spirit.
Normally, in ecclesiastical language and speech,
the necessity of the Holy Spirit as the source
of the Church’s missionary activity is
acknowledged and affirmed. Yet this
acknowledgement can at times be reduced to a
type of “ceremonial nod” to the Most Holy
Trinity, a stock introductory preface to our
theological discussions and pastoral plans.
There are many situations in the Church where
the primacy of grace appears to be no more than
a theoretical concept or an abstract
formulation. Instead of leaving room for the
working of the Holy Spirit, many initiatives and
entities connected to the Church end up being
concerned only with themselves. Many
ecclesiastical establishments, at every level,
seem to be swallowed up by the obsession of
promoting themselves and their own initiatives,
as if that were the objective and goal of their
mission.
To this point, I have sought to reiterate
criteria and starting points for the missionary
activity of the Church that I explained in
greater detail in my Apostolic Exhortation
Evangelii Gaudium. I have done so because I
believe that for the PMS it is beneficial and
fruitful – and indeed urgently necessary – to
discuss these criteria and suggestions in this
stage of their journey.
The PMS at the Present Time.
Talents to develop, temptations and maladies to
avoid
Where should we look in considering the present
and future of the PMS? What are the dead weights
that risk burdening the journey?
The identity of the Pontifical Mission Societies
has certain hallmarks. In a manner of speaking,
some are genetic, whereas others have developed
through a lengthy historical process and are
often overlooked or taken for granted. Yet these
features can safeguard and enhance, above all in
the present time, the contribution of this
“network” to the universal mission to which the
entire Church is called.
The Missionary Societies arose spontaneouslyfrom
missionary fervour expressed by the faith of the
baptized. There has always been a deep
relationship between the Missionary Societies
and the infallible sensus fidei in credendoof
the faithful People of God.
The Missionary Societies, since their beginning,
have movedalong two “tracks”, or better along
two parallel channels, that in their simplicity
have always been close to the heart of the
People of God: those of prayer and of charity in
the form of almsgiving which “saves from death,
and purges all sin” (Tob 12:9), the “intense
love” that “covers a multitude of sins” (1 Pet
4:8). The founders of the Mission Societies,
beginning with Pauline Jaricot, did not invent
the prayers and works to which they entrusted
their hopes for the proclamation of the Gospel.
They simply drew them from the infinite treasury
of those familiar and habitual gestures of the
People of God on its pilgrimage through history.
The Mission Societies, which arose spontaneously
from the life of the People of God,in their
simple and concrete configuration were
recognized by the Church of Rome and her
Bishops, who in the last century sought to adopt
them as a unique expression of their own service
to the universal Church. Hence the title
“Pontifical” was conferred upon these Societies.
From that time on, the PMS have always shown
themselves to be an instrument of service in
support of the particular Churches in the work
of proclaiming the Gospel. In this same way, the
Pontifical Mission Societies have readily served
the Church as part of the universal ministry
exercised by the Pope and by the Church of Rome,
which “presides in charity”. In this way,
carrying out their work and without becoming
embroiled in complex theological disputes, the
PMS have countered the claims of those who, also
in ecclesiastical circles, wrongly contrast
charisms and institutions, reading their
relationship through the lens of a fallacious
“dialectic of principles”. For in the Church
even permanent structural elements, such as the
sacraments, the priesthood, and apostolic
succession are continuously to be recreated by
the Holy Spirit and are not simply realities at
the Church’s disposal (cf. Card. J. Ratzinger,
The Theological Locus of Ecclesial Movements,
Address given at the World Congress of Ecclesial
Movements, Rome, 27-29 May 1998).
The Missionary Societies, since their initial
diffusion, have been structured as a widespread
networkspread throughout the People of God,
wholly anchored and indeed “immanent” in the
network of preexisting institutions and
realities in the Church’s life, such as
dioceses, parishes, and religious communities.
