Pope encourages Missio National Directors

Canon James Cronin meets Pope Francis

Missio National Directors from across the world recently gathered in Rome for their annual meeting. Amongst those who gathered at a special audience with Pope Francis on Friday was Mgr Canon James Cronin, National Director of Missio in England and Wales.

Missio-England and Wales is part of the Pontifical Mission Societies worldwide network and is thus the Catholic Church's official charity for overseas mission. In a number of countries, including England and Wales, the Pontifical Mission Societies are known as Missio.

The Holy Father greeted the assembly, thanking them because they help him "keep evangelization, the paradigm of every act of the Church alive."

"The Pontifical Mission Societies are entirely relevant and even more necessary today because there are so many peoples who have still not known and met Christ and it is urgent to find new ways that God's grace might touch the heart of each man and each woman and bring them to him."

The Holy Father noted that the Pontifical Mission Societies are called 'pontifical' because they are at the Bishop of Rome's direct disposal, with the specific purpose of acting so that the precious gift of the Gospel might be offered to all.

He said: "Certainly, the mission that awaits us is difficult but, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, it becomes an exciting mission. This is what we should always draw courage from knowing that the strength of evangelization comes from God, belongs to him. We are called to open ourselves more and more to the Holy Spirit's work and to be instruments of God's mercy, his tenderness, his love for every man and woman, and especially for the poor, the excluded and the marginalized. And this holds for every Christian, for the whole Church. It isn't an optional mission but an essential one."

The Pope repeated the invitation that Paul VI had given them 50 years before: "to zealously safeguard the universal scope of the Pontifical Mission Societies" and he urged them to make sure that they "might continue, in the path of their centuries-old tradition, to give life and formation to churches, opening them to the broad dimension of the mission of evangelization."

The Pontifical Mission Societies also properly belong to the concerns of the bishops so that they might be rooted in the life of the particular churches. Therefore, "they must truly become the privileged instrument of education toward a universal missionary spirit and an ever greater communion between churches to proclaim the Gospel to the world. Faced with the temptations communities have to become wrapped up in themselves, worried about their own problems, your job is to recall the 'missio ad gentes', to prophetically witness that the life of the Church and the churches is mission, and it is a universal mission."

Pope Francis asked them to give "special attention to the young churches, which often operate in a climate of difficulty, discrimination, and persecution, so that they might be sustained and assisted in witnessing the Gospel in word and in deed."

He concluded his address by encouraging the directors to continue their work "so that the local Churches might ever more generously take on their share of responsibility for the Church's universal mission."

During the annual meeting, Pope Francis became the first pontiff to launch a mobile app.

The free app, developed by Little i Apps, is called MISSIO, after the Pope’s own mission charity. It provides users with the Pope’s daily homily, as well as news from Rome and around the world. Sources include FIDES (the international news agency of the Pontifical Mission Societies) and the Vatican’s own news site. There will also be videos available from the Catholic News Service and News.va

Mgr Canon James Cronin, National Director of Missio in England and Wales, said: “This new app opens up new and exciting digital spaces for evangelisation and helps us, as a universal Church of 1.2 billion, keep up to date with news from our brothers and sisters around the world.”

The new app, designed for iPhone, iPad and Android, is available for free at the iTunes App Store and Google Play. For more information, please visit Little i Apps online at www.littleiapps.com or contact Patrick Leinen, developer and co-founder, at marketing@littleiapps.com

To see a film of the meeting go to: www.romereports.com/palio/pope-to-pontifical-missionary-works-your-work-is-still-relevant-english-10052.html#.UZlbRI5c_zI

Source VIS