Domund 2025 in Peru: Church launches missionary collection under the motto “Missionaries of hope among peoples”

The Peruvian Episcopal Conference and the Pontifical Mission Works (OMP) on Tuesday launched the Domund 2025 collection, which will be held Sunday, October 19 Under the motto “Missionaries of hope among peoples”.

During the presentation, those responsible stressed that the mission is “the essence of the Church” and called the faithful to support with concrete prayer and generosity to the mission territories, especially in Nigeria.

Fr. Guillermo Inca Pereda, deputy general secretary of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference, stressed that “the Church does not exist for itself, but to announce the Gospel to the Earth’s confines.” He recalled the words of Pope Francis: “The mission is in the heart of the Christian faith. We cannot keep for us the words of eternal life we ​​have received in the encounter with Jesus Christ.”

The priest warned that evangelization cannot be reduced to proselytism: “The announcement of the Gospel is made by attracting and freely. If so, the Church of Christ would be an association among many others that would soon end up disappearing.”

For his part, Fr. José Hipólito Purizaca, national director of the WPOs in Peru, explained that the annual collection holds more than one hundred mission territories worldwide, where schools, chapels, dining rooms, hospitals, orphanages and catechist formation are financed.

“Each gesture of solidarity becomes a bridge of hope that transforms lives and communities,” he said.

He added that this year we want to put special emphasis on supporting the Church in Nigeria: “The missionaries in Nigeria have stayed, they are still there to hold the faith and hope of a people who suffer. They need our prayer and collaboration, even economic, because they are giving their lives literally.”

Fr. José Antonio Fretel, director of the WMO in Lurín, insisted that the collection responds to one of the main purposes of the Church: “The liturgy, the sustainment of the clergy, evangelization and charity. This domund invites us to open generous hearts that open to collaborate with the mission of the Church.”

The day concluded with the testimony of a secular missionary with more than 25 years of experience in the jungle, who said: “It is worth spending life for the missions, because Jesus did it with 33 years, and did very well. We were not afraid: with shoes, with rain, however, let’s do the mission.”

The Domund (World Missions Sunday) is celebrated every year in the Catholic Church and seeks to encourage the missionary consciousness of the faithful. The economic contributions of the collection are sent to the Vatican and redistributed to the most needy mission territories worldwide.