The particular vocation of persons engaged in
the Missionary Societies has never been lived or
perceived as an alternative path, a relationship
“external” to the ordinary forms of the life of
the particular Churches. The summons to pray and
gather resources for the missions has always
been exercised as a service to ecclesial
communion.
The Missionary Societies, which in time became a
network spread throughout the world, mirror in
their own configuration the variety of accents,
situations, problems, and gifts that
characterize the life of the Church in the
various parts of the world. This plurality can
serve as a safeguard against ideological
homogenization and cultural unilateralism. In
this sense, the PMS reflect the mystery of the
universality of the Church, in which the
incessant work of the Holy Spirit creates
harmony from different voices, even as the
Bishop of Rome, in his service of charity,
exercised also through the Pontifical Mission
Societies, safeguards unity in faith.
All the characteristics described above can help
the Pontifical Mission Societies to avoid
certain pitfalls and pathologies on their
journey and that of many other ecclesial
institutions. Let me present a few of these.
Pitfalls to avoid
Self-absorption. Church organizations and
agencies, quite apart from the good intentions
of their individual members, sometimes end up
turning in on themselves, devoting energy and
attention primarily to promoting themselves and
to advertising their own initiatives. Some seem
to be dominated by an obsession to continually
redefine their own importance and their own
bailiwicks within the Church, under the guise of
relaunching their specific mission. In this way,
as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger once said, they can
foster the misleading idea that a person is
somehow more Christian if he or she is occupied
with intra-ecclesial structures, whereas in
reality nearly all the baptized are daily living
lives of faith, hope, and charity, without ever
participating in Church committees or concerned
for the latest news about ecclesiastical
politics (cf. Una compagnia sempre riformanda,
Speech at the IX Meeting in Rimini, 1 September
1990).
Control anxiety. Institutions and agencies
sometimes set out to help ecclesial communities
by employing the gifts generated in them by the
Holy Spirit, yet over time they presume to
exercise supremacy and control over the very
communities they are meant to serve. This
attitude is almost always accompanied by the
claim that they are exercising the role of
“overseers” called to determine the legitimacy
of other groups. They end up acting as if the
Church was a product of our own calculations,
plans, agreements and decisions.
Elitism. An elitist feeling, the unspoken notion
of belonging to an aristocracy, takes hold at
times among those who are part of groups and
organized institutions in the Church: a superior
class of specialists who strive to increase
their own influence in collusion or in
competition with other ecclesiastical elites,
and train their members according to secular
notions of activism or technical-professional
competence, but always with the main goal of
promoting their own oligarchic privileges.
Isolation from the people. The elitist
temptation in some organizations connected to
the Church can be accompanied at times by a
sentiment of superiority and of intolerance
towards the rest of the baptized, towards the
people of God who may attend parishes and visit
shrines, but are not “activists” busy in
Catholic organizations. The People of God is
viewed as an inert mass, always in need of being
awakened and mobilized through a
“consciousness-raising” consisting in arguments,
appeals and teachings. As if the certainty of
faith was the consequence of persuasive speech
or training methods.
Abstraction. Once they become self-absorbed,
institutions and entities connected to the
Church lose contact with reality and fall prey
to abstraction. They needlessly multiply
instances of strategic planning in order to
produce projects and guidelines that serve only
as means of self-promotion for those who come up
with them. They take problems and dissect them
in intellectual laboratories where everything
has been domesticated and is viewed through the
lens of their own ideology. Everything, even
references to the faith or verbal appeals to
Jesus and the Holy Spirit, once taken outside of
their proper context, can thus end up rigidified
and unreal.
Functionalism. Self-absorbed and elitist
organizations, even within the Church, often end
up staking everything on the imitation of
secular models of worldly efficiency, like those
rooted in competition, whether economic or
social. Opting for functionalism gives the
illusion of being able to “sort matters out” in
a balanced way, keeping things under control,
maximizing one’s own relevance, and improving
the everyday management of existing structures.
