hat
does it mean to be in Mission? What
does it mean to be missionary? Who?
When? Where? The many voices for the meaning of Mission today searched to blend
into one at the Mission Congress which happened in Chicago from Sept. 28 to Oct.
1.
Over 700 missionaries gathered there: bishops, priests, sisters, brothers, lay men and women, young and old, diverse in age and experience. And we prayed, and listened to each other. We slowly came to appreciate the poles that support Mission: proclamation, conversion, catechesis, prayer, social transformation, dialogue with other religious traditions, and with and within our own tradition, and mutual exchange between the churches. Tensions in the past has caused strains, misunderstandings, and competitive priorities the Holy Spirit has called us to turn into something creative and united.
The first National Mission Congress held in the US was also in Chicago in 1909. The US was then still “mission territory and a receiving church,” welcoming missionaries from Europe to staff parishes, schools and church outreach. But even then, over 10,000 people took part in that congress, and there a call to mission beyond ourselves was perceived. Hence many mission communities, like our own Xaverian missionaries, came to the US to assist in this growing awareness. Other Mission Congresses have taken place through the past century, such as Baltimore, (1983), the Latin American Bishops Conference at Puebla, Mexico (1979), the National Irish Missionary Congress (1979), the International Mission Congress of Manila, the Philippines (1979)… In 1975, Paul VI issued the momentous encyclical “On the Evangelization of Peoples.” Many were the voices that spoke of the meaning of mission.
For the Congress 2000, the US Catholic Mission Association invited various mission bodies and those that responded were the Catholic Network of Volunteer Services, the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, the Holy Childhood Association, the Leadership Conference of Women religious, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on World Mission, and the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. Five years of preparation, begun with a pamphlet entitled “A New Springtime for Mission,” brought out our best. The Congress participants wove their own stories and experiences together which allowed the presence and spirit of Jesus, the first missionary, to be re-birthed in our midst. He is present, alive and life-giving in every mission story.
Archbishop Marcello Zago, secretary to the Vatican’s Office of World Mission, made it a point to be present at the Congress from start to finish, because he had come as a listener and a learner. And as he listened and learned, he came to feel that the Congress would have a larger impact on the US church than we ourselves were willing to think. He challenged the US church to an explicit witness of faith and evangelization, to share that Mission Spirit in our parishes. He called on us to make it a real movement. Mission as proclamation, catechesis, dialogue, mutuality, prayer and social transformation has to be grounded and first expressed in a parish experience. There are many not yet evangelized right here in the USA, A “both-here-and-abroad” approach to mission would enrich us all. To be missionaries is “an attitude of presence to the other,” not only by what we do, but by our prayer and who we are. The call to deepen a Mission Spirituality for all in our US Church was Archbishop Zago’s parting wish.
(From Xaverian Mission Newsletter)