Pastor's Column
WHAT IS A MISSION APPEAL?
It happens every year or almost every year in most Catholic parishes in Chicago and throughout the United States. A guest preacher speaks at the weekend Masses about the apostolic efforts of his or her religious organization and asks for your material and spiritual support. The Mission Appeal happens so regularly and reliably because of something called the Missionary Cooperative Plan adopted by most dioceses in the United States. Religious congregations and Dioceses in the developing parts of the world are invited to apply to a central office in each diocese that is concerned with the Missions; and that office (here called the Office of Mission Animation) assigns one or more parishes to religious groups that have applied to give appeals.
In a sense the phrase “mission appeal” is a misnomer in today’s church, because our understanding of missionary work has evolved. In the past it was assumed that missionaries came from North America or Europe and brought with them everything that the church in the less developed parts of the world would ever need. This is no longer true. This change is partly due to the fact that the traditional Catholic countries have not been churning out missionaries like they did in the first half of the twentieth century; but it is also due to a deliberate rethinking of the goal of a mission. The real job of the missionary today is to try to establish the local church, to encourage local vocations, and to help the believers in that particular locale discover the gifts that God has given them to make the worship and the ministry of their church truly reflective of the language and the culture of the people who live there. In short, the aim of the missionary is to put himself or herself out of business.
While the primary objective of the mission appeal may be 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. After all, the word “catholic” means “universal”, and the mission appeal reminds us that we really do belong to a Catholic Church. Sometimes the smaller and the more geographically isolated the town is, the more important it may be for the citizens of that town to hear about the broader mission of the Church. So a long trip to a small parish may not raise much money, but it can still serve a purpose in raising awareness about the Church. While I was Assistant Provincial in the 1990’s and not assigned to a parish, I spent two summers riding the mission appeal circuit on behalf of our Servite Missions in Kwazulu- Natal in South Africa. It was a fascinating tour of the Church in America. Fifteen years later, many of these places are still vividly etched in my mind: Prescott, Bloomington, and Patch Grove, WI; Spillville, Struble, Sioux Center, and LeMars, IA; Lewiston and Van Buren, ME; New Albany and Ft Wayne, IN; Lebanon and Springfield, KY; Shelbyville, Sullivan, and Newton, IL; Brooklyn, Cortland, and Saratoga Springs, NY; Concord, NH; Coatsville, PA; Mobile AL. Every parish offered a unique glimpse of the Catholic Church. Of course, there were some surprises along the way. Arriving in one parish in Iowa on a Saturday afternoon I learned that I was preaching at the High School Baccalaureate Mass the next morning (The mission of the Church in Zululand may not have been the most appropriate topic for high school graduation, but at least I could offer the graduates a job!).
This weekend we welcome Fr. James Perluzzi, O.F.M., who will speak on behalf of the Franciscan Missions. Fr. Perluzzi is the former Secretary General for Mission Evangelization for the Franciscan Order and is presently based at St. Peter’s in the Loop. From his many years of experience in the central office in Rome, he will have much to share about the present day work of the Franciscans, as they seek to serve the poor and establish the Order in various nations of Africa, Asia, South America, and the former Soviet Union. I am sure you will be generous with your prayers for the Franciscans and with your financial support in the Second Collection.