However, as I already said to you at our 2016
meeting, a Church afraid of entrusting herself
to the grace of Christ and focusing on the
efficiency of its bureaucracy is already dead,
even if structures and programmes that favour
the interest of “self-absorbed” clergy or lay
people linger for centuries.
Recommendations for the Journey
Looking at the present and towards the future,
and considering the resources needed for the PMS
to overcome the pitfalls of the journey and move
forward, I would like to offer a few suggestions
as an aid for your discernment. Since you have
undertaken your own process of re-evaluation of
the PMS, which you would like to be guided by
the thinking of the Pope, I offer for your
attention some general criteria and starting
points, without entering into details, not least
because different situations may require
adaptations and modifications.
1) To the best of your ability, and without
undue speculation about the future, preserve or
recover the role of the PMS as part of the
larger People of God from which they arose. It
would prove beneficial to seek a greater
“immersion” in the reality of people’s lives.
Following Jesus means emerging from our own
problems and concerns. It would be worthwhile to
enter into concrete circumstances and
conditions, while seeking to reintegrate the
capillary effect of actions and contacts of the
PMS within the greater network of Church
institutions (dioceses, parishes, communities,
and groups). By prioritizing your specific
presence in the People of God, with its bright
spots and difficulties, you can better elude the
pitfall of abstraction. One must provide answers
to real questions and not just formulate and
multiply proposals. Perhaps concrete contact
with real life situations, and not just
discussions in boardrooms or theoretical
analyses of our own internal dynamics, will
generate useful insights for changing and
improving operating procedures and adapting them
to different contexts and circumstances.
2) I suggest proceeding in such a way that the
essential structure of the PMS remains bound to
the practice of prayer and of gathering
resources for mission, in all its simplicity and
practicality. This would clearly demonstrate the
relationship of the PMS to the faith of the
People of God. With all necessary flexibility
and adaptations, this basic design of the PMS
should neither be forgotten nor distorted.
Asking the Lord to open hearts to the Gospel and
asking everyone to tangibly support missionary
work: these are simple and practical things that
everyone can readily do in this present time
when, even amid the scourge of this pandemic,
there is a great desire to encounter and remain
close to the heart of the Church’s life. So seek
new paths, new forms of service, but try not to
complicate what in reality is quite simple.
3) The PMS are and must be experienced as an
instrument of service for the mission of the
particular Churches, against the backdrop of the
mission of the universal Church. This is the
ever-precious contribution that the Societies
make to the spread of the Gospel. All of us are
called to nurture by means of love and
gratitude, as well as by our works, the seeds of
divine life that the Spirit of Christ causes to
blossom and grow where he wills, even in the
deserts.
Please, in your prayer ask above all that
the Lord make everyone better prepared to
recognize the signs of his activity, in order
then to reveal them to the whole world. Even
this can be helpful: to ask that, in the depths
of our own hearts, our prayer to the Holy Spirit
may not be reduced to a mere formality in our
meetings and homilies. It is not helpful to
theorize about super-strategies or mission “core
guidelines” as a means of reviving missionary
spirit or giving missionary patents to others.
If, in some cases, missionary fervour is fading,
it is a sign that faith itself is fading. In
such cases, the attempt to revive the flame by
strategies and speeches will end up only
weakening it all the more, causing the desert to
expand.
4) The service undertaken by the PMS naturally
brings its staff into contact with countless
realities, situations and events that are part
of the great ebb and flow of the life of the
Church on every continent. In this contact, we
may encounter numerous problems and forms of
inertia that can mark ecclesial life, but also
the gratuitous gifts of healing and consolation
that the Holy Spirit disseminates in daily life,
in what might be called the “middle class of
holiness”. Rejoice and savour these encounters
that you experience thanks to the work of the
PMS, and let yourselves be astonished by them. I
think of the reports of many miracles that
happen to children, who perhaps encounter Jesus
thanks to the initiatives proposed by the Holy
Childhood. Yours is a labour that can never be
reduced to an exclusively
bureaucratic-professional scope. When it comes
to mission, bureaucracies or functionaries
should never exist. Your gratitude can in turn
become a gift and witness for all. With the
means that you have at your disposal, and quite
naturally, you can recount the comforting story
of persons and communities in which the miracle
of faith gratuitously shines with hope and
charity.
