Vatican City, 24 May, 2025 / 9:30 pm (ACI Africa).
Pope Leo XIV delivered an address to the Pontifical Mission Societies on Thursday thanking its members for living the Church’s call to evangelize to all nations with a spirit of communion and universality in union with the pope.
Approximately 120 national directors connected to the Vatican’s four missionary bodies — the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, the Society of the Holy Childhood, the Society of St. Peter the Apostle, and the Missionary Union — and 20 members of the Dicastery for Evangelization met with the Holy Father on the first day of their general assembly taking place in Rome from May 22–28.
“As societies committed to sharing in the missionary mandate of the pope and the college of bishops, you are called to cultivate and further promote within your members the vision of the Church as the communion of believers, enlivened by the Holy Spirit, who enables us to enter into the perfect communion and harmony of the blessed Trinity,” the pontiff said to those present at the morning meeting.
“This dimension of our Christian life and mission is close to my heart and is reflected in the words of St. Augustine that I chose for my episcopal service and now for my papal ministry: ‘In Illo uno unum’ — Christ is our savior and in him we are one, a family of God, beyond the rich variety of our languages, cultures, and experiences,” he added.
