October 25, 2010 // Uncategorized

Pope calls on Catholics to transform world through missionary outreach

Todays Catholic

By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — All Catholics are called to spread the good news of salvation and support the church’s missionary mandate, Pope Benedict XVI said on World Mission Sunday.

“The missionary task is not to revolutionize the world, but to transform it, obtaining strength from Jesus Christ,” he said during his Angelus address in St. Peter’s Square Oct. 24.

To proclaim the Gospel, Christians are called to strengthen the bonds of communion with other Christians and to seek “constant personal and communal conversion,” he said.

World Mission Sunday “reminds us that ecclesial communion is the key to our task of proclaiming the Gospel,” he said.

The pope also called on people to pray for all those who have generously dedicated their lives to missionary work, often amid “great difficulties.”

In his written message for World Mission Sunday, the pope said every Catholic has an obligation to participate in the church’s missionary outreach in their own families and communities.

The faithful need to support foreign missions through prayer and concrete help by donating to the churches in missionary lands and to the pontifical missionary societies, which fund the training of priests and catechists and the education of children, he wrote.

Every year, the Society for the Propagation of the Faith receives financial requests to fund thousands of projects around the world.

During this year’s general assembly, the society allocated the following financial contributions: more than $17.2 million to projects in Africa; more than $10.7 million to Asia; more than $2 million to the Americas; nearly $1.5 million to Oceania; and nearly $1.2 million to Europe, the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, said Oct. 24.

The Holy Childhood Association allocated more than $18 million for 2010, the newspaper said.