"URGENT NEED AND IMPORTANCE"

I ... invite the entire People of God ... to reflect together on the urgent need and importance of the Church missionary action ...

"INEXHAUSTIBLE SOURCE"

In the demanding work of evangelization we are sustained and accompanied by the certainty that He, the Lord of the harvest, is with us and continues to guide His people. Christ is the inexhaustible source of the Church's mission.

50TH ANNIVERSARY

This year ... a further reason impels us to renew our missionary commitment: the 50th anniversary of the Encyclical of ... Pius XII, Fidei Donum, which promoted and encouraged cooperation between the Churches ...

MISSION RELAUNCH

"All the Churches for all the world": this is the theme chose for the next World Mission Day. It invites the local Churches of every continent to a shared awareness of the urgent need to relaunch missionary action in the face of the many serious challenges of our time.

"A GREAT EFFORT"

The conditions in which humanity lives have of course changed and in recent decades ... a great effort has been made to spread the Gospel.

"MUCH STILL REMAINS TO BE DONE"

... Much still remains to be done in order to respond to the missionary call which the Lord never tires of addressing to every one of the baptized.

UNIVERSAL CALL

I ... hope that World Mission Day will contribute to making all the Christian communities and every baptized person ever more aware that Christ's call to spread His Kingdom to the very ends of the earth is universal.

"FIRST SERVICE"

... Missionary commitment remains the first service that the Church owes to humanity today to guide and evangelize the cultural, social and ethical transformations; to offer Christ's salvation to the people of our time in so many parts of the world who are humiliated and oppressed by endemic poverty, violence and the systematic denial of human rights.

(Source: Message for World Mission Sunday issued 5/27/07, the Solemnity of Pentecost)