‘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.
Another chance to say ‘I do’
Bishop Peter Jugis celebrates the Wedding Anniversary Mass in 2019. File photoCHARLOTTE — Catholics celebrating milestone wedding anniversaries this year – or at any time throughout the pandemic – are cordially invited to join Bishop Peter Jugis for a special Wedding Anniversary Mass in their honor.
The Mass, set for 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 23, at St. Ann Church in Charlotte, honors couples who have been married for 25 years or more.
Sponsored by the Diocese of Charlotte’s new Office of Family Life, the event includes a reception with the bishop after Mass. Couples who celebrated their 25th and 50th wedding anniversaries in 2020, 2021 and 2022 will receive a special certificate commemorating their anniversary.
Register at www.charlottediocese.org/bishops-yearly-anniversary-mass-for-couples.
St. Ann Church is located at 3635 Park Road.
— SueAnn Howell
Can’t attend?
Here is a Prayer for Married Couples you can pray to mark a couple’s jubilee wedding anniversary if unable to attend the special Mass on Oct. 23:
Almighty and eternal God,
You blessed the union of married couples so that they might reflect the union of Christ with His Church: Look with kindness on them. Renew their marriage covenant, increase Your love in them, and strengthen their bond of peace so that, with their children, they may always rejoice in the gift of Your blessing.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.