Just recently, Pope Leo XIV sent out a letter, dated April 12, 2026, to all cardinals inviting them to a meeting in Rome on June 26 to 27. This will be a follow-up to a meeting on synodality that was held only three months ago in Rome. It seems that during that meeting in January there emerged the need to focus on Pope Francis’ 2013 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium.
This document, whose title is taken from the first two words of the Latin version, can be translated “The gospel of joy”. According to Pope Leo in his letter to the cardinals, it concerns “mission and the transmission of faith”.
In many ways it could be seen as the signature statement of Pope Francis’ papacy. While he would be more known as the author of such ground-breaking and thought-provoking proclamations, such as Laudato Si' and Fratelli Tutti, this exhortation on “the proclamation of the gospel in today’s world” will, I believe, be seen as having a more profound impact.
Francis and Leo were both members of missionary congregations, the Jesuits and the Augustinians. Mission lay very much at the centre of their thinking and personal commitments. What we have to be aware of is that both men would have understood the impact of the Second Vatican Council on missionary organisations around the world. As a result of the Council and its decree “Ad Gentes: On the Mission Activity of the Church”, mission was no longer seen as a peripheral activity of the Church but rather as at the heart of what it means to be Church. By “peripheral”, I do not mean it was unimportant but that it took place out on the edges, so to speak, of the Catholic world. We used to look forward to listening to the stories of missionaries who spoke about what they did in these distant places called “the missions”.
In contrast to this notion of mission, the bishops at the Second Vatican Council said: “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” (n.2). This had a profound impact on many missionaries around the world who wondered whether there was any further need for their vocation or ministry. After all, everybody in the church is now a missionary!
As a missionary Society we have been grappling with this notion of mission as being at the heart of what it means to be church and also as central to our call to cross “boundaries of country, language and culture” (n. 102, Constitutions of the Missionary Society of St Columban).
We contribute to the building up of local churches, to promoting dialogue between Christians and those of other religious traditions and to speaking out, with the local church, in areas of justice, peace and the integrity of creation.
As such we should be in a good position to reflect upon the implications of what Pope Francis was saying about the future of modern mission. I intend to explore further, in future articles, what Evangelii Gaudium is saying about that future and the challenges we face in the present.
Columban Fr Tom Rouse is the Regional Councillor for New Zealand.
Mission Intentions - Pope Leo XIV
June - For the values of sports: Let us pray that sports be an instrument of peace, encounter and dialogue among cultures and nations and that they promote values such as respect, solidarity and personal growth.
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