Bishop Piotrowski for "Ad Gentes" Sunday: Together with missionaries, we build the Church
Thanks to the dedicated service, prayer, suffering, and perseverance of missionaries, young mission communities grow and become stronger," wrote Bishop Jan Piotrowski, Chairman of the Commission on Missions of the Polish Bishops' Conference, in a communiqué for "Ad Gentes" Sunday, which is a Day of Prayer, Fasting and Solidarity with Missionaries. This year it falls on March 5.
This year's "Ad Gentes" Sunday is celebrated under the motto: "Together with missionaries we build the Church." The day is an opportunity to support prayerfully and financially the 1,743 Polish missionaries who minister in 99 countries around the world. "Their daily works of evangelization, charity, education and medical care can thrive thanks to our prayer and almsgiving," the message reads.
"Missionaries are sent by the Church and, being witnesses of the faith, they proclaim the Gospel, creating communities of new disciples of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Redeemer. Through their dedicated service, prayer, suffering and perseverance, young mission communities grow and become stronger," Bishop Piotrowski stressed.
The Chairman of the Commission on Mission of the Polish Episcopate noted that missionaries need financial and material resources to "create and develop works of charity, solidarity and fraternity with the poor, the sick and those in need of help." "They reach out to families living in poverty, street children, the sick and the socially excluded, bringing the Gospel of mercy," he wrote.
In 2022, thanks to donors mainly from Polish parishes, the "Ad Gentes" relief work financed 124 aid projects in the missions worth nearly 140,000 euros. According to the communiqué, 59 religious sisters, 29 religious men, 30 fideidonist priests, and five lay missionaries received financial assistance.
Press Office of the Polish Bishops' Conference
Translated by Sr. Amata Nowaszewska / Office for Foreign Communication of the Polish Bishops’ Conference
