Mission Sunday: TPMS invites Catholics to hope, faith, action

By Lorena Leonardi

"As we embark on this journey together, we ask you not to be mere spectators but active participants in the Church's mission. It is more than an invitation and a call to be part of something greater. This is our moment: together, we can bring hope, faith, and action to every corner of the earth."

This is the message from the video distributed by the Pontifical Mission Societies (TPMS) to mark the 98th World Mission Sunday 2024, celebrated on Sunday, October 20, with the theme "Go and invite everyone to the banquet" (cf. Mt 22:9).

Celebrating community

"The banquet," explains the narrator of the video, produced with the collaboration of TPMS branches worldwide, "is a celebration of community, an open dialogue of faith, and a testament to our commitment to welcome, first and foremost, our brothers and sisters on the margins of society."

The three-minute video presents images of the work done by missionaries around the globe, featuring their faces and voices, along with the national directors and laypeople involved in TPMS.

A special guest, Cardinal Soane Patita Paini Mafi, Bishop of Tonga, also makes an appearance. Each of the brief interventions focus on the words "go," "invite," "proclaim the Gospel," "celebrate," "share," "justice," "joy," and "fraternity."

At the forefront of re-evangelization

The president of the Pontifical Mission Societies, Archbishop Emilio Nappa, said it is every Christian's mission to proclaim the Gospel.

"Everything we do serves to make this possible," he said. "It is the Gospel that guides us, and the task of the Pontifical Mission Societies is to raise awareness of the mission while also gathering spiritual fruits and financial sacrifices to redistribute according to the needs of local Churches."

This calling, added the Archbishop, "also pushes us to the frontier of re-evangelization in Churches of ancient Christianity, especially in the West, where the number of Christians is decreasing."

Evangelization, the president of TPMS concluded, is truly "immersing oneself in another's culture to discover together the values of the Gospel. The Pontifical Mission Societies are a great treasure, also because of their synodal nature and tradition, with which they continue to serve the universal Church, in the name of and on behalf of the Pope."