Propagation of the Faith - a missionary outreach

by Fr. Phil Schotzko

On July 1, 2003, Bishop John C. Nienstedt appointed me as director of the diocesan Office of the Propagation of the Faith. As director, my responsibility is to help promote the missionary outreach of the New Ulm diocese. The Propagation of the Faith Office coordinates various diocesan-wide mission collections and facilitates the process of selecting and assigning missionaries to come into each parish for the annual mission appeal under the Mission Coop Plan. I will be in touch with hundreds of missionary efforts throughout the world, all seeking prayer support, helping hands, and the needed fluids to continue their important work.

As a former missionary in San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala, I know that such support in a cross-cultural ministry is essential. A stranger in a strange land can find a home in the hearts of the people he/she comes to serve, however, without support from family, friends and parishes of one’s place of origin, the demands of ministry become overwhelming and burnout or disillusionment can follow very quickly.

I want to thank all who, with a missionary’s heart have supported the missionary appeals and special, find-raising projects over the years. I encourage you in this time of international uncertainty not to give in to the fear that robs us of the courage and generosity needed to reach out across national borders to fellow human beings who are in need but also have so much to share.

I have learned and grown so much through encounters with people of faith from other cultures. A year ago I was given the opportunity to travel to New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand. I studied native cultures and how Christianity impacted them. In New Guinea I was awed by how close and omnipresent are the deceased relatives of the Asmat natives. For them the veil between this world and the next is very thin and porous. They seem to be in constant contact with what we might call the family community of the saints. They would rarely use words like "gone" or separated" in referring to them. It seems that death has merely changed the way that their loved ones are with them. We also believe that death has no power to separate us from love, yet, these simple natives made it so clear by their way of remembering their ancestors.

Perhaps our All Saints and All Souls Day gatherings are ways that we also cultivate a living relationship with those who have gone before us in faith, no matter how long ago or far away. These celebrations along with an enlightened missionary awareness give us pause to consider the wisdom of this quote that my mother sent to me while on mission:

- M.A.C. Warren