Meeting of the European directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies

The meeting of the European directors of the Pontifical Missionary Societies (PMS), representing 24 European countries, took place in Warsaw from 24 to 28 February. The participants focused above all on the renewal of the statutes of the PMS in order to give new missionary dynamism to the Church in the countries of the old Continent and to the young Churches of all continents: “The statutes must be universal, they must take into account the pastoral status of the developing and developed countries. The definition of terms, nomenclature and pastoral language must be unified so that the parish priest of each parish understands what the activities of the PMS are and involves all the faithful in their activities,” said the moderator of the meeting, Fr Maciej Będziński, national director of the Polish PMS. An important point of the meeting was to outline the guidelines of the activity of the international secretariats of the individual Pontifical Mission Societies.

The Secretary General of the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith, Father Tadeusz Jan Nowak OMI, emphasized the importance of further developing the prayer network for the missions, so that all parish communities provide spiritual assistance to the missions around the world, while the Secretary General of the Pontifical Missionary Union, Father Dinh Anh Nhue Nguyen OFMConv, emphasized the need to promote the content of the message for World Mission Day, so that every believer in the Church knows this message of the Holy Father and lives it with  profound missionary spirit not only on Mission Day, but also throughout the liturgical year. Finally, Sr. Inês Paulo Albino, Secretary General of the Pontifical Society of Missionary Childhood, advocated the importance of involving children in missionary formation from an early age.

During the meeting the participants were able to learn about the situation of the Church in Poland thanks to the speeches by Msgr Tadeusz Wojda, President of the Polish Episcopal Conference, and Msgr Jan Piotrowski, Chairman of the Polish Episcopal Conference for Missions.

The meeting concluded with the Holy Mass presided over by the Apostolic Nuncio in Poland, Archbishop Antonio Filipazzi, and a concert by the Choir of the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University under the direction of Prof. Michał Sławecki.