VATICAN CITY, 17 MAY 2008 (VIS) - Today in the Vatican, Benedict XVI received 150 representatives of the Pontifical Missionary Works (POM), a group of organisations at the service of the Pope and bishops "to put into effect the missionary mandate to evangelise people unto the ends of the earth". The POM is currently celebrating its plenary assembly.
Having greeted Cardinal Ivan Dias, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, the Pope began his remarks by recalling how the POM "was an important tool in the hands of my predecessors, who elevated it to the rank of 'Pontifical' and urged bishops to establish it in their own dioceses". He also reminded his listeners that Vatican Council II "had delved deeply into the nature and mission of particular Churches, recognising their full dignity and missionary responsibility.
"The mission", the Pope added, "is a task and duty of all Churches, which ... share staff and resources in order to achieve it. ... It is a mission of communion. To counter the seeds of the fragmentation of humanity, which daily experience shows to be so deep-rooted in mankind because of sin, the local Church opposes the unifying power of the Body of Christ".
"Thanks to the ideas it has developed over these decades, the Pontifical Missionary Works has become part of ... the new paradigms of evangelisation, and of the ecclesiological model of communion between Churches. Clearly the POM is Pontifical but it is, by right, also episcopal, in as much as it is an instrument in the hands of bishops to achieve Christ's missionary mandate".
As the Church prepares to commemorate the 2000th anniversary of the birth of St. Paul, Benedict XVI affirmed that the Apostle "understood on the road to Damascus, then experienced in the course of his later ministry, that redemption and mission are acts of love. It was love of Christ that impelled him to follow the roads of the Roman empire as a herald ... of the Gospel. ... It is love that must impel us to announce to all mankind, frankly and courageously, the truth that saves. ... Mankind awaits Christ".
The Holy Father concluded: "Jesus' words: 'go therefore and make disciples of all nations' ... still represent an obligation for the whole Church and for each individual member of Christ's faithful. This apostolic commitment is a duty and an indispensable right, an expression of religious freedom which has its corresponding ethical-social and ethical-political dimensions. The Pontifical Missionary Works is called to make the 'Missio ad Gentes' the model for all pastoral activity".
AC/MISSION/PONTIFICAL MISSIONARY WORKS VIS 20080519 (440)
Having greeted Cardinal Ivan Dias, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, the Pope began his remarks by recalling how the POM "was an important tool in the hands of my predecessors, who elevated it to the rank of 'Pontifical' and urged bishops to establish it in their own dioceses". He also reminded his listeners that Vatican Council II "had delved deeply into the nature and mission of particular Churches, recognising their full dignity and missionary responsibility.
"The mission", the Pope added, "is a task and duty of all Churches, which ... share staff and resources in order to achieve it. ... It is a mission of communion. To counter the seeds of the fragmentation of humanity, which daily experience shows to be so deep-rooted in mankind because of sin, the local Church opposes the unifying power of the Body of Christ".
"Thanks to the ideas it has developed over these decades, the Pontifical Missionary Works has become part of ... the new paradigms of evangelisation, and of the ecclesiological model of communion between Churches. Clearly the POM is Pontifical but it is, by right, also episcopal, in as much as it is an instrument in the hands of bishops to achieve Christ's missionary mandate".
As the Church prepares to commemorate the 2000th anniversary of the birth of St. Paul, Benedict XVI affirmed that the Apostle "understood on the road to Damascus, then experienced in the course of his later ministry, that redemption and mission are acts of love. It was love of Christ that impelled him to follow the roads of the Roman empire as a herald ... of the Gospel. ... It is love that must impel us to announce to all mankind, frankly and courageously, the truth that saves. ... Mankind awaits Christ".
The Holy Father concluded: "Jesus' words: 'go therefore and make disciples of all nations' ... still represent an obligation for the whole Church and for each individual member of Christ's faithful. This apostolic commitment is a duty and an indispensable right, an expression of religious freedom which has its corresponding ethical-social and ethical-political dimensions. The Pontifical Missionary Works is called to make the 'Missio ad Gentes' the model for all pastoral activity".
AC/MISSION/PONTIFICAL MISSIONARY WORKS VIS 20080519 (440)
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