Faith

Maureen Crowley
Heil

On Sunday, October 20, Father Giuseppe Allamano, an Italian priest and founder of the Consolata Missionaries and the Consolata Missionary Sisters, was officially declared Saint Giuseppe Allamano by Pope Francis at a ceremony in Rome. Although Allamano never left Italy, he left a global legacy by training missionaries to carry the Good News to remote parts of Africa, Asia, and South America. It is fitting, then, that his canonization came on World Mission Sunday -- a "high holy day" of celebration of missionaries and their work.
Celebrated each year on the second-to-last Sunday of October, the idea of one day to celebrate the missions was first suggested in 1925 by none other than Father Giuseppe Allamano. He did not live to see his idea come to fruition -- Pope Pius XI celebrated the first World Mission Sunday in 1927, one year after Allamano's death.
The world-wide annual collection, taken up in every Catholic church, funds the General Solidarity Fund of The Society for the Propagation of the Faith, one of our Church's four Pontifical Mission Societies. If you look for the Societies in various countries on social media -- Malawi, Nigeria, Sri Lanka to name a few -- you'll see colorful, vibrant gatherings as Catholics gather at the table of the Lord to celebrate our shared baptismal call to mission.

To see the same in the Archdiocese of Boston, look no further than @BostonMissions! You'll see our Procession of Nations -- flags representing the more than 25 cultural communities that worship here -- leading the way at Saint Agnes Parish in Arlington, carried by members of the communities and by students of Saint Agnes High School. Twelve concelebrants from Nigeria, Cameroon, Ireland, India, Brazil, and the United States preceded Saint Agnes' pastor and our host, Father Marc Bishop, along with our main celebrant and homilist, Bishop Jeevanandam Amalanathan from the Diocese of Kumbakonam, India.
Our music was beautifully led by the choirs of the Vietnamese Catholic Apostolate and the Boston Catholic Tamil Community. Readings were in Tamil and Swahili. Intercessory prayers were in Vietnamese, Tamil, Russian, Haitian Creole, Swahili, Brazilian Portuguese, and the Cameroonian dialect of Bambili.
Attendees were gifted with a World Mission Rosary, color coded by decade for each populated continent where missionaries are accompanying people on their faith journeys. They were distributed by students of Saint Agnes Elementary School.
Bishop Jeeva exhorted the faithful to remember that by baptism, we are all called to be missionaries -- by praying for those who are just hearing about Christ, and by giving to The Propagation of the Faith, so that missionaries' work can be supported.
It was a joyous celebration of the missions -- we think Saint Giuseppe Allamano would be proud! Give in his honor: propfaithboston.org

- Maureen Crowley Heil is Director of Programs and Development for the Pontifical Mission Societies, Boston.

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