5) Gratitude for the wonders worked by the Lord
among his chosen ones, the poor and the little
ones to whom he reveals those things hidden from
the wise (cf. Mt 11:25-26), can make it easier
for you too to avoid the pitfalls of
self-absorption and leave yourselves behind as
you follow Jesus. The very notion of a
self-centred missionary effort, which spends
time contemplating and celebrating its own
initiatives, would be absurd. Do not waste time
and resources, then, in looking at yourself in a
mirror, devising plans centred on internal
mechanisms, functionality and the efficiency of
your own bureaucracy. Look outside. Do not look
at yourselves in the mirror. Break every mirror
in the house! The criteria employed in
implementing programmes should aim not at
burdening the network of the PMS but at making
structures and procedures more flexible.
National Directors, for example, should be
working to identify potential successors, taking
as their sole criterion proposing persons with
great missionary zeal, not just members of their
own small group.
6) Regarding the collection of resources to help
the missions, I have already spoken during our
past gatherings about the risk of turning the
PMS into an NGO, where everything is devoted to
locating and appropriating funds. This depends
more on the attitude with which things are done
than the goals that are achieved. It can
certainly be advisable and even appropriate when
fundraising to use creativity and even updated
methods for seeking funding from potential and
worthy sources. However, if in some areas the
collection of donations lessens, even because of
the waning of Christian memory, the temptation
may arise to resolve the problem ourselves by
“covering up” the situation and gambling on some
better fundraising system developed by groups
specializing in large donors. Our pain at the
loss of faith and the reduction of resources
should not be covered up but rather placed in
the hands of the Lord. In any case, asking for
offerings for the missions should continue to be
directed first and foremost to the larger body
of the baptized, also through different ways of
taking up the collection for the missions
carried out in every country in October on the
occasion of World Mission Day. The Church
continues to advance thanks to the widow’s mite
and the contributions of innumerable people
healed and consoled by Jesus, who for this
reason, overflowing with gratitude, donate
whatever they have.
7) The use of the donations received is always
to be evaluated with an appropriate sensus
Ecclesiae regarding the distribution of funds in
support of structures and projects capable of
advancing the apostolic mission and the
preaching of the Gospel in various ways and in
diverse parts of the world. Attention should
always be paid to the most fundamental
necessities of communities while at the same
time avoiding a welfare culture, which instead
of assisting missionary zeal ends up making
hearts lukewarm and feeding phenomena of
parasitic dependency, also within the Church.
Your contribution should aim at giving concrete
answers to objective needs, without squandering
resources in initiatives marked by abstraction,
self-absorption or generated by clerical
narcissism. Do not yield to inferiority
complexes or the temptation to imitate those
super-functional organizations that collect
funds for good causes and then use a good
percentage of them to finance their own
bureaucracy and to publicize their brand name.
Even publicity can at times become a way of
promoting one’s own interests by showing how one
works for the poor and those in need.
8) As for the poor, you too must not forget
them. This was the recommendation at the Council
of Jerusalem that the apostles Peter, James and
John passed on to Paul, Barnabas and Titus, who
came to discuss their mission among the
uncircumcised: “Only, we were to be mindful of
the poor” (Gal 2:10). Following that
recommendation, Paul organized collections for
the benefit of the brethren of the Church of
Jerusalem (cf. 1 Cor 16:1). The preferential
option for the poor and the little ones has
always been present since the origins of the
mission of proclaiming the Gospel. Works of
spiritual and corporal charity on their behalf
are expressions of a “divine preference” that
serves as a constant challenge to the faith of
all Christians, who are called to have the same
attitude as that of Jesus (cf. Phil 2:5).
