OCEANIA/AUSTRALIA - The first intercontinental meeting of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Asia and Oceania is currently taking place in Sydney

Saturday, 22 February 2025 pontifical mission societies mission evangelization

AUSTRALIA

2025-02-22
The first intercontinental meeting of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Asia and Oceania is currently taking place in Sydney

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Sydney (Agenzia Fides) - For the first time, representatives of the National Directions of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Asia and Oceania are meeting for an intercontinental meeting. The meeting, which is currently taking place in Sydney, will continue until Sunday.
The National Directors, who represent more than 20 countries on both continents, including Bangladesh, Cambodia and Laos, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Korea, Lebanon, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, East Timor, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, will focus on the importance of collaboration in relation to the urgencies and hopes that characterize missionary work in the various local situations.
The leitmotif of the five days is Pope Francis' invitation to be "missionaries of hope among the peoples" (see Message for World Mission Sunday 2025). The participants of the meeting sent a message of solidarity in prayer to the Bishop of Rome, who is currently being treated for bilateral pneumonia at Gemelli Hospital in Rome.
"The Pontifical Mission Societies in Australia 'Catholic Mission' is privileged to host the intercontinental meeting of the National Directors for Asia and Oceania," said Father Brian Lucas. "Australia has very strong relations with our immediate neighbours, including the support of a regional office in Phnom Penh, and this opportunity for personal exchange provides an excellent basis for cooperation."
The aim is to join forces and find solutions together to respond to local challenges, said the organizers of the meeting, which, in addition to offering training courses (including one on the theme of the Jubilee Year "Pilgrims of Hope"), also offered the opportunity to meet with representatives of the Australian Church, including Archbishop Charles Balvo, Apostolic Nuncio in Australia, and Vincent Long Van Nguyen OFM, Bishop of the Diocese of Parramatta. In addition, the National Directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies from Asia and Oceania also met with Ms. Kelly Paget, Chancellor of the Diocese of Broken Bay, who had taken part in the World Synod on Synodality in Rome.
"We are trying these days to unite as two regions. Of course, we have different problems, challenges and hopes, and that is what we are discussing here. Our hope is to speak with a united voice and work together for the mission of the Church throughout the world and to bring about concrete change," said Father Michael Cheng Chai, National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in New Zealand. (EG) (Agenzia Fides, 22/2/2025)