Rome – From Pius XII’s appeal during wartime to the annual papal messages of Paul VI, John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis , World Mission Sunday, established in 1926, has provided an opportunity to remind the entire Church of her missionary vocation.
In the anthology of passages gathered here, taken from messages by various Pontiffs, mission is consistently intertwined with the pressing concerns of each age: peace, religious freedom and the challenges of modernity.
Pius XII, October 19, 1940: Peace as the Church’s mission
“Prayer is the weapon that wins God’s heart to pity and mercy; it is the offering of your lips, of your affection for Christ’s heralds, for the little sheep that have strayed from the fold, for the wretched, upon whom the storm of our age weighs so heavily and causes such anguish This is the kingdom of peace: peace in our souls with God, peace among brothersand sisters in the mutual exchange of affection, peace among peoples and nations through reconciliation and orderly harmony. The farther humanity is from this peace at the present time; the more the awareness of our common natural and supernatural values threatens to give way in many hearts to opposing sentiments, the more uplifting and inspiring your effective commitment to the Catholic missionary ideal will be. For peace in the world, too, is a mission of the Church; in the tranquillity of human order lies her life, the winning over and salvation of souls, the spread of the good of the faith, the triumph over evil, leading ultimately to the unshakable peace of eternity.”
https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/it/speeches/1940/documents/hf_p-xii_spe_19401019_we-are.html
Paul VI, May 25, 1969: The Council establishes the relationship between religious freedom and the apostolic duty
“The very existence of this central and official organization in the Church is a reply to a difficulty that is currently brought up in certain sectors, and which would threaten missionary activity with stagnation: that is, an emphasis on the Conciliar proclamation of religious liberty, as if this would favour an agnostic irenicism and authorize indiffentism concerning religious truth and the apostolic command, to which the plan of salvation is linked. Missionary endeavour, some say, is no longer necessary. The existence of Pontifical Societies that are expressly designed to promote and maintain such missionary endeavour contradicts this theory today as before, for religious liberty, as proclaimed by the Council, is meant to ensure that religion will be free from undue interference on the part of any purely secular power, and also from wrong social and political exclusiveness in the religious field; it is not meant to weaken our apostolic duty but rather to provide civic conditions in which missionary activity may be exercised, with due respect for freedom of conscience, while preaching the one true message of salvation that comes from religion. This is a basically traditional position in the Church, but one which the Council has renewed and clarified.”
https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/it/messages/missions/documents/hf_p-vi_mes_19690525_world-day-for-missions-1969.html
John Paul II, June 11, 2000: Mission does not depend on human strength
“The Church’s entire mission and, in a special way, the mission ad gentes, needs apostles who are willing to persevere to the end, faithful to the mission they have received, following the same path travelled by Christ, ‘the path of poverty and obedience, of service and self – sacrifice to the death…’ .
May the witnesses of the faith whom we have commemorated be a model and an inspiration for all Christians, so that the proclamation of Christ may be perceived as the responsibility of every Christian. In this endeavour, the Christian is not alone. It is true that there is no proportion between human strength and the greatness of the mission. The most common and authentic experience is that of feeling unworthy of such a task. But it is also true that ‘our competence comes from God, and He has qualified us as ministers of a new covenant.’ .
The Lord does not abandon those whom he calls to his service. ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age’ . The Lord’s continuous presence in his Church, especially in the Word and the Sacraments, is the guarantee of the effectiveness of her mission.
Today this mission is carried out through men and women who have experienced salvation in their own fragility and weakness and bear witness to it before their brothers and sisters, conscious that we are all called to the same fullness of life Two thousand years after the beginning of the mission, vast geographical, cultural, human and social areas still remain where Christ and his Gospel have not yet penetrated. How can we fail to hear the appeal arising from this situation? Those who have experienced the joy of encountering Christ cannot keep it locked within themselves; they must radiate it.”
https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/it/messages/missions/documents/hf_jp-ii_mes_20000627_world-day-for-missions-2000.html
Benedict XVI, April 29, 2006: The fruitfulness of mission in seeking not one’s own interests
“On the eve of his Passion, Jesus left as his testament to the disciples gathered in the Upper Room to celebrate Passover the “new commandment of love – mandatum novum”: “This is my commandment: love one another” . The fraternal love that the Lord asks of his ‘friends’ has its source in the paternal love of God. The Apostle John observes: “Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God” .
