Semaine mondiale des missions 2025

Par le Révérend Père Zéphirin Moubé

1. Mission mondiale Semaine en bref

Tout le mois d'octobre est consacré à la mission, jusqu'à la Semaine mondiale des missions, qui se termine le dimanche de la mission. Cette année, la semaine va du dimanche 12 octobre au dimanche 19 octobre 2025.

Le Pape Léon XIV a choisi le thème « Missionnaires de l'espérance parmi les peuples » pour cette semaine. A travers ce thème, il nous invite à prier et à soutenir la mission de l'Eglise universelle et des Eglises locales. En effet, la Semaine Missionnelle Mondiale appelle tous les catholiques à prier et à partager pour soutenir la vie et la mission des églises locales dans le monde entier. À cette fin, une collection est organisée le dimanche de la Mission. Il a été créé par le Pape Pie XI en 1926 et est consacré aux Œuvres pontificales missionnaires.

2. Historique de la Semaine Mission

Mission mondiale La semaine existe depuis 1926. Il a été établi par le Pape Pie XI. La bienheureuse Pauline Jaricot (1799-1862) en fut l'inspiration. À l'âge de 17 ans, elle a tourné le dos à sa vie mondaine et s'est alliée avec de jeunes travailleuses dans les usines de son père pour collaborer à la diffusion de l'Évangile par la prière et le travail missionnaire.

Après trois ans de réalisation des besoins matériels dans les pays dits de mission, la jeune Pauline a inventé un système ingénieux de collecte de fonds pour la mission. Une collection pour répandre l'Évangile par l'activité missionnaire. La pratique s'est répandue dans toute l'Europe et a inspiré l'engagement de milliers de personnes.

La chaîne financière et spirituelle de Pauline Jaricot devint officiellement l'Association pour la Propagation de la Foi le 3 mai 1822. La croissance rapide de cette organisation dans toute l'Europe a finalement attiré l'attention du Saint-Siège, qui a demandé à l'accueillir. La Société pour la Propagation de la Foi, avec deux autres (la Missionary Childhood Association fondée par Charles de Forbin en 1843 à Paris et la Société de Saint-Pierre l'Apôtre fondée en 1889 par les sœurs Bigard à Caen), qui ont été établies plus tard, est devenue pontificale le 3 mai 1922. L'Union pontificale missionnaire, fondée en Italie par le père Paolo Manna en 1916, a été déclarée pontificale en 1956. Ces diverses œuvres sont regroupées sous le nom d'œuvres pontificales missionnaires, dont l'objectif commun et principal est de "promouvoir l'esprit missionnaire universel parmi le peuple de Dieu " (Redemtoris Missio n. 84).

Pour y parvenir, les œuvres susmentionnées, en tant qu'organes du Saint-Siège, fournissent des informations sur la vie et les besoins de la mission universelle, encouragent les Eglises à prier les unes pour les autres et œuvrent à promouvoir l'échange, la communion et le partage mutuels. Ils ont pour tâche première de promouvoir la coopération pour harmoniser les forces missionnaires et assurer une répartition équitable des ressources pour la mission, en accordant une attention particulière aux pays les plus nécessiteux.

Mission mondiale La semaine est célébrée avec ferveur dans les diocèses et les paroisses du monde entier, et tous les fidèles du Christ sont invités à évaluer leur engagement missionnaire en cette occasion. Que pouvons-nous dire de l'Église, de la Famille de Dieu, en Afrique?

3. Missionnaires d'espoir parmi les peuples. La mission de SCEAM

Le Pape Léon XIV a choisi de placer cette 99ème Semaine Missionnelle Mondiale sous le thème « Missionnaires d'espérance parmi les peuples ». Cette devise proposée par le Pape en cette année jubilaire « rappelle chaque chrétien et l'Eglise, la communauté des baptisés, de leur vocation fondamentale d'être, sur les traces du Christ, des messagers et des bâtisseurs d'espérance » (Leo XIV). Que chaque personne baptisée, disciple et missionnaire du Christ, fasse briller l'espérance autour d'eux et en tout lieu! Tel est le souhait exprimé par le Pape Léon XIV dans son message.

It should be remembered that 1969 was a special year for the Church in Africa and its islands in terms of intracontinental mission. Indeed, a few years after the close of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), the African continent had the privilege of welcoming for the first time a visit by a Supreme Pontiff, Pope Paul VI, to Kampala, Uganda. In his address to the peoples of Africa, he uttered these prophetic and engaging words: ‘You Africans have become your own missionaries. You can and must have an African Christianity.’

This visit marked the official launch of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), which is the driving force behind evangelisation in Africa and its islands. May our prayers during this Mission Week strengthen the dynamism of this structure of communion and consultation, for a synergy that fulfils its mission and, in turn, the very mission of the Church, the family of God, which is in Africa!

