MANILA, December 14, 2011— The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines has declared a “Year of the Pontifical Mission Societies’ on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the PMS in October 2012.
“It is to be a grace-filled year, marked by renewed enthusiasm for dedicated service as Christ’s evangelizing disciples,” said Cebu Archbishop Palma in his first pastoral exhortation as CBCP president.
The Philippine Year of the PMS will run from January 1, until December 31, 2012.
Palma said that through various activities like seminars, mission activities in Catholic schools, new mission initiatives at home and abroad, “we hope to rekindle among Filipinos a dynamic commitment to the effective preaching of the Good News of Jesus Christ—even to the ends of the earth.”
The PMS, he said, have been generously serving the local Church in the Philippines since their establishment here in 1932.
Thus, he added, 2012 commemorates eight decades of uninterrupted dedication to the Church’s mission of evangelization.
Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 expressed his gratitude to the PMS for its “valuable service” and its efforts to promote “love and solidarity.”
Similarly in 2011, the pontiff once again thanked the PMS for its assistance in supporting “evangelizing activities in mission territories.”
The CBCP head encouraged the Filipino faithful to join the PMS mission events as well as various diocesan initiatives – “all in celebration of the gift of the Christian faith that dedicated missionaries brought to our shores.”
“As your bishop-shepherds, we exhort you, the Filipino faithful, to wholeheartedly respond to nationally-initiated PMS programs as well as local efforts coordinated by the PMS Diocesan Mission Directors,” Palma said. [CBCPNews]
