Message for World Mission Sunday 2006
Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
At baptism, each of us is given the responsibility to be a missionary—to share our faith and to be active participants in the Church’s mission to all people.
World Mission Sunday, celebrated this year on October 22, gives us the opportunity to reach out in faith to more than two-thirds of the world’s people who have yet to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ, their Savior, or to experience His abiding love through the word and witness of missionaries. On World Mission Sunday, within the context of the Eucharist, we can offer our prayers and support through the Society for the Propagation of the Faith for the mission of making Jesus known “to the ends of the earth.”
And World Mission Sunday does not just happen here in our local Church or even only in the United States. It is truly a universal celebration—a worldwide recommitment to the Church’s evangelizing mission that takes place in parishes and missions throughout the world. Therefore, on October 22, united with Catholics throughout the world, let us pray for the Church’s missionary work and offer our personal sacrifices—our own sufferings, cars and concerns—in union with the sufferings of Christ on the Cross for the salvation of the world. We also should offer financial help through the Propagation of the Faith for the Church’s work in more than 1,150 dioceses throughout Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands and remote regions of Latin America.
The Missionary work of the Church depends on each one of us. As Pope Benedict XVI noted in his missionary catechesis for World Mission Sunday this year, “My wish is that this participation may always increase through the contribution of all.” Please be as generous as your means will allow and continue to pray that all of us in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis may be eager and effective witnesses of Jesus in our world, which is so in need of His love and peace.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Most Rev. Daniel M. Buechlein, O.S.B.
Archbishop of Indianapolis