Dear Friends of the Missions,
On the weekend of February 2, we will have a special opportunity to share in the mission of God’s people through participation in the Membership appeal of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
The theme this year is One Family in Mission. It calls to mind the essential nature of the Church as the people of God on mission to bring Christ to the whole world. Essentially, the Church exists not to aid those in material need, but to bring all people into communion with God, through Christ, and into the fullness of the Kingdom. One of the ways the Church fulfills this mandate is through membership in the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. Your membership will help mission priests, religious and catechists who count on our loving and prayerful ongoing assistance as they serve their sisters and brothers day by day.
The work of missionaries is demanding and often dangerous. Agenzia Fides, the Vatican news agency for the Pontifical Mission Societies, reports that in 2019, 29 missionaries were killed throughout the world. They were priests, religious men and women, lay catechists. Often missionaries lost their lives during attempted hold-ups and robberies, ferociously committed, in impoverished, degraded social contexts where violence is the rule of life or the authority of the state was lacking or weakened by corruption. Added to this list are the many of whom we may never hear about but who, in every corner of the planet, suffer and even pay with their lives because of their faith in Jesus Christ.
The faithful of the Diocese of Harrisburg regularly contribute more than $125,000 annually in the Membership Sunday collection. Your gift may be used to buy bibles for catechists in Sierra Leone, or provide for a small parish in India. Your offering may be used to help Sisters in Sudan lovingly care for orphans in Jesus’ name, or it may buy a bicycle for a priest in Thailand so that he can travel from village to village to celebrate Mass. Most importantly, wherever your offering is sent, it brings with it the Good News of Jesus Christ and His message of peace, hope, and salvation.
Please join the missionary task through the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
Gratefully yours in Christ,
Reverend Robert F. Sharman
Diocesan Director
For the complete Agenzia Fides report, see http://www.fides.org/en/missionaries.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Office of Pontifical Missions
The Diocese of Harrisburg
4800 Union Deposit Road
Harrisburg PA 17111
717-657-4804, ext. 240
www.hbgdiocese.org/missions
