Consecrated persons have 'special role' in fulfilling church's mission, pope says

By Justin McLellan, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- While Pope Francis was "on mission" in Africa he urged consecrated persons to embody the church's missionary spirit in spreading the Gospel.

In his message read out to consecrated persons gathered for Mass on World Day for Consecrated Life in Rome's Basilica of St. Mary Major Feb. 2, the pope said that consecrated persons have a "special role" to be examples among God's people derived from their "total dedication to God and his kingdom, in poverty, chastity and obedience."

The theme for World Day for Consecrated Life 2023 is "Brothers and Sisters on Mission."

"If each person in the church is a mission, each and every one of you is so with your own grace as a consecrated person," the pope said in his written message.

He also praised the "stupendous variety" of charisms which consecrated persons offer to build the church and its mission, "so that the church can witness and proclaim the Gospel to everyone and in every situation."

Pope Francis sent the message while on his apostolic journey through Congo and South Sudan Jan. 31 to Feb. 5. It was read to consecrated persons before a Mass in Rome presided over by Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

Consecrated persons "exist for mission, indeed, we ourselves are missions," Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo, the dicastery's secretary, said in his homily.  He explained that only by going out and encountering others fraternally can consecrated persons "show themselves with a prophetic character in a society so profoundly marked by individualism."

Archbishop Rodríguez, a Franciscan friar, called on consecrated persons to keep Christ's love at the center of their communities to ensure they always remain open to inviting others into their lives. "Only if he is at the center of our fraternities can we overcome the temptation to build communities with walls, with closed doors," he said.

St. John Paul II instituted the World Day for Consecrated Life in 1997. It is celebrated each year on Feb. 2, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord.