"Reviving missionary work before the many serious challenges of our time". This is the invitation made by the Pope in his message for the next World Missionary Day. 50 years after Pius XII’s "Fidei donum", Benedict XVI repeats that "the annunciation of the Gospel is still topical and urgent". "The conditions in which man lives have certainly changed, and over the last few decades great efforts have been made to spread the Gospel, especially after the Second Vatican Council", concedes the Pontiff, but "much has still to be done to respond to the missionary call". To the Churches "of an ancient tradition", which "in the past have provided the missions not only with material means but also with a substantial number of priests, religious men and women, lay people, thus establishing effective cooperation between the Christian communities", the Pope asks to avoid "the risk of withdrawing onto themselves, of looking to the future with diminished hope and of slowing down their missionary efforts", before "the advance of a secularised culture" and such phenomena as "the crisis of the family, the decrease of callings and the progressive ageing of the clergy" (to be continued).
