This expression, "on the shoulders of giants", may seem funny or curious and we may not realize how much it explains. Everything that man is able to discover today is thanks to what others, before us, were able to do.
This is what happens in the evangelizing task of the Church. Everything that we are able to live, to advance, is because, before us, there have been people who did a great work, on which we rely. If we are able to see further than them, it is not because we are better or more capable: it is because we rely on them! We are standing on their shoulders, shoulders of giants!
In the field of mission and missionary animation, we would not be able to do what we are doing if there had not been people like St. Francis Xavier, Pauline Jaricot, Gregory XV, Blessed Paolo Manna or Pius XII. They have been giants in their zeal for evangelization and their missionary initiatives. The Pontifical Mission Societies of Spain and the whole world are what they are, thanks to them.
This year we are celebrating many events that remind us of these giants: a year ago 400 years since Gregory XV created the Congregation for the Propagation of the FaithThe Pope, later called the Evangelization of Peoples, reminded us that evangelization is the task of the whole Church, and not of individuals. In the same year, this Pope canonized the Patron of the Missions, Francis Xavier, together with Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Jesus, Isidore Labrador and Philip Neri. It is also 200 years since Pauline Jaricot "conceived" the Association for the Propagation of the Faith, which would give rise to the DOMUND. In 1922, this association was elevated by Pope Pius XI to Pontifical Missionary Work, together with the Work of St. Peter the Apostle, founded by Jeanne Bigard and the Work of Missionary Childhood founded by Bishop Forbid Janson. Thanks to all these giants!
