On December 2, on the eve of the memory of St. Francis Xavier, patron of the missions, a missiological session and a night prayer vigil organized by the Pontifical Missionary Union (PUM) were held in Jasna Góra at the foot of the Black Madonna.
The missiological session with the theme “I participate in the mission of the Church” began with the Holy Mass in the Chapel of Our Lady of Częstochowa under the guidance of Archbishop Wiktor Skworc of the Archdiocese of Katowice, who in his homily underlined the words of Blessed Paolo Manna , founder of the Pontifical Missionary Union, recalling that the Church without mission loses its nature. After the Holy Mass, those present in the John Paul II Hall listened to the presentations introduced by the national director Don Maciej Będziński, who stated that the most important mission of the Church is to preach the Gospel to the whole world, because the Gospel edifies and strengthens the work of Creation.
The participants listened to Don Grzegorz Adamiak's report on the testimony of the martyrs of Płock who in the years 1925-1939 led missionary animation in the Church in Poland, among them Archbishop Antoni Julian Nowowiejski, and were martyred in the Działdowo concentration camp.
Fr. Andrzej Danilewicz, a verbatim writer, presented the life of Father Żelazek, a missionary who served leprosy patients in India. During the meeting there were also some testimonies that touched people's hearts. Father Dr. Dariusz Komadowski spoke about the Church in Georgia: “ Georgia is predominantly Orthodox and about 1% of the population is Catholic. As missionaries we often hear that our presence gives them a purpose in life."
Subsequently, workshops were held on the theme "The new faces of evangelization in the digital world" held by Fr. Przemysław Robaszkiewicz, of the archdiocese of Gniezno. After the missiological part, the participants took part in the evening prayer meeting in the Chapel of the Miraculous Image of Our Lady of Częstochowa. The prayer was led by Fr. Luca Bovio IMC, national secretary of the PUM, who entrusted the missionary work of the Church in Poland and in the world to the Madonna of Jasna Góra. After the prayer, there was a presentation of the students of the Missionary Training Center. Currently 15 people are being trained: 12 priests, a nun and 2 lay people. The next elements of the vigil prayer program were the Rosary and the telling of the story of a young lay volunteer, Helena Kmiec, killed in Bolivia in 2017. During the vigil the admission ceremony of the new members to the PUM took place, including five nuns and four lay people. The vigil ended at 4 am. Were present members of the PUM, members of the Living Rosary prayer groups, friends, supporters and those who are particularly close to the mission.
