Mission of the Church is to collaborate with God in his work for the wholeness of the human person, the human community and the cosmos according to the pattern revealed in Jesus Christ.

Now if the Church’s mission is to collaborate with God in his work for the wholeness of the human person, the human community and the cosmos, then this demands that it care for the earth, that it be concerned about life and that it be committed to people. The Church’s task is to work along with God for the creation of a new human society which is consciously rooted in God, which is characterized by freedom, equality, love, justice and peace and which lives in harmony and communion with nature.

The mission of the Church is the one given to her by Christ: to be a force for evangelization and leaven for the building of a Christian community as well as leaven for national unity.

Yes, brothers and sisters, the mission of the Church is glorious-to invite all of us to come unto Christ through proclaiming the gospel, perfecting our lives, and redeeming our dead. As we come unto Christ, we bless our own lives, those of our families, and our Father in Heaven's children, both living and dead. . . .

"I pray that we will be obedient to God, learn His will and do it, and, above all, that we will keep the first and great commandment-to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength" ("Come Unto Christ," April 1988 General Conference).

The fundamental mission of the Church is the evangelisation of the Gospel-values where they do not exist or where they exist and need strengthening. They ought to be proclaimed not just to people but also to structures, situations and contexts. Church leadership in Africa must especially enter more deeply into the reality of the life of the oppressed. The life-style and bearing of Church leaders ought to manifest a clear option for them.

And this is the mission of the church — not civilization, but salvation — not better laws, purer legislation, social elevation, human equality, and liberty, but FIRST, the " kingdom of God and His righteousness;" regenerated hearts, and all other things will follow.

There's always the tendency to transform the Church into an ethical agency, and of measuring the Church by the yardstick of social and cultural utility. The mission proper to the Church is that of proclaiming the Gospel. But when one identifies the Church with a cultural and political bloc, there is the danger of making difficult the Church's contact with all those outside the bloc.

The Church well knows that its purpose through the centuries of its existence amidst various societies, persons and cultures, was none other than the salvation of men and women and the construction of the city of God, as willed by its founder, Jesus Christ.

To work for peace and reconciliation is central to the mission of the Church. For the Church exists in order to carry on the saving work of Jesus under the guidance of the Spirit. And his saving work is interpreted in the New Testament as reconciliation and peace-making. According to Paul, God was in Christ Jesus reconciling the world to himself.

The Church is indeed, in its real Intent, An Assembly where Nothing but Friendship is meant; And the utter Extinction of Foeship and Wrath By the Working of Love in the Strength of its Faith. This gives it its holy and catholic Name, And truly confirms its apostolic Claim; Showing what the One Saviour's One Mission had been: "Go and teach all the World," — ev'ry Creature therein. <p> In the Praise ever due to the Gospel of Grace Its Universality holds the first Place. When an Angel proclaim'd Its glad Tidings the Morn That the Son of the Virgin, the Saviour, was born, "Which shall be to all People," was said to complete The angelical Message, so good and so great, Full of " Glory to God," in the Regions Above, And of "Goodness to Men," is so Boundless a Love.

I think we must identify the principal object and to focus all available means in this one direction. Our objective is to announce Christ and help people -Catholics included - to believe and live the Gospel. We must transmit hope based not on human objectives, social, economic etc. This hope must be based on the concrete person of Christ. This may seem obvious but it will do no harm to recall that every bishop must transmit solely the model of Christ. Clearly today especially in countries with serious economic, social and political problems - like many Latin American nations - the Church's ministry much reach every human sphere and offer concrete answers, but what kind of answers? On what must they be based? When the Church's mission becomes confused with earthly goals, economic, political or social, the Gospel ceases to be effective. Men cease to be effective!

Christ's mission is to release the divine into our conscious knowing. He awakens the impulse in humanity to rise above his lower nature and be aware of his higher nature that dwells within.

Our Church needs help. Ours is a mission Church that prays to reawaken values of closeness and solidarity in others. Only in this way can the Mediterranean be a frontier of peace.

The purpose of all the Church's activity is the salvation of souls. The Curia and other institutions are instruments that must be as flexible as possible in the Pope's and Bishops' hands, to take Christ to the ends of the world.