MAY | For ecclesial movements and groups

Let us pray that ecclesial movements and groups may daily rediscover their evangelizing mission, and that they place their own charisms at the service of the world’s needs.

Pope Francis – May 2023

Ecclesial movements are a gift, they are a treasure in the Church! That’s what you are!
These movements renew the Church with their capacity for dialogue at the service of her evangelizing mission.
Each day, they rediscover in their charism new ways of showing the attractiveness and the newness of the Gospel.
How do they do this? Speaking different languages, they seem different, but it is their creativity that creates these differences. But always understanding themselves and making themselves understood.
And working at the service of the Bishops and parishes to avoid any temptation to close in on themselves, which can be the danger, right?
Always be on the move, responding to the impulse of the Holy Spirit to the challenges, to the changes in today’s world.
Remain in harmony with the Church, since harmony is a gift of the Holy Spirit.
Let us pray that ecclesial movements and groups may daily rediscover their mission, an evangelizing mission, and that they place their own charisms at the service of the world’s needs. Service…

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PRESS RELEASE

The Pope asks ecclesial movements and groups to rediscover their evangelizing mission

Press clipping

• The new Pope Video is directed to ecclesial movements and groups: “they are a gift, they are a treasure in the Church!” 
• Praising their “capacity to dialogue at the service of the Church’s evangelizing mission,” Pope Francis asks them to “always be on the move, responding to the impulse of the Holy Spirit to the challenges, to the changes in today’s world.”
• In this prayer intention, the Pope invites ecclesial groups to “place their own charisms at the service of the world’s needs,” avoiding any “temptation to close in on themselves.”

(Vatican City, May 2, 2023) – Ecclesial movements “are a treasure in the Church”: they speak “different languages” and “they seem different, but it is their creativity that creates these differences.” This is how Pope Francis begins The Pope Video for May, in which he shares his new prayer intention entrusted to everyone in the Catholic Church through the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network. In fact, the Holy Father’s reflection this month is dedicated to ecclesial movements and groups which “renew the Church with their capacity for dialogue at the service of her evangelizing mission.”

Many charisms, one mission

The video – produced in collaboration with the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, which counts among its tasks that of accompanying the foundation and development of associations of the laity and ecclesial movements – narrates pieces of their lives in very different contexts. There are, for example, Portuguese scouts on pilgrimage with the World Youth Day cross; members of the Neocatechumenal Way engaged in evangelization on the streets of American cities; Shalom missionaries in Madagascar and Communion and Liberation missionaries in the Philippines; members of Nuovi Orizzonti (New Horizons), together with families from Brazilian favelas; and members of the Pope John XXIII Community with families in Kenyan slums; members of Sant’Egidio welcoming refugees from Libya arriving through humanitarian corridors; members of the Focolare Movement cleaning polluted beaches in Southeast Asia; young people from the Eucharistic Youth Movement in adoration in front of the Eucharist during its international congress. Many different charisms, one sole mission: proclaiming the Gospel to different places and in different ways.

At the service of the Church’s evangelizing mission

Ecclesial movements are groups of people committed to an apostolate with their own specific charism, which the Holy Spirit grants for the common good of the Church. Composed mainly of members of the lay faithful, the search for a personal encounter with Christ unites them. At the same time, at the service of the Gospel, they dialogue with today’s women and men, wherever they are.

These ecclesial movements and groups find “new ways of showing the attractiveness and the newness of the Gospel,” Pope Francis explains in The Pope Video. They renew the Church through languages that “seem different,” and with the “creativity” of each charism. As Pope Saint John Paul II also said: “Each movement differs from the others, but all are united in the same communion and for the same mission,” without forgetting that “true charisms cannot but tend toward an encounter with Christ.”

