Detroit — From young girls in traditional Polish dress to men in traditional African garb, the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament was filled with signs from all over the globe Oct. 23.

The occasion was the celebration of World Mission Sunday, the annual Mass calling attention to the need to spread the Gospel at home as well as in faraway lands, said Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron, who presided at the liturgy.

While the Archdiocese of Detroit is just weeks away from a synod on evangelization, the Gospel isn’t just for those who reside in southeast Michigan, the archbishop said.

“Focused as we are on the New Evangelization, it’s appropriate to remember that the word of evangelization is worldwide,” Archbishop Vigneron said. “It’s not just about the six counties in which most of us live. It’s about every corner of the world, and it has been that way since the beginning of the life of the Lord Jesus.”
Archbishop Vigneron noted the generosity of the people of the Archdiocese of Detroit in supporting numerous mission societies, such as the Detroit-based PIME Missionaries, who helped sponsor the annual Mass, but added World Mission Sunday is about more than just committing money.

“It’s also about recommitting our very best people to the mission ad gentes, the mission to the peoples of the world,” Archbishop Vigneron said. “So this is the day when all of us pray for the vocations to the missionary societies and societies of apostolic life — priests, brothers, sisters and the lay cooperators engaged in the work of evangelization, leaving home, going to foreign lands and there preaching and witnessing to Christ.”

Readings and prayers during the Mass were proclaimed in several different languages, from Spanish and Vietnamese to Igbo and Tagalog, a language spoken in the Philippines.

“We heard sacred Scripture in different languages, languages that at one time were and continue to be vehicles for evangelization,” Archbishop Vigneron said. “They remind us of languages that still need to be spoken by the Christian people. How long must Christ wait to be praised coast to coast in China? This is what he wills. This is the destiny for which he created China. He desires for His Father to be praised in all the languages of the world.”

After the Mass, congregants were invited to view displays featuring the work of various locally based mission societies, learning about the goods works being done at home and abroad.