‘You shall be my witnesses’
CHARLOTTE — Catholics around the world will participate in World Mission Sunday the weekend of Oct. 23, uniting as one community of faith in support of our brothers and sisters in Christ who are living in situations of poverty, violence and oppression.
World Mission Sunday is a global effort to support the work of missionaries and, through a special second collection to the Pontifical Mission Societies, provide for the building up of more than 1,000 local churches in Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands and parts of Latin America and Europe.
Father Patrick Cahill, pastor of St. Eugene Church in Asheville, has served as the mission office director for the Diocese of Charlotte since 2014.
“I’ve learned that the needs are endless,” he said. “That does not give us an excuse to be complacent or turn away. Rather, we embrace the needs of the Church and give willingly and happily.
“It’s a blessing for us to be able to be a part of orphanages in Hyderabad (India), cathedrals in Buea (Cameroon), and health clinics in Lima (Peru),” he said. “World Mission Sunday reminds me how blessed we are to be Catholics and to be united in a global communion of prayer and sacrifice.”
Pope Pius XI instituted Mission Sunday with the first worldwide collection taking place in October 1927.
Pope Francis reiterated the Church’s support in January, prescribing this year’s theme for World Mission Sunday: “You shall be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8).
“Every Christian is called to be a missionary and witness to Christ,” he said. “And the Church, the community of Christ’s disciples, has no other mission than to evangelize the world, bearing witness to Christ. The identity of the Church is to evangelize.”
The pope also reminded the faithful of two important anniversaries for the life and mission of the Church: the 400th anniversary of the foundation of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide, now referred to as the Evangelization of the People, and the 200th anniversary of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
Pope Francis expressed his dream to see a “completely missionary Church, and a new era of missionary activity among Christian communities.”
— SueAnn Howell
Learn more
At www.onefamilyinmission.org: Get more information about the Pontifical Mission Societies, which funds the work of missionaries to provide food, education, and medical care to the most vulnerable communities in the pope’s missions.