Abidjan, 30 October, 2019 / 12:01 am (ACI Africa).
As the Extraordinary Missionary Month of October 2019 (EMMOCT2019) commissioned by Pope Francis under the theme “baptized and sent” ends this Thursday, a Church leader in the West African nation of Ivory Coast has encouraged a continued life of witnessing the values of the gospel beyond this month so that the mission of Jesus Christ is made “part of our daily lives.”
“This missionary awakening must not stop in the month of October decreed by Pope Francis," the National Director of Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) in Ivory Coast, Fr. Jean Noela Gossou has been quoted as saying during the closing Mass for EMMOCT2019 in his country Sunday, October 27.
"Mission must be part of our daily lives to extend the mission to all levels and areas of activity in the world," Fr. Gossou added while addressing the congregation that gathered at St. Augustine Cathedral, Yamoussoukro.
Pope Francis dedicated October 2019 to “the Church’s evangelizing activity ad gentes (to the nations)” during the 2017 World Mission Sunday where he asked the whole Church to “live an extraordinary time of missionary activity.”
In the spirit of EMMOCT2019, the Church in Ivory Coast through the National Directorate of PMS organized trainings on the activities of the Church as well as a competition on poetry, drama and singing, among other catechetical activities that have been described as “a mass catechesis.”
