Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
World Mission Sunday will be celebrated this year on the weekend of Oct. 22-23. Our Diocesan celebration will take place at the Church of St. Veronica in Howell on Saturday, Oct. 22 at 4:00 p.m.
Bishop David M. O’Connell is the main celebrant and preacher. Msgr. Kieran Harrington, the National Director of the Pontifical Mission societies and other invited missionary priests will be concelebrating.
Daniella Les, a student from St. Mary of the Lakes School, Medford, won the grand prize for her artwork in the National Christmas Card Making Contest of the Missionary Childhood Association. She will be presented the award during the celebration and certificates of recognition will be given to previous awardees. This is the fifth time in a row that our Diocese has been a recipient of this national award.
As Bishop O’Connell has shared, and reflected in this year’s theme by Pope Francis: “You shall be My witnesses” (Acts 1:8), the call to every Christian to bear witness to Christ, to participate in a mission of universal evangelization, and to seek strength and guidance from the Holy Spirit is widely emphasized.
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith provided some $7 million in help to the new and growing churches in the United States. Your prayers and generous support have sustained priests, religious and lay pastoral leaders in more than 1,100 mission dioceses in Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands, and parts of Latin America and Europe as they proclaim the Gospel, build the Church, and serve the poor.
When you contribute to the World Mission Sunday collection, you make it possible for the Holy Father to provide for the formation of our seminarians and religious men and women. You assist in building the schools and orphanages that care for children in places few visit. Missionaries can build churches in areas with scarce resources. Priests and religious Brothers and Sisters can buy food and the bare essentials that make it possible to proclaim the Gospel and celebrate the Sacraments.
May your help and love for the Church’s Mission, which is a passion for Jesus and a passion for his people, grow ever stronger. May your support and generosity be rewarded a hundredfold in this life and the next.
United with you in prayer,
Rev. Peter James Alindogan
Diocesan Director of Missions