Welcome to the Pontifical Mission Societies

Letter from the Executive Director

I continue to dream of a completely missionary Church, and a new era of missionary activity among Christian communities. I repeat Moses’ great desire for the people of God on their journey: “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets!” (Num 11:29). Indeed, would that all of us in the Church were what we already are by virtue of baptism: prophets, witnesses, missionaries of the Lord, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to the ends of the earth! Mary, Queen of the Missions, pray for us! (Pope Francis, Jan 2022)

When I read those words of our Holy Father, I feel his hope deep in my own heart. I share his dream, and I believe that you share it too. Do we not all yearn to be connected as brothers and sisters of Christ? Are we not all journeying toward the Kingdom? Are we not already missionaries in our hearts, minds, and deeds, ready to come together and to share God’s love and Good News?
While we are still living with the effects of the global pandemic, we know that the challenges faced by our brothers and sisters in the mission lands have made them even more vulnerable. This Lent, let us join together to make our Holy Father’s dream a reality by sending life-giving hope and sustaining love through the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
This year, we will celebrate the 200th Anniversary of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, and Venerable Pauline-Marie Jaricot, its Founder, will be beatified. Pauline learned about the Missions of her day – our own country included – from her brother Phileas who was studying to be a missionary priest. To help, she organized friends into “circles of 10,” with each person offering daily prayer and weekly sacrifice for the Missions.
Her circles grew into what would formally become the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in 1822.
Today Pauline’s legacy of love and hope provides for the Missions of Africa, Asia, the Pacific Islands, and remote regions of Latin America and Europe.
This Lent, will you join Pauline’s continuing “circles,” sending love and hope to the Missions? In this 200th anniversary year, perhaps you can offer $200 – $5 for each of the 40 days of Lent? Or $40 – $1 for each day of Lent? Whatever you can send carries the message of God’s love and mercy to the ends of the earth! Let us keep Pauline’s legacy alive and help make the dream a reality.
Anything you give will be a blessing. Thank you for your prayerful consideration.

-Reverend Monsignor Terrance L. Fleming
Lent 2022