World Mission Sunday was celebrated on Sunday, October 22. This day of prayer for missionary activity falls each year on the penultimate Sunday of October. After the Angelus, the Pope spoke about World Mission Sunday, which has as its theme “‘Hearts on fire, feet on the move.’ Two images,” he said, “that says everything!” 

EWTN Vatican spoke to Father William Conquer, a missionary of the Société des Missions Étrangères de Paris (Paris Foreign Missions Society), a Catholic missionary organization in direct connection with the Holy See. He spoke about the nature of his missionary life, “I’ve left everything. I’m not here to build a little Paris or a little New York. I’m here to live among different people. A people which is not mine, a culture which is not mine.”  

Father Will is a missionary in Cambodia. “It is not my country. I’m not here because I’m French or American. I’m here because I’m a disciple of Jesus Christ to serve other people.” Becoming a missionary is an essential dimension to being a Catholic. Every Catholic is a missionary by baptism.  

Father Will explained, “I’m not here for any nationalistic gain or any kind of political ambition. I’m here to proclaim to a nation which is not mine and which I’m called to love because I believe that God has chosen this nation to be part of his kingdom.”   

Since its foundation 360 years ago, the Paris Foreign Missions Society has sent more than 4,200 missionaries to Asia and North America. Their mission includes adapting to local customs and languages and developing a native clergy while keeping close contact with Rome. Father Will has been in Cambodia for nearly four years. He is now beginning “a new mission on the seashore of Cambodia,” he told us, “in a town called Sihanoukville and all the way to the Thai border.” It is the society’s furthest mission: a place called Koh Kong. Father is just beginning there, but the calling is “to be a lifelong mission.”  

Nearly 100 years ago, Pope Pius XI, in 1926, created World Mission Sunday as the day of prayer for missions. The day is set aside for the Catholic Church throughout the world to renew its commitment to the missionary movement publicly. EWTN Vatican spoke to Father Tadeusz Jan Nowak, OMI, the Secretary General of the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith. He explained, “To understand the origins of World Mission Day or Sunday, you have to understand the origins of the Pontifical Mission Societies. The Propagation of the Faith is the first society that was created by Blessed Pauline Jaricot in 1822. It became a worldwide network of prayer, of formation, information and material sharing amongst Churches for the work of evangelization, and, especially, in areas of first evangelization and planting of new Churches.”  

Father continued, “This grew and grew and grew. In 1922, Pope Pius XI decided to make the three societies Pontifical, which means he wanted them to have universal significance and a permanent place in the Universal Church, and therefore in every local Church.” And to the origins of World Mission Sunday, it “was instituted specifically for the assistance and for the work of the Pontifical Mission Society for the Propagation of the Faith. In other words, for sharing the faith and creating new Churches in Mission lands.”    

World Mission Day is more relevant than ever because mission territory now lies at your feet the minute you walk out the front door of any church. Father Nowak highlighted the reality of the present world, saying, “Every church in the world now is missionary, has to be missionary. A missionary church is one that looks beyond its own needs. It looks outside and looks at the needs of the world that is in dying need of the Gospel.” 

Since the fall of communism in the 1990s, the Church has risen from the rubble mainly thanks to the efforts of foreign missionaries like Father Will, building schools, educating children, and caring for the poor, sick, and elderly. Missionary work in Cambodia might appear different. Father Will expressed, “A lot of the effort that we’re doing seems in vain.” He explained that other countries in Asia, “Korea, Vietnam, Philippines, Timor, to mention just a few, are countries which are welcoming Christ in crowds. And it’s unbelievable.” However, Father continued, “In Cambodia, the wound of the war and the history of this country seemed to make the way of the Gospel more difficult.”  

Since the country’s main religion is Theravada Buddhism, engaging in interreligious dialogue has also proven to be a necessary task to be undertaken by the missionaries. Father Will told us of the doubts raised by others about his missionary work, “Have they converted? Have they been baptized? What’s the point of this dialogue? When are they becoming Christian?” Father responds to these doubts, saying, “My greatest joy would be for them to know the love of God, but all I can do is start walking with them. That’s what we’re doing. And it’s a long path, but I think it’s a beautiful path. And on the journey, God is already there with us.” 

While currently building a study center, Father Will also hopes to help form a scout group and a musical academy. Despite the many difficulties the missionaries in Cambodia are facing, Father Will has great hope for the country. In fact, just recently, two young Cambodian men decided to enter the seminary.   

Father Will described the necessary vision to be had in order to persevere in missionary work, “Missionaries need to be patient, have missionary patience, because the time of God is not necessarily our timing. All we are called to do is proclaim the good news. Conversion is God’s grace, and seeing beautiful things happen here is not something that we can decide. We just have to open our eyes to God’s work. And God is working. God wants all people to come to his kingdom in his own time.”  
 

(Adapted by Jacob Stein)