Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Evangelizing is a "great mission", especially in this time when "a humanism that excludes God is spreading".  It is "to illuminate the new problems that arise with the light of the Gospel", it is a "critical assessment of the global transformations that are fundamentally changing the culture of mankind ", and it is "willing to give one’s life for the name of Christ and love of humanity".  Persecution “is also proof of the authenticity of our apostolic mission." An " immense mission” of which Benedict XVI today stated some key characteristics, addressing those who are the operators of mission, participants at the general meeting of the Superior Council of the Pontifical Mission Societies.

"Preaching the Gospel - in the words of the Pope - is an invaluable service which the Church can offer all humanity which moves through history. From dioceses around the world, you are a lively and eloquent sign of the catholicity of the Church, embodied in the universal breath of the apostolic mission, 'to the ends of the earth' (Acts 1:8), 'until the end of the age'(Matt. 28:20), so that no people or environment are deprived of light and grace of Christ. This is the meaning, the historical trajectory, the mission and hope of the Church".

"It 'a great mission, that of evangelization, especially in our time, in which humanity suffers from a lack of reflective thought and wisdom (cf. Caritas in Veritate, 19. 31) and spreads a humanism that excludes God (cf. ibid. 78). This is why it is ever more urgent and necessary to illuminate these new problems that emerge with the light of the Gospel which does not change. "

"The mission to proclaim the Gospel to all nations is a critical judgment on the global transformations that are fundamentally changing the culture of humanity. The Church is present and active on the anthropological and geographical borders, bringing a message that goes down in history, which proclaims the inalienable values of the person, with the announcement and witness of God’s salvific plan made visible and active in Christ . Preaching the Gospel is the call to freedom of God's children, to build a more just and fraternal society. Who participates in the mission of Christ must inevitably face tribulations, conflicts and suffering, because they clash with the resistance and powers of this world. And we, like the Apostle Paul, we only have the word of Christ and his Cross as our weapons (cf. 1 Cor 1.22 to 25). The mission ad gentes demands that the Church and the missionaries accept the consequences of their own ministry: evangelical poverty, which gives them the freedom to preach the Gospel with boldness and courage, nonviolence, for which they respond to evil with good (cf. Mt 5.38-42, Rom 12.17-21), the willingness to give one’s life for the name of Christ and love of humanity".