Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Our Lord, before returning to the Father, promised His followers the Holy Spirit and charged them with being His “witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
At Baptism, we too were called to be Christ’s witnesses. We are to share our faith with those around us, and to support, in prayer and sacrifice, the work of missionaries who bring the “Good News” of Jesus to faraway places – to Africa, Asia, the Pacific Islands, and remote regions of Latin America. Therefore, I ask you to personally invest yourself in the Church’s mission to bring the “Good News” of Jesus Christ to the very ends of the earth.
On World Mission Sunday, celebrated this year on October 24, the Catholics of the world unite at Mass to recommit ourselves to this Baptismal vocation to be missionaries. As we pray and respond here at home, we are replicating what is also taking place in every parish and chapel in every corner of the globe. Your generosity through the Society for the Propagation of the Faith will reach those who await the “Good News” of Jesus, who long to experience His hope and love.
More than 1,150 young churches in the Developing World count on your generous response this World Mission Sunday. Please also continue to pray that all of us in the Diocese of Providence may be eager and effective witnesses of Jesus, as He asked us to be.
Sincerely Yours,
Thomas J. Tobin
Bishop of Providence