International, intergenerational, multi-vocational

“Ecclesial movements,” says Linda Ghisoni, under-secretary for the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, “are a huge gift for the Church in today’s societies. They are, in fact, bearers of a creativity that is continually renewed in order to bear witness to Jesus Christ and to the Good News of the Gospel to the men and women of today in the most diverse circumstances, and in very concrete ways. They are international, intergenerational, multi-vocational entities, with a proven formative potential, and they are called to not close in on themselves, but to live their authentic ecclesial vocation and mission.”

In harmony with the Church

The need to remain “in harmony with the Church” is precisely another aspect that Pope Francis highlights in this month’s video. In fact, in a paternal tone, the Pope invites movements to always work at the service of the bishops and parishes. “The danger,” he reminds them, is the “temptation to close in” on themselves. Each movement, in fact, is not an end in itself, but a place that fosters an encounter with God which finds its fulfilment by “placing their own charisms at the service of the world’s needs.” Then Pope Francis repeats “service” again at the end, to reinforce this concept.

Always on the move to rediscover the mission

Regarding this intention, Father Frédéric Fornos S.J., International Director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, said: “In a way, Pope Francis reflects on a fundamental aspect of these ecclesial movements: that they remain in movement. That they continue ‘responding to the impulse of the Holy Spirit to the challenges, to the changes in today’s world,’ that, according to their own specific charism, they continue awakening ‘the evangelizing mission of the Church that so many lay people have committed themselves to live and to bear witness to the Gospel in the ordinary realities of their lives, at work, in the educational, social, cultural world.’ Let us accompany Pope Francis in praying for this important intention, and as we await the Feast of Pentecost, let us pray like John Paul II, ‘Come, Spirit of life, Spirit of truth, Spirit of communion and of love! The Church and the world need you. Come, Holy Spirit, and make ever more fruitful the charisms you have bestowed!’”

The Pope Video is possible thanks to the generous contributions of many people. You can donate by following this link.

This month The Pope Video in English is available in two versions, both subtitled: one with the Holy Father’s original voice, in Spanish, and a second one with the voice of Vatican Media journalists in English.

Where can you watch the video?

• Official website of The Pope Video
• YouTube channel of The Pope Video
• Facebook page of The Pope Video
• The Pope Video on Twitter
• The Pope Video on Instagram
• The Pope on Twitter @Pontifex
• The Pope on Instagram @Franciscus
• Read the Vatican News’ article

About The Pope Video

The Pope Video is an official global initiative with the purpose of disseminating the Holy Father’s monthly prayer intentions. It is carried out by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network (Apostleship of Prayer). Since the year 2016, The Pope Video has had more than 196 million views across all the Vatican’s social networks, and is translated into more than 23 languages, receiving press coverage in 114 countries. The videos are produced and created by the team of The Pope Video of the Prayer Network, coordinated by Andrea Sarubbi, with the support of La Machi Communication for Good Causes agency. The project is supported by Vatican Media. More information at: The Pope Video

About the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network

The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network is a Vatican foundation, with the mission of mobilizing Catholics through prayer and action in response to the challenges facing humanity and the mission of the Church. These challenges are presented in the form of prayer intentions entrusted by the Pope to the entire Church. The foundation’s mission is inscribed in the dynamic of the Heart of Jesus, a mission of compassion for the world. It was founded in 1844 as the Apostleship of Prayer. It is present in 89 countries and is made up of more than 22 million Catholics. It includes a youth branch, the EYM: Eucharistic Youth Movement. In December 2020, the Pope constituted this pontifical work as a Vatican foundation and approved its new statutes. Its international director is Fr. Frédéric Fornos, SJ. For more information, visit: https://www.popesprayer.va

About the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life

The Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life is entrusted with the promotion of life and the apostolate of the lay faithful, for the pastoral care of the young, the family and its mission, following God’s plan, for the elderly, and for the protection and support of human life. For more information: www.laityfamilylife.va.

PRESS CONTACT [email protected]

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Ecclesial movements, ecclesial groups, charism, evangelization, mission, evangelizing mission, renewal.