Ahead of World Mission Sunday—which the Catholic Church celebrates on the second to last Sunday in October, and which in 2024 falls on 20 October—OSV News spoke with Kevin Foy, executive director of the United States Catholic Mission Association, on current perspectives and trends in mission work.
Foy told OSV News that with more dioceses relying on foreign-born clergy and religious, intercultural training for missionaries has become vital, while faithful as a whole need to “get out of their comfort zone” to witness to Christ wherever they are.
“The missionary witness is that lived embodiment of who Jesus is. And it’s not a witness of you doing it to prove a point. It’s a witness of you being so transformed by the love of God that it radically transforms the way you relate to people and others,” Foy said.
“Witness is not just that your parish has a food pantry, or that you sometimes do service at the homeless shelter. Those are important parts of it, but witness is that radical transformation of who you are and how you relate to others in everything that you do.
“And then that creates the opportunity to start talking about (faith). … I’m going to encounter Christ, and then respond to who Christ is and to his suffering in the world around me.”