The priest at the Mass we attended this morning is diocesan coordinator of the Pontifical Missions Societies – he preached his usual succinct homily, and this line jumped out:
"If you could read the hundreds of appeals I receive from missionaries all over the world – asking for help with their work, and even for the basic necessities of life – you couldn’t help but give generously."
Short, direct, and effective.
The Pope today, during the Angelus:
The pope continued: “Mission starts from the heart: when one pauses to pray before the Crucifix, with eyes turned towards the piercing that cost so dear, one cannot help experiencing within the joy of knowing one is loved and the desire to love and to become an instrument of mercy and reconciliation. This is what happened, 800 years ago, to the young Francis of Assisi, in the chapel of San Damiano, which had fallen into neglect. From the top of the Cross, now kept in the Basilica of St Clare, Francis heard Jesus telling him: ‘Go, repair my house which, as you see, is in ruins.’ That ‘house’ was first of all his own life, to be ‘repaired’ through a real conversion; it was the Church, not the building made of bricks, but of living people, always in need of purification; it was all of mankind, in who God loves to dwell.”
He said: “Mission always starts out from the heart transformed by the love of God, as testified to by countless stories of saints and martyrs, who in different ways gave their life for the service of the Gospel. Mission is therefore a place where there is room for all: for those committed to implementing the Kingdom of God in their families; for those who undertake their profession in a Christian spirit; for those who consecrate themselves totally to the Lord; for those who follow Jesus, the Good Shepherd, in ordained ministry with the People of God; for those who, specifically, take off to proclaim Christ to those who do not know him yet. The Most Blessed Virgin helps us to live with renewed momentum the joy and courage of mission, each in the place where Providence has put him.”
The Pontifical Mission Societies – USA site.
The FIDES news service – the news agency for the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
Aid to the Church in Need – a group and website you should check out frequently, as they provide frequent updates on current projects and news updates on activities all over the world.
Over the past week, the Asian Mission Congress has been held in northern Thailand, and AsiaNews has been covering it – via Fr. Bernardo Cervellera, the director of AsiaNews.
Thailand’s reputation as a place of hospitality is another important reason for holding the congress here. Tourism has opened the country’s doors and not one has had to face problems coming in. Only two Pakistani Catholics from a delegation of 13 have not received a visa because their names resemble those of wanted al-Qaeda members. For this reason they have had to undergo a more thorough background check and wait longer.
The case of China is different. Officially, no bishop or believer from the pro-Communist China Church will attend. “In all these months we have waited and tried to get an answer. But nothing came,” said Fr Mario Saturnino Dias, who is Indian and the AMC general coordinator.
Church members in Hong Kong said that after the recent unlawful nominations, controls over the official Church have become stricter and contacts with the universal Church have been “discouraged”.
Still it might be possible that someone might arrive from China by some other means, or secretly. “We might find out more about the suffering ot the Church in mainland China from the representatives from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macao”, Father Dias said.
The Eastern Churches from the Middle East will also be absent, perhaps because of their very difficult situation. None the less, three Lebanese delegates will be present. They are: Mgr Antoine Nabil Andari, Maronite bishop of Jounieh; Fr Paul Karam, director of the Pontifical Societies; and Jessica Abu Haidar, a lay missionary.
The reports are interesting because they are not uncritical of the goings-on at the Congress. It’s mild criticism, usually in the form of Fr. Cervellera pointing out what was not said.
Together with the delegates, bishops and cardinals, today’s closing mass was also attended by hundreds of families from tribes in northern Thailand, Karen, Lahu, Miao, and Akka, in their picturesque costumes. A momentous wave of conversions is currently under way in northern Thailand, to the extent that the diocese of Chiang Mai is obliged to open at least one church every month and to organize activities of prayer and for Catechumens. This sign of fruitful evangelization was an encouragement to experience the closing day as an invitation and a duty to “go and tell everyone” that Jesus is Lord. The message recalled the disciples of Emmaus and the apostles who after meeting the Risen One, immediately set out to proclaim the news with “hearts on fire”. In these days, however, in a fashion typical of the documents of bishops and theologians of the FABC, the proclamation of the dead and risen Christ has been swiftly absorbed into “three-fold dialogue” with peoples, religions and cultures”, leaving little room for explicit proclamations of faith. The bishop of Imus (Philippines), told AsiaNews that anyhow this Congress served to emphasize “daily proclamation, from person to person”, which is much more effective than a public proclamation in environments where the Church is in a minority, and where often there is not even any awareness about who Jesus Christ is.
The lingering impression is that “preaching of the Cross” (as St Paul defined proclamation) is somewhat on the margins of the theological reflections of the FABC. Throughout these days, the terms “darkness”, “difficulty”, appear to have been preferred over the word “cross”. The final message (a full two-page document) features the term “cross” only once, when it mentions the disciples of Jesus “carrying the cross”, as one of many ways of living out mission.
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