Vatican City – “Missionary Union, the Second Vatican Council, and the Pontificate of Pope Leo XIV” is the title of the initiative taking place on Friday, January 16 , at the Pontifical Urban College on the occasion of the liturgical commemoration and anniversary of the birth of Blessed Paolo Manna . Organized by the Pontifical Mission Societies in collaboration with the Urban College, the event is intended as a moment of reflection and dialogue.
Father Paolo Manna, a missionary of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions , founded the Missionary Union of the Clergy in 1916. In 1956, it became a pontifical Society and took the name Pontifical Missionary Union .
The Society will thus celebrate its 110th anniversary in 2026. The event in honor of Father Manna has become an annual tradition, commemorating the Blessed’s missionary zeal and his human and spiritual journey, which was not without difficulties, physical suffering, and dark moments. At the age of 22, this journey led him to Burma , where he sowed the seeds of the Gospel among the Ghekkú tribe .
His poor health eventually prevented him from returning to the local clergy as a missionary, but this did not diminish his passion for missionary work, which he expressed primarily through preaching and the use of the press. Over time, the main goal of the Society he founded became clear: to rekindle the missionary zeal of bishops, priests, and laity and to remind them of the Church’s primary task: the evangelization of the whole world. This intuition is well expressed in his motto, “The whole Church for the whole world.”
Thus, in 1916, with the approval of Pope Benedict XV, the “Missionary Union of the Clergy” was founded. Thus, the 110th anniversary celebrations of the founding of the PUM described by Saint Paul VI as “the soul of the other Pontifical Mission Societies,” and the centenary of the celebration of the first World Mission Sunday, will be the focus of the initiative on Friday, January 16, dedicated to Blessed Paolo Manna and the Missionary Union he founded, with a view to the future.
The theme of the meeting will be introduced by Father Dinh Anh Nhue Nguyen, OFMconv, Secretary General of the PUM. This will be followed by a reflection from Father Vito del Prete of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, former Secretary General of the PUM , who will trace the insights and suggestions of Paolo Manna as expressed in the documents of the Second Vatican Council. The initiative concludes with a presentation by Father Valerio Bersano, Secretary of the PUM’s Italian Direction , who will speak about the activities of the Missionary Union in Italy, focusing in particular on those already undertaken and those planned during the pontificate of Pope Leo XIV. The event, which can also be followed via Zoom using the invitation link, will be moderated by Father Dinh Anh Nhue Nguyen, who explains: “On the occasion of this important anniversary, we do not want to celebrate ourselves, but rather renew our enthusiasm for Christ and for the mission of evangelization in the world that he entrusted to his disciples.” And he concludes: “Thus we begin this Year of Grace, in which, together with the National Directions of the Pontifical Mission Societies, we seek to intensify missionary formation and animation activities through various initiatives at all levels: international, national, regional, and diocesan. Within this solemn context, we also reflect on our own renewal and invite all others who wish to do so to join the Pontifical Mission Union as active members, following in the footsteps of many bishops, priests, and religious over these 110 years . The idea is that everyone feels a member of a universal and ‘Union’ open to all in the evangelizing mission of the Church. This also corresponds to the spirit of the motto chosen by Pope Leo XIV for this year’s 100th World Mission Sunday: ‘One in Christ, united in mission.’”
Link correlati :POSTER
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.