Pope reminds missionaries: put Christ, not aid programs, at center of work

June 05, 2015

Missionary work should always be centered on Jesus Christ and on the work of evangelization, Pope Francis said in a June 5 address to members of the Pontifical Missionary Societies.

“Please, with all your plans and programs, do not cut Jesus Christ out of missionary work---which is his work,” the Pope said.

Repeating a theme that he has sounded frequently, the Pontiff exhorted the missionaries, “be careful not to give in to the temptation to become a non-governmental organization, an office for the distribution of ordinary and extraordinary aid.” He warned: “Money can help, but it can also become the ruin of the mission.”

An excessive attention to programs can also be deadly to the missionary spirit, the Holy Father continued. Condemning a “functional” approach, he said that “a Church that is reduced to pursuing efficiency of the party apparatus at all costs is already dead."

Instead, the Pope urged missionaries to devote themselves to the spread of the Gospel message, relying on “prayer, evangelical courage and by bearing witness to the beatitudes." He argued that without the “restlessness and anxiety” of the impulse to spread the Christian faith, missionaries cannot effectively fulfill their task.

With that Christ-centered approach, however, the Pope said that missionaries “are instruments of communion between churches, promoting and implementing the sharing of people and economic resources.”

 

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Further information:

• Pope Francis: Mission must avoid excessive functionalism (Vatican Radio)
• Pontifical Missionary Societies: opening up to geographic and human boundaries (VIS)