The new context for evangelization and the new missionary paradigm require a renewed response on our part as members of the Congregation of the Mission.
Throughout our history, many provinces of the Congregation have responded to the Church’s call to send missionaries to areas where the Gospel had not yet been preached. Along with members of other missionary congregations, our confreres have helped establish the local Church in many parts of the globe. Some provinces have long histories of supporting already constituted local Churches by sending missionaries and material assistance.
Even though local Churches now exist in almost every part of the globe, many still have significant need of personnel, finances and professional expertise. The dialogue between provinces sponsoring missions and the local Churches about their needs and about our capacity to respond to them is an ongoing one.
Superiors General have often appealed to our provinces and confreres to respond to missionary appeals. Very many have done so generously.
What?
As members of the Congregation of the Mission, we seek to respond to those needs in fidelity to the Vincentian charism of evangelizing the poor.
Article 12 of our Constitutions spells out quite clearly some other criteria which need to be taken into account:
– clear preference for apostolates among the poor,
– attention to the realities of present-day society,
– sharing in the condition of the poor,
– a true sense of the communal nature of our apostolic work,
– a readiness to go anywhere in the world,
– ongoing conversion.
Where?
Alaska
Tunisia
Chad
Bolivia
Angola
Papua New Guinea
Chile
Brazil
Salomon Islands.
Tunisia
Chad
Bolivia
Angola
Papua New Guinea
Chile
Brazil
Salomon Islands.
Why?
Through the new international missions we have experienced belonging to a worldwide community in a new and deeper way. In many provinces the international missions have enkindled a new interest in the foreign missions. The members of the international teams have given eloquent testimony to the universality of the Church and the possibility of building a fraternal community that crosses cultural boundaries.