"Every Christian community is born a missionary", and it is "against the courage of evangelising that the love of the believers is measured". Thus was written by the Pope in his message for the next World Missionary Day, published today. "For each believer comments Benedict XVI , this doesn’t mean just cooperating in the evangelisation work, but feeling leaders and jointly responsible for the mission of the Church". A "joint responsibility", this one, which "involves deeper communion between the communities and more mutual help in terms of staff (priests, religious men and women, and volunteer lay people) and in the use of the means that are needed to evangelise today". Benedict XVI highlights that "arrays of priests, after leaving their original communities, have put their apostolic energies at the service of communities that sometimes had just been born, in poor and developing areas. They include quite a few martyrs, who have added the sacrifice of their lives to the testimony of the word and to apostolic devotion": hence the wish, "may their example arouse new callings everywhere and a new missionary awareness in the Christian people". (continued)
