Missionary Animation: Window on the World and Door between Churches

About 20 years ago, Bishop Sikuli Melquisedec, the titular bishop of the diocese of Butembo-Beni (Democratic Republic of Congo), asked the Comboni missionaries to take charge of Missionary Animation (MA) in his diocese. The idea had come to him from “Afriquespoir” – Hope in Africa – the magazine published by the Comboni missionaries in Congo and aimed at French-speaking readers on the continent (Central African Republic, Togo, Benin, and Chad).

It was the Comboni father Gaspar (Fr. Di Vincenzo Trasparano) who initiated this service with a novel touch: he did not create Missionary Groups, but Missionary Animation Groups (MAG). Inspired by the encyclical letter Redemptoris Missio by Pope John Paul II, on the permanent validity of the missionary mandate, the MAGs were organized into subgroups to reach different aspects of the Church, especially the youth, families, and religious communities.

Three years ago, this service was entrusted to another Comboni, Father Gian Paolo Pezzi, from the diocese of Brescia (Northern Italy), who, at 82, is still full of energy and returned to Congo a few years ago. In his missionary life, he has worked in Burundi, Ecuador, Colombia, a first time in Congo, then Rome and the United States, before returning to Congo. A missionary evangelizer in his pastoral activities and a missionary promoter through magazine editing and radio, he lacked no experience, yet starting a missionary animation initiative at the diocesan and parish level was something new for him.

He knew that every local Church must be missionary, but how to be missionary is another matter. Organizing MA in Africa is a challenging task, especially in a heavily Catholic region, with well-structured parishes, a strong culture and thus a little closed in, and in a place like North Kivu, affected by conflicts fuelled by foreign interests exploiting low-cost extraction of strategic minerals, gold, and diamonds.

Following in the footsteps of his predecessor and building on the work already done, he soon came to a conclusion: if the Church is by nature missionary, then the Church itself – diocese and parishes – is the subject of Missionary Animation. Therefore, this is a service that cannot be entrusted to a group that would act on its own like any other devotional group (adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Legion of Mary, devotion to the saints, etc.), pastoral group (youth, vocations, health, family), or prayer group (rosary, Divine Mercy, etc.).

For the evangelizing spirit of the Holy Spirit to penetrate the parish and diocesan community and for them to say like St. Paul, “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel,” something different and innovative is needed so that the entire diocese and parish see themselves as missionary.

To avoid protagonism, he thought of a commission, an idea he presented to the bishop along with a Comboni sister and the director of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS). It was as if the bishop had been waiting for nothing else. He immediately supported the idea and requested that the MA commission integrate all the living forces of the diocese. From there, the idea of also having “parish MA commissions” was a short step.

The idea seemed original and therefore somewhat difficult to understand at first; but at the same time, it conveyed dynamism, as a commission is “an organization with executive tasks” that can therefore influence an entire diocese and each parish.

Who are the members of these Missionary Animation commissions?

The diocesan MA commission includes representatives from Catholic groups, whether they are prayer, pastoral, or devotional groups. These people participate in reflections and receive information that they later transmit to their respective groups. This way, each group, under its own perspective, internalizes the topics discussed, the missionary dates to celebrate, and the initiatives proposed by the commission. The groups do not lose their originality but become imbued with a missionary spirit. The same applies to the Parish MA Commission.

What are the contributions of this Missionary Animation commission?

Evangelization is the task of the local Church, carried out through liturgy, catechesis, pastoral commissions, and group formation. However, as the Church is missionary by nature, fulfilling the missionary mandate given by the Lord at His Ascension must be at the heart of this work, with particular attention to those who do not know Jesus or are not fully and consciously participating in His salvation.

That is the task of the MA commissions: to inform and share what is happening on the frontiers where the gospel is spread, to highlight the Catholic and universal dimension of the Gospel, and to bring the missionary spirit where it may be overlooked in the evangelizing work of the diocese and parish. The frontiers of evangelization are not only geographical, ethnic, or cultural: our world is increasingly globalized and interconnected, but that does not mean it is more evangelized. These frontiers may be close, in the neighbourhoods of one’s own parish or the neighbouring parish, or far away and known through television or internet pages. They are the frontiers of a humanity that does not know Jesus, where the Church is called to make Him known: here, parishes and dioceses become “missions.”

