World
Mission Sunday, which takes place this year on 20 October, aims to
remind Catholics to recommit themselves to the missionary activities of
the Church through prayer and sacrifice.
Organized by the Pontifical
Society for the Propagation of the Faith, World Mission Sunday is
celebrated each year on second-to-last Sunday of October.
In May of
this year, Pope Francis issued a message for World Mission Sunday, in
which he writes: “[I]t is necessary to proclaim courageously and in
every situation, the Gospel of Christ, a message of hope,
reconciliation, communion, a proclamation of God's closeness, his mercy,
his salvation, and a proclamation that the power of God’s love is able
to overcome the darkness of evil and guide us on the path of goodness.”
Speaking
with Vatican Radio, the Secretary of the Congregation for the
Evangelization of Peoples, Archbishop Savio Tai Fai Hon, said that the
focus of the Holy Father's message is that “faith is something very
precious to us.”
This gift of faith, he said, “consists in the truth that God really loves us.”
“This love of God pushes us to give our adequate response, and also asks us to share our faith with other brothers and sisters.”
Sharing
the faith, the archbishop said, “is not only a question of preaching,
but also of witness… in some concrete activity, concrete acts, like
offering our daily prayer.”
Archbishop Hon also said it means
offering something for the Pope so that he, “as successor of Saint
Peter, may share, may show his care for other churches.”