1. Decree “Ad Gentes”
on the Missionary Activity of the
Church
27 November 2012

2. Our first task in approaching
another people, another culture, another faith,
is to take off our shoes,
for the place where we are standing is holy.
Else we may forget that before we came,
God was already present.
Motto of the Volunteer Missionary Movement (founded 1969)

3. The World of Vatican II
“What is effectively the centre of gravity of Christianity in the
West has shifted more and more, and 1970 reached a critical
point: by then 51% of all Catholics were living in the southern
continents…By the year 2000 a good 70% of all Catholics will
be living in the southern hemisphere…
The church there has the opportunity of becoming the church
of the poor and for the poor, not merely on paper but in deed
and truth.”
Walbert Buhlmann, OFM, The Church of the Future, 1986

4. The Coming of the Third Church
“since Peter went to Rome, no Pope had ever left Europe. But
Paul [VI] visited all six continents as a sign that now the
church has really become a church of the six continents…
We now know that the one universal Church with its strong
centralized power (Vatican I) exists concretely in countless
local churches all of which have the right and duty not to be
any longer ‘only’ missions, carbon copies of the European
church, but to stand on their own feet and be allowed to
contribute their full say within the framework of the whole
church.”

5. Decree Ad Gentes on the Mission
Activity of the Church
• Principles
• Mission Work
• Particular Churches
• Missionaries
• Planning Missionary Activity
• Cooperation

6. Preface
“.. this sacred synod, … desires to sketch the principles of
missionary activity and to rally the forces of all the faithful in
order that the people of God, marching along the narrow way
of the Cross, may spread everywhere the reign of Christ, Lord
and overseer..”

7. Principles of Mission
“The pilgrim Church is missionary by her very nature, since it
is from the mission of the Son and the mission of the Holy
Spirit that she draws her origin, in accordance with the decree
of God the Father.”
“Since this mission goes on and in the course of history
unfolds the mission of Christ Himself, who was sent to preach
the Gospel to the poor, the Church, prompted by the Holy
Spirit, must walk in the same path on which Christ walked: a
path of poverty and obedience, of service and self - sacrifice
to the death, from which death He came forth a victor by His
Resurrection.”

8. “.. division among Christians damages the most holy cause of
preaching the Gospel to every creature and blocks the way to
faith for many. Hence, by the very necessity of mission, all
the baptised are called together into one flock, and thus they
will be able to bear unanimous witness before the nations to
Christ their Lord.”

9. “.. circumstances are sometimes such that, for the time being,
there is no possibility of expounding the Gospel directly and
forthwith. Then, of course, missionaries can and must at least
bear witness to Christ by charity and by works of mercy, with
all patience, prudence and great confidence. Thus they will
prepare the way for the Lord and make Him somehow
present.”

10. Mission Work
Christian Witness
respect, charity, education, uplifting human dignity
Preaching the Gospel and Gathering together the People of
God
ban on force or enticement, involving ‘entire community of
the faithful’ in the catechumenate
Forming a Christian Community
nurture ecumenical spirit, special attention to the role of laity
and catechists, fostering religious life

11. Particular Churches
“Let the young church keep up an intimate communion with
the whole Church.”
“The church has not been really founded, and is not yet fully
alive, nor is it a perfect sign of Christ, unless there is a laity
worthy of the name working along with the hierarchy…
Therefore, even at the very founding of a Church, great
attention is to be paid to establishing a mature, Christian
laity.”

12. Missionaries
“Vatican II taught me the narrowness of my previous
assumption that my task as a missionary was mainly to get
new converts for the Church. I now see my call as one of
sharing in the mission of Jesus to proclaim and promote the
mission of God – which mean working to bring about a world
of justice, respect for human rights, reconciliation,
community-building, all animated by generous and realistic
love.”
Donal Dorr, St Patrick’s Missionary

13. “As you sit watching the sinking sun you wonder if there were still time for
missionaries somewhere, somehow to be able just once to carry out the
missionary work as it should be carried out:
To approach each culture with the respect due to it
To approach the people of any culture or nation, not as individuals, but as
community.
To plan to stay not one day longer than is necessary in any one place.
To give the people nothing, literally nothing, but the unchanging, supracultural,
uninterpreted gospel before baptism.
To insist that they themselves be their own future missionaries.
To link them with the outside church in unity, and the outside world in charity
and justice.
And then the final step.
The final missionary step as regards the people of any nation or culture, and the
most important lesson we will ever teach them – is to leave them.”
Vincent J. Donovan, Christianity Rediscovered

14. Cooperation
“As members of the living Christ, incorporated into Him and
made like unto Him through baptism and through
confirmation and the Eucharist, all the faithful are duty-
bound to cooperate in the expansion and spreading out of
His Body, to bring it to fullness as soon as may be.”
“The grace of renewal cannot grow in communities unless
each of these extends the range of its charity to the ends of
the earth, and devotes the same care to those afar off as it
does to those who are its own members.”

15. T Howland Shanks SJ, (1992),
“Salt, leaven and light. These images all suggest not
opposition to the world, but permeation, pervasion,
insertion. The mission of the followers of Jesus is to be
active in the world, not to withdraw from it or to
control it. Nor do these images suggest that the
mission is to make all the world Christian. Salt does
not turn all the food into salt, and leaven does not
change all the dough into yeast.
Salt, Leaven & Light, The community called church,
with reference to Matt. 5:13-16 and Luke 13:20-21:

16. “Further, if salt, leaven and light are effective, they
no longer stand out from that which they permeate or
blend in with it. They transform from within. These
images do not focus on Christian uniqueness or
distinctiveness, but on the contribution Christians can
make in the transformation of the whole”

17. “This time is dark only for those who do not believe
the Lord is present in it.”
Gustavo Gutierrez

18. Which aspects of the new evangelization
proclamation
dialogue
work for social justice
use of media
respecting the freedom of individuals
involving the laity
do you see as the most important?
Why?
What else needs to be done?