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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PONTIFICAL MISSION SOCIETIES IN U.S. INAUGURATE NEW WEB SITE

VATICAN CITY, FEB 21, 2003 (VIS) - Over 150 diocesan directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States were welcomed this morning to the Vatican by the Pope who expressed his pleasure at joining them as they meet in Rome and inaugurate a new website.

He told them that "the growth of the Internet in recent years provides an unprecedented opportunity for expanding the Church's missionary outreach, since it has become a primary source of information and communication for so many of our contemporaries, especially the young. It is my hope that the new Pontifical Mission Societies website will awaken in the Catholics of the United States a deeper appreciation of the Church's universal missionary mandate."

"I trust that the new site," he said, "will draw many people to a deeper faith in Christ, lead to an increase in missionary vocations and call forth a greater commitment to the proclamation of the Gospel 'ad gentes' and the new evangelization of traditionally Christian countries."

John Paul II, in concluding, expressed the hope that the work of the Societies "be a true leaven to missionary zeal among the Catholics of the United States, and yield abundant fruit for the spread of Christ's kingdom in the new frontiers now opening up before us."

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AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, FEB 21, 2003 (VIS) - Today the Holy Father received in audience the following prelates on their "ad limina" visit:

- Archbishop Jose Antonio Peteiro Freire of Tanger, Morocco.

- Archbishop Vincent Landel of Rabat, Morocco.

- Archbishop-Bishop Fouad Twal of Tunis, Tunisia.

- Rev. Fr. Acacio Valbuena Rodriguez, O.M.I., apostolic prefect in the Western Sahara.

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MARY AND THE CHURCH'S MISSION IN THE YEAR OF THE ROSARY

VATICAN CITY, FEB 21, 2003 (VIS) - Pope John Paul's Message for World Mission Sunday 2003 was made public today in French, English, Spanish and Italian. Dedicated to "Mary and the Mission of the Church in the Year of the Rosary," this annual papal Message is dated January 12, 2003, the Baptism of Our Lord. Following are excerpts:

"From the beginning, I wished to place my pontificate under Mary's special protection. Further, I have often asked the entire community of believers to relive the experience of the Upper Room, where the disciples devoted themselves to prayer, together with ... Mary, the Mother of Jesus."

"The Church becomes more conscious that she is 'mother' as Mary is. As I pointed out in the Bull 'Incarnationis mysterium', on the occasion of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, the Church is 'the cradle in which Mary places Jesus and entrusts him to the adoration and contemplation of all peoples'."

Mary and the Mission of the Church in the Year of the Rosary

"Last October, when I entered the 25th year of my Petrine ministry, I announced a special Year, almost as a spiritual continuation of the Jubilee Year, to be dedicated to the rediscovery of the prayer of the Rosary, so dear to Christian tradition. It is a year to be lived under the gaze of the One who, in accord with God's mysterious plan, with her 'yes', made possible humanity's salvation and who continues from Heaven to protect those who turn to her, especially during the difficult moments of their lives."

"At the school of the Blessed Virgin and following her example, every community will be better able to have its own 'contemplative' and 'missionary' activity emerge."

"If the World Mission Sunday, which takes place right at the end of the special Marian year, is well prepared, it will give a more generous thrust to this commitment of the ecclesial community. Confident recourse to Mary, with the daily recitation of the Rosary and the meditation of the mysteries of the life of Christ, will emphasize that the Church's mission must be sustained first of all by prayer."

A More Contemplative Church: The Face of Christ Contemplated

"Contemplating the face of Christ leads to a deeper, interior familiarity with his mystery. Contemplating Jesus with the eyes of faith impels one to penetrate the mystery of the Trinitarian God. Jesus says: 'He who has seen me has seen the Father'. With the Rosary we advance on this mystical journey 'in union with, and at the school of, his Most Holy Mother'. Indeed, Mary makes herself our teacher and our guide."

"Let us always look to Mary, an unequalled model. All the words of the Gospel find an extraordinary echo in her soul. Mary is the contemplative 'memory' of the Church, who lives with the desire to be deeply united with her Bridegroom, in order to have an ever greater impact on our society. How do we react to the great problems, the innocent suffering, the injustices perpetrated with arrogant insolence? At the docile school of Mary, who is our Mother, believers learn to recognize in the apparent 'silence of God' the Word who resounds in the silence for our salvation.

