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THE MISSION 2025 CONFERENCE
A UNIQUE EVENT IN FRANCE!
On 7-8-9 November 2025,
the Mission Congress will take place in PARIS
Pope Francis’ address to the Leaders of “Le Congrès Mission” (France)
Friday, 10 January 2025
” Hope is a gift to be shared, a light to be transmitted . . . and if hope is not shared, it falls”.
Dear brothers and sisters,
I am happy to meet you, the faces and hearts of the “Mission Congress”.
Thank you for your visit, and especially for your faithful commitment in the service of the Gospel, which is a source of light and hope in a world in great need.
As you prepare for your great gathering in Bercy, the Church has just begun a new jubilee year which invites us to be “pilgrims of hope”.
It is an urgent call to renew our Christian life, which sends us on a mission: to become witnesses of a hope that never disappoints (cf. Rom 5:5), in the “joy of the Gospel” that “fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus” (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium, 1).
Joy, dear friends, is inseparable from hope, and it is also inseparable from mission; which is a joy that is not reduced to the enthusiasm of the moment, but which is born of the encounter with Christ and which directs us towards our brothers and sisters.
To be pilgrims means to walk together in the Church, and to have the courage to go out, to meet others.
Remember, to bring hope means to offer the world a living word, a word rooted in the Gospel, which comforts and opens up new paths.
I encourage you never to be afraid of “going out”, because “mission is both a passion for Jesus and a passion for his people” (ibid., 268).
This means going where men and women live out their joys and their sufferings.
In this way you bring hope, to your communities and to places where the Church at times seems tired or withdrawn.
Thank you for what you do, thank you for your dynamism and your enthusiasm, for the missionary fraternity that you patiently and faithfully weave across France.
France, la fille aînée de l’Église. (the eldest daughter of the Church)
And the enemies of France say, yes, la fille aînée de l’Église, but not the most faithful… this is not true! France has many saints, many saints!
We know that hope is often tested.
Our world is marked by war and by so many injustices; it is torn by individualism.
All this often breeds doubt, fear of the future and very often despair.
But we Christians bring a certainty: Christ is our hope. He is the door of hope, always.
He is the good news for this world! And this hope – strangely enough – does not belong to us.
Hope is not a possession that we can put in our pocket.
No, it is not ours! It is a gift to be shared, a light to be transmitted.
And if hope is not shared, it falls. Do not be afraid to respond to this call!
To be missionaries is to be moved by the Holy Spirit.
I suggest you read the first chapters of the Acts of the Apostles and see what the Holy Spirit does.
It is the Spirit who guides the Church, who moves hearts. And hope is born here.
Sometimes being shaken by the Holy Spirit can mean coming out of our habitual ways of thinking and even accepting to “mess up”. The Holy Spirit is the Master.
I remember a Mass for children, when I was a parish priest in the neighborhood of San Miguel, where almost two hundred children came to Mass every Sunday.
One day, it was Pentecost, I said to the children: “Do you know who the Holy Spirit is?”.
“Pick me, me, me…!”. “You”. “The paralytic!” [Laughter]. “No! The Paraclite!
What does it mean? “Me, me, me…!”. “You”. “The Holy Spirit is the one who makes a mess!”.
It is true, the Holy Spirit makes a mess. The Holy Spirit urges creativity!
Look at the lives of the saints: they are all creative, because the Spirit is in them!
The Holy Spirit invites us to proclaim the Gospel not only in consolidated structures, but wherever our brothers and sisters find themselves: to proclaim the Gospel in everyday life, in their joys, in their wounds, in their questions.
Blessed Father Chevrier said: “Love of God and neighbor is the principle, it is the lifeblood of everything, it must produce everything in us; if this is in a soul, everything is there. Love without externals is worth more than externals without love. Better disorder with love than order without love” (Le véritable disciple, Sion 2010, 223).
Dear friends, I would also like to encourage you to encourage young people.
Young people are the first pilgrims of hope!
They are thirsting for meaning, authenticity and real encounters.
But be careful, let the young meet with the elderly, because the elderly are also witnesses of hope.
Young people, when they go to the elderly, receive some special mission.
Do this work, which is very important.
Help young people to discover Christ, because Christ is the answer.
Help them to grow in faith, to dare to make courageous choices and to become missionary disciples of Jesus, living witnesses of the Gospel.
Give them the courage to dream of a more fraternal world, and accompany them so that they may become workers of hope in their families, schools and workplaces.
In this missionary dynamism, I urge you never to lose sight of your own communion.
Unity is a powerful witness: it is by the love we have for each other that the world recognizes that we are disciples of Jesus.
Look after each other, support each other in your work and rejoice together in the fruits that the Spirit produces through your efforts.
I encourage you to prepare for the great assembly of November 2025, and I assure you of my prayer that it may be a moment of joy, conversion, and renewal for the Church in France.
I entrust you to the Virgin Mary, caring and faithful pilgrim, who carried the hope of the world in her heart and in her arms. May she accompany you and guide you in this mission.
I bless you from my heart and please do not forget to pray for me. Le Seigneur vous bénisse. (May the Lord bless you)
