Francis issues a video message to launch the extraordinary missionary month October 2019. "Reaching the peripheries – the human, cultural, and religious settings still foreign to the Gospel: this is what we call the “missio ad gentes".
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "Today, a new impulse to the Church’s missionary activity is needed to face the challenge of proclaiming Jesus and his death and resurrection” says Pope Francis in the video message for the October prayer intention.
The video was released today, the first day of the extraordinary missionary month October 2019, which has the theme "Baptized and sent: the Church of Christ on Mission in the world".
The message continues "reaching the peripheries – the human, cultural, and religious settings still foreign to the Gospel: this is what we call the “missio ad gentes”. We must also remember that the heart of the Church’s mission is prayer. In this Extraordinary Missionary Month, let us pray that the Holy Spirit may engender a new missionary “spring” for all those baptized and sent by Christ’s Church”.
In giving the announcement of the Extraordinary Month, at the Angelus of 22 October 2017, Francis said he wanted it "with the aim of fostering ardour in the Church’s ‘ad gentes’ evangelizing activity".
The Pope asked all the faithful to "truly cherish the proclamation of the Gospel and the conversion of their communities into missionary and evangelizing realities" so that "love for the mission increases, which" is a passion for Jesus but, at the same time, it is a passion for his people "" as Saint John Paul II stated.
Francis recalled that November 30, 2019 marks "the centenary of the promulgation of the Apostolic Letter "Maximum illud", with which Benedict XV wished to give new impetus to the missionary responsibility of proclaiming the Gospel.