FUTURE MISSION MESSAGES TO BE PUBLISHED ON THE LORD'S BAPTISM

VATICAN CITY, FEB 21, 2003 (VIS) - Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe today presented the Pope's Message for World Mission Sunday 2003, and announced that John Paul II has asked that this Message, which in the past was published on Pentecost Sunday, would henceforth be made public on the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord.

He also noted that "World Mission Sunday 2003, which falls on Sunday, October 19, coincides with the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, the beatification of Mother Teresa of Calcutta and the closing of the Year of the Rosary."

Cardinal Sepe, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, was joined in the Holy See Press Office by Archbishop Robert Sarah, congregation secretary, Archbishop Patabendige Don Albert Malcolm Ranjith, adjunct secretary, and Fr. Massimo Cenci, under-secretary.

He said that this date change was to give dioceses, episcopal conferences, families of religious and missionary institutes time to study the Pope's message and to "integrate it harmoniously" into their work and specific charism. He especially noted that "the mission 'ad gentes' should not be lived in an exceptional or extraordinary way" because "it is, in fact a key part of the itinerary of every Christian community. The Church is missionary by her very nature."

This was the command, he said, that Christ gave the Apostles 2000 years ago: "'Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit'." He added that "today, at the start of the 21st century, the Catholic Church starts out again with trust on a new part of the road to meet the world, ... a road riddled with difficulties."

The prefect spoke briefly on the content of the Message, pointing to its three objectives: "A more contemplative Church, a holier Church, a more missionary Church."

He then focussed at length on statistics regarding the presence, work and personnel of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, noting that 1,075 ecclesiastical circumscriptions are entrusted to this dicastery, accounting for almost 39 percent of the circumscriptions in the Church worldwide. Of these, 478 are in Africa, 85 in America, 453 in Asia, 14 in Europe and 56 in Oceania.

Cardinal Sepe gave further statistics:
- apostolic personnel includes 85,000 priests (52,000 diocesan, 33,000 religious), 28 non-ordained religious, 450,000 sisters, 1,650,000 catechists.
- 280 interdiocesan major seminaries (65,000 seminarians) and 110 minor seminaries (85,000 seminarians).
- priestly ordinations have averaged 1,900 per year for the last decade.
- 42,000 schools, 1,600 hospitals, 6,000 dispensaries, 780 leprosariums.
- Six universities, colleges and institutes in Rome linked to this Congregation, including the Pontifical Urban University (the only one in the world exclusively for training missionaries) and the Pontifical Urban College, with 140 seminarians.

"The most significant and important number," he said in closing, "is the one regarding the missionaries (bishops, priests, religious and lay people) who have given witness by sacrificing their lives. According to statistics the number of such witnesses in the last ten years is about 1,000. This is without doubt an incomplete figure because it refers only to a few countries, to proven cases and ones about which there was definite news."

Archbishop Sarah spoke about the congregation's work in Africa and Oceania, calling these continents "Christ's new homelands." Archbishop Ranjith addressed the missionary situation in Asia, and Fr. Cenci, a PIME missionary, spoke about their work in America.

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