Missions, the Gospel that converts

As many as 3,170 Polish citizens are engaged in missions abroad, present in 97 world countries, almost all over the world. The missions’ coordinator for the Polish bishops’ conference, Monsignor Jerzy Mazur, recently highlighted the meaning of the missions in the framework of the Year of Faith, in a meeting with some of the Poles serving in Togo. They were received by the president of Poland, Bronislaw Komorowski, who congratulated them upon their missionary service and recalled: "Church missionaries in the world represent also Poland and its culture". Among the Eskimos. "I don’t master the Inuktitut language, but I am able to communicate. This is enough to show others that we love them and that we can do everything for them. This is possible when in life man becomes the first value after God" – said Wieslaw Antoni Krotki, recently appointed bishop. Monsignor Krotki, from the Congregation of Oblate Missionaries of Mary Immaculate, has been working in Canada since 1990, namely since his priestly ordination. "Nobody spoke to us about the culture of the Eskimos, nobody has taught us since nobody knew it", said the new pastor of the diocese Churchill-Baie d’Hudson, describing his formation in the seminary of the oblates, not very far away from Krakow. According to the prelate "the key to getting used to the difficult living conditions in the mission is the love for the local culture". "Those who manage to love that new culture will have no problems. And we must not be afraid of change". The diocese of Churchill-Baie d’Hudson extends for 2.3 million square kilometers, with a population of 33 thousand, a third of whom are Catholic. Pastoral services are carried out by 3 diocesan and 16 religious priests. Culture, African richness. "I love Africa with its rich cultures which still have a great need for decontamination", wrote Pawel Hulecki, of the White Fathers, from Mali, speaking about the death of a man struck by lightening who wasn’t helped by anyone in the African village due to his sudden death, "considered the work of evil spirits". The missionary father said: "I always wanted to go to Africa to help the local population and proclaim the word of God". Sabina Gomet, one of the future Polish missionaries, said: "We don’t even speak the language, but I think that with body language, gestures and facial expressions we can speak of Jesus". Her group will remain in Africa for over a month, helping during the spiritual exercises children supported by Polish families with distance adoptions. A missionary feast. "The missionary commitment remains the fundamental service that the Church is called to ensure contemporary world, in order to give cultural, social and ethical changes under way their meaning and their evangelical dimension, to offer Jesus’ salvation to contemporary men and women who are victims of humiliation and oppression caused by poverty, violence and violations of their rights", the vice-president of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, the archbishop of Poznan Msgr. Stanislaw Gadecki told 200 young participants in the fifth missionary gathering of young people". "In those places where missionary commitment takes place, the will to share, the witness of faith and life are missing, there isn’t a living Church", Gadecki said. A few days earlier, on June 28, the prelate officiated a ceremony for the conferment of missionary crosses to 34 young volunteers who take part in summer projects carried out worldwide: Kazakhstan, Ghana, Jerusalem, Ukraine, Moldova. "It’s a joy to see that an increasing number of people consider devoting themselves to missionary service and that so many groups organize trips to acquire missionary experience", underlined father Szymon Stulkowski, coordinator of the missionary works in the archdiocese of Poznan. Departure for Cape Verde. On July 2 in the city of Krosno, in the south of Poland, the president of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, Monsignor Jozef Michalik, presented five lay Catholics and a presbyter with missionary crosses. They will stay in the islands of Cape Verde during the summer for over a month. "Missionary zeal is the expression of solicitude for the promotion of faith, universal love, the will to help the needy and those experiencing difficult situations. The Gospel of love and charity, of extended hands, is the Gospel of conversion", the prelate said.