Called to be Missionaries

July 28 is Fil-Mission Sunday

All baptized Catholics are called to be missionaries.

In celebration of the Fil-Mission Sunday every last Sunday of July, Filipino Catholics are told to reflect on their missionary role as part of the gift of faith which they received from the early Catholic foreign missionaries.

Like Filipinos, Catholics from all over the world are also called to be missionaries as Pope Francis said that by virtue of their baptism, all Catholics must be missionaries who share the good news of salvation in Jesus by their actions and their words.

In his message in preparation for the World Mission Sunday this October 20, 2019, the Pope’s message focus on “The importance of renewing the Church’s missionary commitment and giving fresh evangelical impulse to her work of preaching and bringing to the world the salvation of Jesus Christ.”

In the Philippines, since the establishment of the Mission Society of the Philippines (MSP) in 1965 by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), Filipinos through the MSP Fathers share the Gospel in different parts of the world in gratitude to God for the gift of faith which was received from the early Catholic foreign missionaries.

The CBCP deemed that it was the Filipino Church’s turn to share this gift of faith.

And Fil-Mission Sunday is a day to remember the gift that was not only received but also shared.

Fil-Mission Sunday is also an avenue “to support MSP’s mission to evangelize non-Christian believers, to give evangelical service to the young churches until they attain ecclesial maturity, and to help renew churches unable to catechize their own people until they achieve ministerial self-reliance.”

Despite the challenges, MSP continues to recruit, train, send and support Filipino missionaries to different parts of the world, trusting God through the faith in the generosity of the Filipino laity.

Aside from that, MSP also supports diocesan priests who want to experience missionary work in different countries where the MSP is present.

Today, MSP works in twelve countries on five continents. MSP has missions in Asia in Thailand, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea; in Oceania, in Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and Cook Islands; in Europe, in the Netherlands and in England; in the United States of America; and in South America, in Guyana.

The society also reaches out to young people through the Filipino Youth with a Mission (FYM), the youth arm of MSP.

For the celebration of Fil-Mission Sunday, FYM invites all MSP priests, seminarians, benefactors and friends to change their Facebook profile pic with the logo of the MSP to increase people’s awareness of this Filipino society’s missionary endeavors.