4. Highlights of the Message for this 99th World Mission Week signed by Pope Francis

a) In the footsteps of Christ, our hope

• As we celebrate the first ordinary Jubilee of the Third Millennium, after that of the year 2000, we keep our eyes fixed on Christ, who is at the centre of history, ‘the same yesterday, today and forever’ (Heb 13:8). In the synagogue of Nazareth, he declared the fulfilment of Scripture in the ‘today’ of his historical presence. He thus revealed himself as the One sent by the Father, with the anointing of the Holy Spirit, to bring the Good News of the Kingdom of God and to inaugurate ‘the year of the Lord’s favour’ for all humanity (cf. Lk 4:16-21).
• In this mystical ‘today’ that lasts until the end of the world, Christ is the fulfilment of salvation for all, especially for those whose only hope is God. In his earthly life, he ‘went about doing good and healing all’ from evil and the Evil One (cf. Acts 10:38), restoring hope in God to the needy and to the people.
• Moreover, he experienced all human frailties, except sin, even going through critical moments that could have led to despair, as in his agony in Gethsemane and on the cross. He thus became the divine Missionary of hope, the supreme model for those who, throughout the centuries, carry forward the mission received from God, even in extreme trials.
• Through his disciples, sent to all peoples and mystically accompanied by him, the Lord Jesus continues his ministry of hope for humanity. He still bends over every poor, afflicted, desperate and evil-ridden person, to pour “the oil of consolation and the wine of hope upon their wounds ‘ (Preface ’Jesus the Good Samaritan”).
• Obeying her Lord and Master and with the same spirit of service, the Church, the community of Christ’s missionary disciples, continues this mission, offering her life for all among the peoples. While having to face, on the one hand, persecutions, tribulations and difficulties and, on the other hand, its own imperfections and failures due to the weaknesses of each of its members, it is constantly driven by the love of Christ to move forward united with Him on this missionary path and to take on, like Him and with Him, the cry of humanity, and even the groaning of every creature awaiting final redemption.
• Let us therefore feel inspired to set out in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus to become, with Him and in Him, signs and messengers of hope for all, in every place and in every circumstance that God gives us to live. May all the baptised, missionary disciples of Christ, make his hope shine in every corner of the earth!

b) Christians, bearers and builders of hope among peoples

• In following Christ the Lord, Christians are called to transmit the Good News by sharing the concrete living conditions of those they encounter and thus becoming bearers and builders of hope. Indeed, ‘the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the people of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, are also the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Nothing genuinely human fails to find an echo in their hearts’ (Gaudium et spes, n. 1).
• The horizon of this hope goes beyond the passing realities of this world and opens up to the divine realities that we already foresee in the present. Indeed, as Saint Paul VI reminded us, the salvation in Christ that the Church offers to all as a gift of God’s mercy is not only “immanent, commensurate with material or even spiritual needs […] identifying itself totally with desires, hopes, affairs and struggles, but a salvation that overflows all these limits to be fulfilled in communion with the one Absolute, that of God: a transcendent, eschatological salvation, which certainly has its beginning in this life, but which is fulfilled in eternity” (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi, n. 27).

c) Renewing the mission of hope

• Faced with the urgency of the mission of hope today, Christ’s disciples are called first and foremost to train themselves to become ‘artisans’ of hope and restorers of a humanity that is often distracted and unhappy.
• Missionaries of hope are men and women of prayer, because ‘the person who hopes is a person who prays,’ as the venerable Cardinal Van Thuan emphasised. He kept hope alive during his long tribulation in prison thanks to the strength he received from his persevering prayer and the Eucharist (cf. F.X. Nguyen Van Thuan, The Way of Hope, Rome 2001, n. 963).
• Let us not forget that prayer is the first missionary action and at the same time ‘the first force of hope’ (Catechesis, 20 May 2020).
• Finally, evangelisation is always a communal process, like the character of Christian hope (cf. Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi, n. 14). This process does not end with the first proclamation or with baptism, but continues with the building of Christian communities through the accompaniment of each baptised person on the path of the Gospel.
• I emphasise once again this missionary synodality of the Church, as well as the service of the Pontifical Mission Societies in promoting the missionary responsibility of the baptised and supporting new particular Churches. And I urge all of you, children, young people, adults, elderly people, to participate actively in the common mission of evangelisation through the witness of your lives and through prayer, through your sacrifices and your generosity. Thank you very much for all this!
• Dear sisters and brothers, let us turn to Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, our hope. Let us entrust to her this wish for the Jubilee and for the years to come: ‘May the light of Christian hope reach everyone as a message of God’s love addressed to all! May the Church be a faithful witness to this proclamation in every part of the world!’ (Bull Spes non confundit, n. 6).

Accra (Ghana), 15 October 2025

Père Zéphirin Moubé

First Deputy Secretary General of SECAM

Head of the Evangelisation Commission