Jubilee of the Missions

The days 4th-5th October 2025 are being marked as the Jubilee of the Missions, with a particular invitation to religious and lay participants in the Church's missionary activity to join in the events in Rome. It coincides with the Jubilee of Migrants, being marked on the same days.

The Decree Ad Gentes of the Second Vatican Council (n.6) defined the term "missions" as follows:

"Missions" is the term usually given to those particular undertakings by which the heralds of the Gospel, sent out by the Church and going forth into the whole world, carry out the task of preaching the Gospel and planting the Church among peoples or groups who do not yet believe in Christ. These undertakings are brought to completion by missionary activity and are mostly exercised in certain territories recognized by the Holy See. The proper purpose of this missionary activity is evangelization, and the planting of the Church among those peoples and groups where it has not yet taken root.

In a chapter addressing the nature of missionary work, the Decree (nn.10-18) goes on to identify three stages to that work: the presence of a Christian witness,  the preaching of the Gospel and building of a Christian community through catechesis and the Sacraments of initiation, and then the forming of self-sustaining Christian life.

The missionary work of the Church is overseen by the secretariats of the four Pontifical Mission Societies, which sit within the Dicastery for Evangelisation (see organisational structure here). In collaboration with the Dicastery for Evangelisation, they are sponsoring a conference The Missio ad Gentes today: Toward new Horizons to mark the Jubilee of Missions. The website of the Pontifical Mission Societies is very informative about the founding and work of the four different societies.

In May 2023, Pope Francis dedicated a General Audience address to the person of St Francis Xavier, one of two patron saints of the missions. It was part of a series addressing the theme of a passion for evangelisation and presenting examples of apostolic zeal. At the start of his address, Pope Francis drew attention to an aspect of the missionary impulse, the leaving of one place to preach the Gospel in another, as he gave an account of Francis Xavier's missionary life:

And a missionary is great when he or she goes. ...

[Francis Xavier] was the first of a numerous band of passionate missionaries in modern times, to depart, ready to endure immense hardships and dangers, to reach lands and meet peoples from completely unknown cultures and languages, driven only by the powerful desire to make Jesus Christ and his Gospel known.

 In October that same year, Pope Francis dedicated an Apostolic Exhortation C'est la confiance to the second patron saint of the missions, St Therese of Lisieux.

The name of Jesus was constantly on her lips, as an act of love, even to her last breath. She had also written these words in her cell: “Jesus is my one love”. It was her interpretation of the supreme statement of the New Testament: “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8.16).

A missionary soul

As with every authentic encounter with Christ, this experience of faith summoned her to mission. Therese could define her mission in these words: “I shall desire in heaven the same thing as I do now on earth: to love Jesus and to make him loved”. She wrote that she entered Carmel “to save souls”. In a word, she did not view her consecration to God apart from the pursuit of the good of her brothers and sisters. She shared the merciful love of the Father for his sinful son and the love of the Good Shepherd for the sheep who were lost, astray and wounded. For this reason, Therese is the Patroness of the missions and a model of evangelization.

The final pages of her Story of a Soul are a missionary testament. They express her appreciation of the fact that evangelization takes place by attraction, not by pressure or proselytism. It is worthwhile reading her own words in this regard: “ Draw me, we shall run after you in the odour of your ointments. O Jesus! It is not even necessary to say: When drawing me, draw the souls whom I love! This simple statement, ‘Draw me’ suffices. I understand, Lord, that when a soul allows herself to be captivated by the odour of your ointments, she cannot run alone; all the souls whom she loves follow in her train; this is done without constraint, without effort, it is a natural consequence of her attraction for you. Just as a torrent, throwing itself with impetuosity into the ocean, drags after it everything it encounters in its passage, in the same way, O Jesus, the soul who plunges into the shoreless ocean of your Love, draws with her all the treasures she possesses. Lord, you know it, I have no other treasures than the souls it has pleased you to unite to mine”.