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Holy Father, brothers and sisters in the Lord,
When I was a student in the late 60’s at Propaganda Fidei College, at Genicolom, we were urged to return to our homes and countries to evangelize, to be missionaries. I don't know how we understand the missions in the Church today, or according to what it was given in the “Instrumentum Laboris”.
Last year in the first session, we did convene to have conversation with the Holy Spirit to know our identity and how to be faithful to the Lord Jesus as one body and one spirit in Him. But now in this session, we have to know: Jesus doesn't belong to us only, Jesus is the Savior of the whole world. We have the duty, the mission to go and proclaim Him as a Savior, the Risen Lord, in countries where He wasn't known till now, or in countries where he has been betrayed by his own Christian community.
Therefore, I would like to remind all of us that a missionary Church has to be open to our dear sisters, the women. They have been also mothers of the Church, as Saint Ignatius was the father of the Church. They have a huge responsibility to carry on the mission of the Church.
We have to be open to the poor in many countries, not only by providing them with food, but to help them rediscover their human personality.
We have to be open to the youth, especially these days.
And therefore, we have also to be open to the Eastern Churches, your sisters’ Churches. Help them particularly in Ukraine, and in the Middle East, to keep going on and to be rooted in their homelands.
Will you please help us to survive?! Because if we cannot proclaim Jesus by words, we can always witness to Him by our charity. Remembering in Antioch where the first disciples of Christ known to be Christians by their loving each other.
Thank you!
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