Pope Francis: missions should facilitate the encounter with Christ

Missionary work is a cooperation with the Holy Spirit to bring people to Christ; it does not benefit from complicated programs or imaginative advertising campaigns, said Pope Francis Thursday.

In a message to the Pontifical Mission Societies on May 21, the pope said that "it has always been the case that the announcement of Jesus' salvation reaches people just where they are and just as they are in the midst of their ongoing lives".

"Especially given the times we live in," he noted, "this has nothing to do with designing" specialized "training programs, creating parallel worlds or building" slogans "that simply echo our thoughts and worries. "

He urged the Pontifical Mission Societies, a worldwide group of Catholic missionary societies under the jurisdiction of the pope, "to facilitate, not complicate" their missionary work.

"We must provide answers to real questions and not just formulate and multiply the proposals," he advised. "Perhaps a concrete contact with real life situations, and not just discussions in boardrooms or theoretical analyzes of our internal dynamics, will generate useful ideas for changing and improving operating procedures ..."

He also stressed that "the Church is not a customs office".

"Anyone who participates in the mission of the Church is called not to impose unnecessary burdens on already worn-out people or to request demanding training programs to easily enjoy what the Lord gives or to erect obstacles to the will of Jesus, who prays for each of us and wants heal and save everyone, ”he said.

Francis said that during the coronavirus pandemic “there is a great desire to meet and remain close to the heart of the life of the Church. So look for new paths, new forms of service, but try not to complicate what is actually quite simple. "

The Pontifical Mission Societies help support more than 1.000 dioceses, mainly in Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Amazon.

In his nine-page message to the group, Pope Francis made several recommendations and warned of pitfalls to avoid in their missionary service, especially the temptation to absorb themselves.

Despite the good intentions of individuals, Church organizations sometimes end up devoting much of their time and energy to promoting themselves and their initiatives, he said. It becomes an obsession "to continually redefine its importance and its bailiffs within the Church, under the pretext of relaunching their specific mission".

Referring to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's speech at the ninth meeting in Rimini in 1990, Pope Francis said that "it can favor the misleading idea that a person is somehow more Christian if he is occupied with intra-ecclesial structures, while in reality almost all baptized are daily lives of faith, hope and charity, without ever participating in the committees of the Church or worried about the latest news on ecclesiastical politics ".

"Don't waste time and resources, therefore, looking in the mirror ... break every mirror in the house!" he appealed.

He also advised them to keep prayer to the Holy Spirit at the center of their mission, so that prayer "cannot be reduced to a mere formality in our meetings and homilies."

"It is not useful to theorize the mission's super strategies or" fundamental guidelines "as a means of reviving the missionary spirit or giving missionary patents to others," he said. "If, in some cases, missionary fervor is fading, it is a sign that faith itself is fading."

In such cases, he continued, "strategies and speeches" will not be effective.

"Asking the Lord to open hearts to the Gospel and asking everyone to concretely support missionary work: they are simple and practical things that everyone can easily do ..."

The pope also stressed the importance of taking care of the poor. There is no excuse, he said: "For the Church, a preference for the poor is not optional."

On the subject of donations, Francis told companies not to trust bigger and better fundraising systems. If they are dismayed by a diminishing collection dish, they should put that pain into the Lord's hands.

Missions should avoid becoming like NGOs by focusing on funding, he said. They should seek offerings for all the baptized, recognizing the consolation of Jesus also "at the widow's mite".

Francis argued that the funds they receive should be used to advance the mission of the Church and to support the essential and objective needs of the communities, "without squandering resources in initiatives marked by abstraction, self-absorption or generated by clerical narcissism".

"Do not give in to inferiority complexes or the temptation to imitate those super-functional organizations that raise funds for good causes and therefore use a good percentage to finance their bureaucracy and advertise their brand," he advised.

"A missionary heart recognizes the true condition of real people, with their limits, sins and frailties in order to become" weak among the weak "", encouraged the Pope.

“Sometimes this means slowing down our pace to guide a person who is still on the sidelines. Sometimes this means imitating the father in the parable of the prodigal son, who leaves the doors open and looks out every day waiting for the return of his son