"For many of these children the Church is their only family."DOMUND 2020: different campaign, same objectiveTeresita, the little girl from Madrid who, in her last days of life with cancer, wanted to be a missionary, has been remembered with emotion by Msgr. Giampietro Dal TosoDal Toso, President of OMP International, during the presentation of the data of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Spain. Bishop Dal Toso pointed out that "the fact that there is a girl who wants to be a missionary, even in this limited situation, with her cancer, means that the Lord continues to call missionaries and tells us that we can all participate in the mission, even the weakest people".
The missionary vocation shared by all the baptized was one of the key themes of the presentation of the Annual Report of OMP, which was attended by the President of OMP International, José María Calderón, National Director of OMP Spain, and the testimony of Consolación Rodríguez, a volunteer of the Diocesan Delegation of Missions of Córdoba.
José María Calderón began by explaining in broad outline the nature and purpose of the Pontifical Mission Societies, stressing that they are not a mere NGO but a part of the Church at the service of the Pope to support the universal mission of the Church. Calderon recalled that one third of the dioceses of the world are mission territories. In fact, 43.23% of the universal Church is within the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. These nations are located especially in Africa with 55 countries, America (33), Asia (32) and Oceania (19).
The director of OMP in Spain stressed that "1 out of every 3 baptisms celebrated in the world takes place in these mission territories" where, generally, a priest attends to twice as many faithful as in our country.
The DOMUND, the "flagship" campaign
Regarding the economic data, the head of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Spain highlighted the generosity of the Spanish people during 2020 despite the pandemic. In this regard, he has released the data of the main campaigns that are promoted annually by OMP, which last year also joined the emergency fund launched to alleviate the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic in these mission territories.
In total, Spain's contribution to the PMS amounted to €13,677,596.41 during 2020. Most of this amount comes from the DOMUND campaign, which Calderón has described as "the flagship", with 12,865,172.79€, followed by the Missionary Childhood campaign with 2,489,013.72€ and that of native vocations or St. Peter the Apostle with 1,877,095.86€ (to this global sum are deducted the 3,553,685.96€ of expenses).
DATO
13.677.596,41 €It was Spain's total contribution to the Pontifical Mission Societies in 2020.
Both the president of OMP international and Spain are aware that the difficulties derived from the coronavirus pandemic in all the economies has been the cause of the slight drop in contributions with respect to 2019. Both, however, have highlighted the generosity shown by Spanish Catholics with the missionaries, as Bishop Dal Toso pointed out "Spain has a long missionary tradition. It is one of the countries that has the most missionaries in the world, if not the most, and this is also manifested in the economic contribution of Spain for this task."
An initiative of the people of God for the Church
Beyond the data, the President of OMP International wanted to emphasize that the Pontifical Mission Societies are the initiative of a woman, Pauline Jaricot, which has become a true missionary movement that comes from the people of God and motivates all Catholics to participate in its missionary zeal". Bishop Dal Toso wanted to highlight three key aspects of the Church's missionary work: first, that the Church is missionary by nature, therefore, "the faith of every baptized person is missionary by nature: the PMS are an instrument for Catholics to express that their faith is missionary," he emphasized.
He also emphasized that "the mission is not only a matter for religious or the richest churches, but touches the life of every Christian. One of the things I like the most is to see how the smaller countries of Africa and Asia also participate in the solidarity fund, even with little money". The next characteristic that he wanted to highlight is the universality of the Church that is manifested through the PMS, given that we participate in the life of the baptized in other countries, even if they are far away. In addition, he pointed out that "more and more priests and religious from mission countries are coming to carry out their pastoral work in our first world countries, so there is a Christian communication not only of goods but also of people".
For its part, Consolación Rodríguez, shared the work that the diocesan delegations of Missions carry out in each of the particular churches, not only through the coordination of donations, but also through missionary animation and formation.
