Each summer, parishes in our Diocese and throughout the United States are visited for one weekend by a missionary speaker.
The last time that happened in the Diocese of Harrisburg was the summer of 2019. Then COVID suspended Mass attendance for several months and forced missionary travel to cancel well into 2021.
During that time, our pastors were most generous in reading letters from the missionaries who would normally have given the appeal in person. And, thanks to the generosity of parishioners, the Diocese of Harrisburg was able to distribute $107,700 in 2020 and $171,621 in 2021 to missionaries for their ministries.
Welcoming a missionary priest to the parish and listening with an open heart to his story allows each of us to hear the voice of Jesus challenging us to care for the “least ones” among our brothers and sisters in mission lands. We are invited to help these organizations carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth with our prayers and financial support.
The stories the missionary priests share increase our awareness of the Church’s missionary activity and help promote vocations to the missions in the hearts of our young people.
The missionary priests visiting our parishes this summer represent various dioceses from Africa, India, Southeast Asia, the islands of the Pacific, and Latin America.
The weekend visits are sponsored by the Diocesan Office of Pontifical Missions under the direction of Father Robert F. Sharman. The Societies support the Church in mission dioceses worldwide until they become self-sufficient. This year marks the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith by Pauline Jaricot, who was beatified this past May.
For more information, visit www.hbgdiocese.org/missions.
