A new missionary movement of all the baptized. This is the dream that the Pope speaks of in his message for World Mission Day 2024, and it is to that dream that Father Dinh Anh Nhue Nguyen OFM Conv, Secretary General of the Pontifical Missionary Union (PUM), referred at the conclusion of his address to the American Missionary Congress. Father Nguyen focused on the role of the Spirit as the protagonist of mission, referring to Gospel texts and the messages of recent World Mission Days. “In the Pope’s Message for World Mission Day 2022, the culmination of everything is the third and final point entitled ‘Receive strength from the Holy Spirit’ – Always let yourself be strengthened and guided by the Spirit. Here the Pope proposes to reread the entire history of the Church’s mission in a spiritual key, that is, literally in the key of the Holy Spirit,” said the General Secretary of PUM. Everything came into being under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, in particular the founding of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide and the four missionary Societies. In this sense, the Pope’s words are concise, but theologically and spiritually profound and should be remembered in their entirety: “It is in the light of the action of the Holy Spirit that we also want to read the missionary anniversaries of this 2022. The establishment of the Sacred Congregation de propaganda fide in 1622 was motivated by the desire to promote the missionary mandate in new territories. A providential intuition!” 

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Father Nguyen, again referring to the Pope’s message for World Mission Day 2022, also highlighted the passage in which the Pontiff speaks of the role of the Holy Spirit as the One who inspires even simple men and women for extraordinary missions, citing specifically the founders of the four Pontifical Mission Societies. In concluding his speech, Father Nguyen addressed the theme of the Spirit and Christian witness at the end of time: “We know that the missionary impulse of the early Christians had a strong eschatological dimension. They felt the urgency to proclaim the Gospel. Even today it is important to keep this perspective in mind, because it helps us evangelize with the joy of those who know that ‘the Lord is near’ and with the hope of those who are oriented towards the goal, when we will all be with Christ at his wedding banquet in the Kingdom of God”.

Source: https://www.ppoomm.va/en/notizie-eventi/notizie/news-2024/25-11-2024.html