Therefore, to love according to God, one must live in Him and by Him: God is man’s first ‘home’, and only those who dwell in Him burn with a fire of divine charity capable of ‘setting the world alight’. Is this not the mission of the Church in every age? It is therefore not difficult to understand that authentic missionary zeal, the primary commitment of the ecclesial community, is linked to fidelity to divine love. This is true of every individual Christian, every local community, the particular Churches and the entire People of God.
It is precisely from an awareness of this shared mission that Christ’s disciples draw their generous readiness to undertake works of human and spiritual promotion which bear witness, as the beloved John Paul II wrote in the Encyclical Redemptoris missio, “the soul of all missionary activity: love, which has been and remains the driving force of mission, and is also “the sole criterion for judging what is to be done or not done, changed or not changed. It is the principle which must direct every action, and end to which that action must be directed. When we act with a view to charity, or are inspired by charity, nothing is unseemly and everything is good” .
To be missionaries, then, means to love God with all our being, even to giving our lives for Him, if necessary. How many priests, men and women religious, and lay people, even in our own times, have borne supreme witness to their love for Him through martyrdom!
To be missionaries means to bend down, like the Good Samaritan, to the needs of everyone, especially the poorest and most needy, because those who love with the heart of Christ seek not their own interests, but solely the glory of the Father and the good of their neighbour.
Here lies the secret of the apostolic fruitfulness of missionary activity, which transcends borders and cultures, reaches peoples and spreads to the ends of the earth.”
https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/it/messages/missions/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20060429_world-mission-day-2006.html
Francis, January 25, 2024: rediscovering the eschatological and eucharistic dimension of the first Christians
“We know that among the first Christians missionary zeal had a powerful eschatological dimension. They sensed the urgency of the preaching of the Gospel. Today too it is important to maintain this perspective, since it helps us to evangelize with the joy of those who know that “the Lord is near” and with the hope of those who are pressing forward towards the goal, when all of us will be with Christ at his wedding feast in the kingdom of God. While the world sets before us the various “banquets” of consumerism, selfish comfort, the accumulation of wealth and individualism, the Gospel calls everyone to the divine banquet, marked by joy, sharing, justice and fraternity in communion with God and with others.
This fullness of life, which is Christ’s gift, is anticipated even now in the banquet of the Eucharist, which the Church celebrates at the Lord’s command in memory of him. The invitation to the eschatological banquet that we bring to everyone in our mission of evangelization is intrinsically linked to the invitation to the Eucharistic table, where the Lord feeds us with his word and with his Body and Blood.
As Benedict XVI taught: “Every Eucharistic celebration sacramentally accomplishes the eschatological gathering of the People of God. For us, the Eucharistic banquet is a real foretaste of the final banquet foretold by the prophets and described by the New Testament as ‘the marriage-feast of the Lamb’ , to be celebrated in the joy of the communion of the saints” .
Consequently, all of us are called to experience more intensely every Eucharist, in all its dimensions, and particularly its eschatological and missionary dimensions.”
https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/messages/missions/documents/20240125-giornata-missionaria.html
Leo XIV, January 25, 2026: Unity as a condition for mission
“The Church’s primary missionary responsibility is to renew and sustain spiritual and fraternal unity among its members. In many situations, we encounter conflicts, polarization, misunderstandings and a lack of mutual trust. When this occurs even within our communities, it undermines our witness. The evangelizing mission that Christ entrusted to his disciples requires, above all, hearts that are reconciled and eager for communion. Consequently, it is important to intensify ecumenical efforts with all Christian Churches
Missionary unity should not be understood as uniformity, but rather as the convergence of different charisms for the same purpose, namely to make Christ’s love visible and to invite everyone to encounter him. Evangelization is achieved when local communities cooperate with one another and when cultural, spiritual and liturgical differences are fully and harmoniously expressed in the same faith. I therefore encourage all institutions in the Church to strengthen their sense of ecclesial missionary communion and to develop creative and concrete ways of cooperating with one another for and in the mission
If unity is the condition of mission, love is its essence. The Good News that we are sent to proclaim to the world is not an abstract ideal; it is the Gospel of God’s faithful love, which became flesh in the face and life of Jesus Christ.”
https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/it/messages/mission/documents/20260125-giornata-missionaria.html
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