(ANS - Rome) - Evangelii Gaudium, the Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis, offers plenty of food for thought to every Christian. We asked the Councillor for the Salesian Missions, Fr Václav Klement, to give us a missionary reading.

In Evangelii Gaudiumthe Church calls for missionary transformation. What does this mean for the Salesians?
It means taking seriously the call not only to go out of ourselves, but to go to the ends of the earth. The missionary mandate of Jesus asks us to build a missionary Church, a dream shared already 60 years ago by Cardinal Léon-Joseph Suenens and other participants of Vatican II. For a congregation that has spread to 133 countries around the world this call comes as an invitation to support the important mission flow from all continents to all continents. It is not just a question of sending forty missionaries ad gentes each year, but also of forming all Salesians to be able to proclaim and witness the Gospel to all young people wherever they are.

How does Evangelii Gaudium contribute to the missionary nature of the Church?
Fifty years after Vatican II, many people seem to think that mission is an optional extra, something that should be added to everything else and that applies only to some people.  It was not easy to accept the message of Vatican II - as seen in Lumen Gentium, Gaudium et Spes and  Ad Gentes - that the Church is missionary by its very nature and everything in it is outward looking.  This exhortation of Pope Francis helps us to grow in the spirituality of missionary disciples (chapter 5) and gives us an integral vision of the missionary life of the Church. I was blessed to receive that vision at Maracaibo during the Fourth American Missionary Congress, the Ninth Latin American Missionary Congress.

What missionary theme fromEvangelii Gaudium particularly struck you?
Definitely the idea that we should consider all humanity as one family with a strong community focus that puts the theme of dialogue, or rather of interreligious encounter, in a new light. We see it in the context of the social dimension of evangelization (Chapter 4). The experience of the missio ad gentes confirms this, especially in countries that are overwhelmingly non-Christian. Don Bosco seems to be welcome in many different multicultural and interreligious environments. We must live as friends with all our neighbours – they are our brothers and sisters. This is the first step.

Does Evangelii Gaudium mark the beginning of the Petrine ministry of Pope Francis, as their first letter did for his predecessors?
Pope Francis gave a strong missionary impulse with the Eucharist on Holy Thursday in the juvenile prison in Rome and his visit to Lampedusa. Evangelii Gaudium followed on from these gestures. Pope Francis himself becomes the message and explains the exhortation with his own life. I personally appreciate the passages on missionary spirituality, explicit in nos. 78-80 and 262-283 and implicit in the witness of the truly missionary life of this Bishop of Rome who has come almost from the end of the earth."

Published 19/12/2013