Catholic missionary orders must make the Church an “open house” which
is “for all, ready to welcome and accompany” everyone, Pope Francis
has told a missionary order.
“Today, every land is a ‘mission land,’ every dimension of human life
is mission territory awaiting the proclamation of the Gospel,” the Pope
said on October 7 during a meeting with delegates to the general
congregation of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
The delegates were led by Fr Louis Lougen, a native of Buffalo, New
York, whom they had re-elected superior general on October 1. After 17
years in Brazil, Fr Lougen returned to the United States as a pastor and
novice master, and he was named provincial in 2005. He was elected
superior general of the order in 2010 for his first six-year term.
Pope Francis told the Oblates that the number of those needing to
hear the good news of God’s love, mercy and offer of salvation is
expanding, embracing the “new poor, men and women with Christ’s face who
ask for help, consolation and hope in the most desperate life
situations.”
Noting the coincidence of the Year of Mercy and the Oblates’
celebration of the 200th anniversary of their founding by St Eugene de
Mazenod, the Pope told the missionaries, “May mercy always be the heart
of your mission, of your evangelising commitment in the world today.”
Sharing their founder’s love for the Church, Oblates must reach out
to the “new poor” and “bring them with you to encounter Christ the
redeemer,” the Pope told the missionaries. “It is necessary to seek
appropriate, evangelical and courageous responses to the questions of
the men and women of our time. To do this, one must look to the past
with gratitude, live the present with passion and embrace the future
with hope without letting yourself be discouraged by the difficulties
you encounter in your mission.”