Mission Sunday to be Celebrated Oct. 19
The Diocese of Metuchen will join with Catholics worldwide in celebrating World Mission Sunday Oct. 19.
The diocese’s World Mission Sunday Family Celebration begins at St. Francis of Assisi Cathedral, Metuchen, at 10:45 a.m. when participants will walk “The Extra Mile for Kids in Need of Jesus” to recommit themselves to the church’s missionary activity.
Melissa Legacki, associate director of the Office of the Pontifical Missions Societies, described the significance of the day.
“The Diocese of Metuchen chooses to commemorate this day with a walk-a-thon as a symbol of the often tremendous distance that children in mission countries must walk in order to attend Mass,” Legacki said.
Following the walk-a-thon, participants are invited to celebrate a noon Mass with Bishop Paul G. Bootkoski and homilist Bishop Anthony Neethinathan of Chingleput, India.
Participants are invited to enjoy a simple mission lunch after Mass with Jodie D’Angiolillo, coordinator of the Diocese of Metuchen’s Office of Evangelization. D’Angiolillo will share details of her recent mission trip to Sudan.
World Mission Sunday, which is organized by the Society for the Propagation of the Faith (one of the four Pontifical Mission Societies), is a day set aside for Catholics to recommit themselves to the church’s missionary activity through prayer and sacrifice.
Legacki said that World Mission Sunday is an opportunity to recognize and help those poor people of the world still lacking adequate resources in their own dioceses, as well as the missionaries who work daily all over the world, devoting themselves to bettering the lives of those in spiritual and physical need.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the United States’ “mission independence.” From 1822 to 1908, American Catholics received $7,020,971, what would be the modern day equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars in funding. During this time, American Catholics began supporting the Church’s work, with their first donation of $6 in 1833. By 1908, Pope Pius X concluded that the United States was no longer in need of financial assistance from the Catholics of Europe for its pastoral and evangelizing needs.
“While World Mission Sunday is a time for prayer and sacrifice, it is also a time to celebrate the accomplishments in our own diocese,” Legacki said. Local schools and religious education programs will be receiving awards during Mass and a student will receive an award for artwork.
For more information on how to participate in World Mission Sunday, call (732) 562-1990, ext. 1707, or e-mail Melissa Legacki at mlegacki@diometuchen.org.
-Lauren Moore
