Mission of the Church

Every Beginning of the Year Convivience, a call was made to the young men if they want to join the Seminary.  A call was also made for young women to join the convent.  A call was made for families to go on missions.  And finally a call was also made to priests if they would like to go on missions.  I'm glad to see a lot of priests standing up when this call was made. Father Jason, Father Santiago, Father Fabio, the Polish priest whose name I can't spell, and many others stood up.  It was beautiful to see these priests standing up.  The duty of a priest is to serve God.  And Christ said, "Go and make disciples of all the nations."  

The Pope's message is also very clear. Pope Francis calls on all Catholics to go out and evangelize.  Our priests on Guam are ready to answer that call and so are the mission families.  When the Pope told Catholics to go out and evangelize in the public squares, members of the Neocatechumenal Way did just that.  All over the world (including Guam), the members of the Way took to the streets evangelizing.  They stood in the street corners and publicly proclaimed the Gospels along with their personal testimonies.  

 Nevertheless, the Catholic Church on Guam has formed and ordained many mission priests.  The Catholic Church on Guam has sent some of these mission priests out into the world to continue Christ's missionary work.  The Catholic Church on Guam has also seen family missions sent off to carry on our Lord's plan of salvation to others. The Catholic Church on Guam is doing its duty in carrying out Christ's work on earth. 

Statistics have shown that Catholicism have increased in Asia and Africa....continents that are mainly non-Christians.  The greatest decline in Catholicism has been in Europe.  It's time to re-evangelize Europe.  

Surprisingly, Catholicism in the United States has remained at a steady rate of 23%-25%.  I say "surprisingly" because I actually expected a decline in numbers due to the sex abuse scandal.  While it's true that many Catholics have left the Church in the United States, this number has been off-set by the number of Catholics immigrating into the U.S. from South America, Protestant converts, and even a few "reverts" (Catholics returning to the Church).