9) The PMS, in their worldwide network, reflect
the rich variety of the “people with a thousand
faces”, gathered together by the grace of Christ
and marked by missionary fervour. That zeal is
not always intense and lively in the same way
everywhere. Even so, the same urgency of
confessing Christ dead and resurrected finds
expression in a variety of accents and adapts to
diverse contexts. The revelation of the Gospel
is not identified with any one culture and when
it encounters new cultures that have not yet
received the Christian message, a specific
cultural form must not be imposed along with the
preaching of the Gospel. Today, also in the work
of the PMS, there is no need for extra baggage
but rather the effort to value differences and
relate them to the essentials of the faith we
share. Any attempt to standardize the form of
our message may obscure the universality of the
Christian faith, even promoting clichés and
slogans fashionable in certain circles and in
particular countries that are culturally and
politically dominant. In this regard, the
special relationship that unites the PMS to the
Pope and to the Church of Rome represents a
resource and a support for freedom from fleeting
fads, certain unilateral schools of thought or
the cultural homogenization associated with
neo-colonialism. These are phenomena that,
regrettably, are not absent from ecclesiastical
contexts.
10) The PMS are not an autonomous entity in the
Church, acting in a vacuum. Among their
distinctive features always to be cultivated and
renewed is the special bond uniting them to the
Bishop of the Church of Rome, which presides in
charity. It is comforting to know that this bond
manifests itself in a work carried out joyfully,
without seeking applause or staking claims. A
work that precisely in its gratuitousness is
intertwined with service to the Pope, the
servant of the servants of God. I would ask that
the distinctive sign of your closeness to the
Bishop of Rome be precisely this: the sharing of
the love of the Church, a reflection of her own
love for Christ, experienced and expressed
quietly, without pride or a concern for “turf
wars”. Daily efforts born of charity and the
mystery of gratuitousness, which support
countless persons who remain deeply thankful,
yet perhaps even unaware of whom to thank, since
they may never have heard of the PMS. The
mystery of charity, within the Church, works in
this way. We continue to advance together, even
amid trials, thanks to the gifts and the
consolations of the Lord. In the meantime, and
at every step, we joyfully acknowledge that all
of us are useless servants, beginning with
myself.
Conclusion
Move forward with enthusiasm! There is much to
do on the journey that awaits you. If there are
changes to make in procedures, it is good that
these point towards unburdening rather than
increasing the load, aiming at operational
flexibility and not producing more rigid
bureaucracies that involve the threat of
introversion. An excessive centralization,
rather than helping, can complicate missionary
outreach. Even a purely national organization of
initiatives can jeopardize the nature of the PMS
network, as well as the exchange of gifts
between the Churches and local communities lived
as the tangible fruit and sign of charity among
brothers and sisters in communion with the
Bishop of Rome.
In any event, always demand that every
consideration regarding the operational aspect
of the PMS be illuminated by the one thing
necessary: a spark of true love for the Church
as a reflection of love for Christ. Yours is a
service rendered to apostolic fervour, namely to
that impulse of Christian life which only the
Holy Spirit can bring about within the People of
God. Think about doing your work well, “as if
everything depended on you, while knowing that
everything in fact depends on God” (Saint
Ignatius of Loyola). As I already mentioned to
you in one of our encounters, imitate the ready
spirit of Mary. When she visited Elizabeth, Mary
did not do so on her own: she went as a servant
of the Lord Jesus, whom she carried in her womb.
She said nothing about herself, but simply
brought her Son and praised God. It was not
about her. She went as the servant of the One
who is the sole protagonist of missionary
activity. Nonetheless, she wasted no time, going
in haste and doing what was needed to look after
her kinswoman. She teaches us this same
readiness, the haste born of fidelity and
adoration.
May Our Lady watch over you and the Pontifical
Mission Societies, and may her Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, bless you. For before ascending to
heaven, he promised to be with us always, to the
end of time.
Given in Rome, at Saint John Lateran, the 21st
of May 2020, the Solemnity of the Ascension of
the Lord.
FRANCISCUS
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