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Missioners gather in Chicago When more than 700 delegates gather in Chicago Sept. 28 for Mission Congress 2000, they will hearken back 91 years, to the first U.S. Catholic Mission Congress, held in Chicago in 1909. “The very first mission congress was inspired in Archbishop Quigley’s living room, said Holy Spirit Missionary Sister Maria Burke, director of the archdiocesan office for the Propagation of the Faith. The delegates will meet to talk a little bit about the history of missionaries from the United States and to talk much about the present and future of the missions, said School Sister of Notre Dame Rosanne Rustemeyer of the U.S. Catholic Mission Association and chair of the congress steering committee. “This is an opportunity to look at all the ways we have been in mission, and look at the ways it is changing,” said Rustemeyer, noting that historically, most Catholic missionaries from the United States were members of religious congregations. “Today, many times it’s diocesan outreach and even parish outreach.” The importance of mission at home will be reinforced at a Sept. 29 Mass at Holy Name Cathedral for all of the delegates and 1,250 young people, from fifth grade through high school. The idea is not to show the youths that they can grow up to be missionaries, Rustemeyer said. “We will be celebrating that they already are members of that mission.” The congress also includes a welcome address by Cardinal George, who serves on the National Council of Catholic Bishops Committee on World Mission, and a keynote address by Archbishop Marcello Zago, OMI, secretariat for the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. Sponsoring organizations include the Catholic Network of Volunteer Services, the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the Holy Childhood Association, the NCCB Committee on World Mission, the Society for the Propagation of the Faith and the U.S. Catholic Mission Association. Cardinal Gabriel Montalvo, nuncio to the United States, also is expected, Rustemeyer said. The number of U.S. missionaries in foreign countries peaked at 9,655 in 1968, Rustemeyer said. That number dropped to about 6,000 in 1990, and to about 4,000 this year. But this year, for the first time, the association tried to find out the number of people doing missionary work within the United States. About 2,100 names were returned with the survey, she said. Some of the delegates at the congress will be from among those missioners. Others are representatives of mission institutes, diocesan and parish mission programs and programs engaging the laity in missions and volunteer service. “We also have a lot of people who might not be missionaries, but they have missionary hearts,” she said. Burke, who served as a missionary in Papua New Guinea for 21 years, said she is looking forward to seeing old friends and to hearing from those who represent the new way of being missionaries, particularly lay people who spend a shorter time in the missions. Burke said she attended a similar congress in Baltimore in 1983. “I was young then, and I was kind of in awe about the wisdom of
these people,” she said. “Now I’m looking forward to meeting the
people. It’s more the being with than the listening to.”
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