What are these Missionary Animation commissions in their work?

They are “windows” to look at the frontiers of evangelization and the inner workings of the Church’s labour; they are “doors” to welcome those who, sharing their faith in Jesus Christ, want to nourish the missionary spirit in the socio-cultural context they live in; they are “rooms” where people of goodwill, whether neighbours or distant in origin, culture, or belief system, take on the challenge of building the parish and human community.

They are windows. In the commissions, information is shared about the socio-political and religious situations of neighbouring and distant parish communities, other dioceses, and even other countries, including situations that make global news. This information, transmitted by official bodies or virtual groups, is biased according to the group’s mentality or interest and has a limited lifespan; therefore, it often does not allow one to know the truth.

In the commissions, information is sought from missionary publications, internet pages, videos, podcasts—carefully selected and reliable sources. Commission members then share this information with the groups they belong to and with the entire parish, so that each Christian can incorporate it into their life according to their group’s spirit. This can be done through dialogue, messages, posters, videos, etc., always with creativity and without being overly insistent. The commission’s goal is to reveal truths that are unknown, even when these truths are uncomfortable: the truth sets us free. Ignoring the realities of the world keeps us in ignorance and enslaves us to lies, wherever they may come from. Therefore, this gaze also turns toward parish life, and the commission becomes the pastor’s watchful eye to ensure that every activity of the community is evangelical and filled with a missionary spirit.

They are doors. The commission welcomes those who join the parish community, paying special attention to those not born in their geographical or cultural context, who may have a Christian faith experience that differs in its spirituality and outward expressions from the parish’s Christian experience. With these people, life experiences are shared, enriching the parish’s Christian faith with a fresh breath of novelty. They may be newcomers from other dioceses or even from other Churches. In this way, the MA commission sets the parish on a synodal path, walking together with those encountered along the way, inviting them to stand up and walk together. All this is easier in big cities and captivating in metropolises where large migrations are happening. The parish community, by welcoming faith experiences from elsewhere, enriches its own faith. And when the stranger is heard and valued, they feel welcomed and loved.

They are rooms. The MA commission feels responsible for ensuring that immigrants are well-received and strives to help them integrate into the local civil and ecclesial community. They can be of any creed, yet we are all God’s creatures, all beneficiaries of the same earth and the peace blessing announced by the angels. The MA commission does not replace the parish Caritas, but it ensures that those receiving assistance integrate into the human and Christian community where they have been welcomed, and that this community receives them with respect, without forming ghettos or fostering xenophobic attitudes and practices. The integration of people from different cultures eliminates racism, tribalism, fanaticism, and the arrogance of supremacy. Christianity opposes these attitudes because we are all equal before God and in the human community. These situations are still rare in the diocese of Butembo-Beni, where “foreigners” are almost non-existent. Father Pezzi is, in fact, the only European who has stayed, and even the traders who are not BaNande can be counted on one hand, while Congolese from other places are very few, frightened as they are by the Kinande language. Yet the world moves on, and sooner or later, the Church of Butembo-Beni will have to face this global phenomenon. It would be up to the MA Commission to prepare the Christian community for a future that is advancing without asking for permission.

Conclusion

The fact that the diocese of Butembo-Beni doesn’t need to be a room and has little need to be a door doesn’t mean it stops being a window… because the interest in the spread of the Gospel and salvation in Jesus Christ is part of every Christian’s faith. However, Father Pezzi’s experience and initiative provide valuable inspiration for churches where people arrive to stay who were neither born nor raised, with different Christian experiences, different religions, and even diverse cultures. These are churches with an old Christianity where there is a lot of information, so much that it becomes confusing, and where the truth of what is happening elsewhere, among suffering populations, needs to be known. Populations that also need the support of charity and the promotion of justice.

The Missionary Animation Commissions have the opportunity to develop methods that allow parishes to become truly “universal,” that is, catholic. If parishes have pastoral councils and financial councils, then why couldn’t they also have a “missionary animation (or action) commission”?

Fr. Herreros Baroja Tomás, mccj
Fr. Pezzi Trebeschi Gian Paolo, mccj