A Holier Church: The Face of Christ Imitated and Loved

"Through baptism all believers are called to holiness. ... Holiness and mission are inseparable aspects of the vocation of every baptized person. The commitment to become more holy is closely linked to that of spreading the message of salvation."
"If all the mysteries of the Rosary constitute an important school of holiness and evangelization, the mysteries of light bring into relief special aspects of our Gospel 'sequela'. The Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan recalls that the baptized are chosen to become 'sons in the Son'. At the wedding feast of Cana, Mary invites the servants to listen obediently to the Word of the Lord: 'Do whatever he tells you'. The proclamation of the Kingdom and the invitation to conversion are a clear mandate to everyone to pursue the path of holiness. In the Transfiguration of Jesus, the baptized person experiences the joy that awaits him. In meditating upon the institution of the Eucharist, he returns often to the Upper Room, where the divine Master left his disciples his most precious treasure: himself in the Sacrament of the altar."

A More Missionary Church: The Face of Christ Proclaimed

"At no other time has the Church had so many possibilities of proclaiming Jesus, thanks to the development of the means of social communication. For this reason, the Church today is called to make the Face of her Bridegroom shine forth with her more radiant holiness."

"Under the watchful gaze of her Mother, the ecclesial community flourishes like a family revived by the powerful outpouring of the Spirit, and, accepting the challenges of the new evangelization, contemplates the merciful face of Jesus in the brothers and sisters, especially the poor and needy, in those far from the faith and the Gospel."

"It is necessary to prepare capable and holy evangelizers. The fervour of the apostles must not be allowed to weaken, especially in regard to the mission 'ad gentes'. The Rosary, if it is fully rediscovered and appreciated, is an ordinary yet fruitful pedagogical and spiritual tool to form the People of God to work in the vast field of apostolic action."

A Precise Mandate

"The task of missionary animation must continue to be a serious, consistent duty of every baptized person and of every ecclesial community. The Pontifical Missionary Societies, of course, have a specific and particular role and I thank them for generously carrying it out."

"I would like to suggest to all of you that you intensify your praying of the Rosary, privately and in community, to obtain from the Lord those graces that the Church and humanity especially need. I invite everyone to do this: children, adults, young and old, families, parishes and religious communities.

"Among the many intentions, I would not wish to forget that of peace. War and injustice have their origins in the 'divided' heart. 'Anyone who assimilates the mystery of Christ ' and this is clearly the goal of the Rosary ' learns the secret of peace and makes it his life's project'."

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IN MEMORIAM

VATICAN CITY, FEB, 21, 2003 - In recent weeks the following prelates died:

- Bishop Adolfo Roque Esteban Arana, emeritus of Villa de la Concepcion del Rio Cuarto, Argentina, on January 8 at age 86.

- Archbishop Giuseppe Carata, emeritus of Trani-Barletta-Bisceglie, Italy on January 25 at age 87.

- Bishop Joseph Robert Crowley, former auxiliary of Fort Wayne-South Bend, U.S.A. on February 4 at age 88.

- Bishop Camilo Faresin S.D.B., emeritus of Guiratinga, Brazil on January 25 at age 88.

- Archbishop Carlos Galan, emeritus of La Plata, Argentina on January 24 at age 77.

- Bishop Philip James Benedict Harvey, former auxiliary of Westminster, England, on February 2 at age 87.

- Bishop James Robert Hoffman, of Toledo, U.S.A., on February 8 at age 70.

- Bishop Francisco Jose Iturriza Guillen, S.D.B., emeritus of Coro, Venezuela, on January 14 at age 99.

- Archbishop Carlos Alberto Etchandy Gimeno Navarro, of Niteroi, Brazil, on February 2 at age 71.

- Bishop Antonio Palenzuela Velazquez, emeritus of Segovia, Spain, on January 8 at age 83.
- Bishopo Decio Pereira, of Santo Andre, Brazil, on February 5 at age 62.

- Bishop Herve Renaudin, of Pontoise, France, on January 18 at age 61.

- Bishop Raul Omar Rossi, of San Martin, Argentina on February 2 at age 64.

- Bishop Michael Rusnak C.SsR., emeritus of Sts. Cyril and Methodius of Toronto, Canada, on January 16 at age 81.

- Bishop Edward Eugeniusz Samsel, of Elk, Poland on January 17 at age 63.

- Bishop Narbal Da Costa Stencel, former auxiliar of Sao Sebastiao do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on January 31 at age 77.

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