It happens every summer in most Catholic parishes in Chicago and around the United States. Commonly called a “mission appeal,” a guest preacher speaks at all the weekend Masses about the apostolic efforts of his or her religious congregation or diocese and asks for your material and prayerful support. In Chicago, the speakers for the annual mission appeal are assigned by the Archdiocesan Mission Office. In past years at Assumption, we have had speakers from China, India, Nigeria, Kenya, Botswana, as well as missionaries from the United States talking about the Church in Ghana and Russia.

The fact that our mission speakers are more likely to have been born and raised in the mission country itself rather than from our own country tells us something important about our changing understanding of missionary work. In the past it was assumed that missionaries came from North America or Europe and brought everything with them that the Church in developing parts of the world would ever need. Latin was the universal language of the Liturgy in the Western Church and it could easily be exported. Then, along with the liturgical reforms of the 1960’s, came a new understanding of missionary activity. The job of missionaries from Europe and the United States is to put themselves out of business. Their job is to promote local vocations to the priesthood and religious life, to train local catechists to instruct their brothers and sisters in the faith, and to allow the prayer and worship to reflect the language and customs of the people who live there. The operative phrase is no longer “the missions” but “the local church.” Although the Catholic Church faces challenges everywhere, this new understanding of mission has borne much fruit. The traditional mission lands are now producing vocations to support the Catholic Church in Europe and America.

While the primary purpose of the mission appeal is to generate funds, the appeal also offers us a chance to learn about what is happening in the Church in another part of the world that most of us will never visit. It keeps us from becoming too insular in our thinking and in our charity. One summer when I did not have a parish assignment, I spent each weekend traveling to some community in the Midwest or along the East Coast speaking about our Servite communities in KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Some of the congregations I visited were so small that the funds received barely paid for my trip; but I always figured that the more isolated the town, the more important it was to hear about what the Catholic Church is doing elsewhere. After all, we belong to the Catholic Church, and the word “Catholic” means universal. It means that the hopes and dreams and needs of our brothers and sisters anywhere in the world become our hopes and dreams and needs. In a world in which people are divided in so many ways, supporting a mission appeal is one way of affirming that what binds us together as children of God is far more significant that anything that could drive us apart.

Next weekend we will welcome Fr. Frederick Byaruhanga from the Diocese of Kabale. The Diocese of Kabale serves nearly a million Catholics living in western Uganda and seeks to meet as best it can the material needs of all people. Among the goals of Fr. Fred’s appeal will be the continued construction of Our Lady of Good Health Rushoroza Hospital for the rural poor, the Orphaned and Vulnerable Children Program (currently supporting 510 children with more than 20,000 others in critical need) and formation and training of catechists and seminarians. 

I have had the privilege of visiting our Servite communities in Kwa-Zulu Natal three times, twice in the 1990’s when I first served as Assistant Provincial and then again last year, when I was elected to that post once again. In the 1990’s the communities were mostly composed of aging friars from the United States and Ireland. The future of our presence in that part of the world seemed shaky at best. Today only two of those friars remain. But now the South African Delegation has been joined by eight Zulu priests and more are in the seminary. There are also diocesan priests in the area; so, the local church is now established. Next weekend we have the opportunity to express our support for the future of the Catholic Church in western Uganda. I know you will be generous.

                                                                    Fr. Joe