October 25, 2025
https://www.laciviltacattolica.com
“We are not living in an age of change, we are experiencing a change of age.” This statement, repeatedly emphasized by Pope Francis, is taken up in missionary circles “to reinforce another frequently used expression: the paradigm shift in mission today. The use of these two expressions emphasizes the idea of a radical process of transformation and, at the same time, a change in the model of mission, as if there were only one single model” (p. 9). The author, a Portuguese Comboni missionary, “sets out to reflect on the models of mission that have become established in the post-conciliar Church and to illuminate this reflection with the contribution of the recent pontificates, in particular that of Francis” (p. 11).
The book, published in Italian, whose title translates as Models of Mission: The Reconfiguration of Mission with Pope Francis, is divided into 13 chapters, the first three clarifying the terms used in the title, that is, what we mean by “models” and “reconfiguration.” The reflection “has no theological or ecclesiological pretensions in terms of content, nor academic pretensions in terms of form. It attempts to be an exploratory essay with the aim of spreading ideas” (p. 15). In this perspective, mission models are to be understood “as concepts of spiritual reference, sources of inspiration and motivation that guide commitment” (p. 16). The intent is dialogical and propositional, “offering above all the reasons for understanding the different models and, eventually, preferring one or the other” (p. 18), with particular attention to the teaching of Pope Francis: “Conversion (a term he uses) can be seen as a starting point that leads to reconfiguration (the term in our subtitle) of the life of the Church in all its dimensions” (p. 20).
One chapter is dedicated to Francis’ teaching on themes that cut across the different models. The joy of the Gospel, the Church going forth, the four principles set out in Evangelii Gaudium (cf. nos. 222-237), which “can be profitably applied to every model of mission and can serve as a compass” (p. 27); holiness as the most beautiful face of the Church, which can be taken up “also in relation to missionaries and models of mission.”
The author examines six possible models of mission. Each is briefly presented, with reference to its biblical foundation, a summary of its historical development, an explanation of Pope Francis’ contribution, and an assessment of its strengths and weaknesses.
The models of mission follow one another as proclamation, encounter, service, fraternity, liberation, and finally, integral ecology, which “appears as a model in the making” (p. 156). Missionary institutes were born in the nineteenth century and responded to the needs of a social and ecclesial context that was very different from the current one. The crisis of the missionary paradigm questions the identity of these institutes and stimulates a deeper understanding of their founding charism: “The pope seems to suggest a change of vision: it is not we who definitively possess a charism, it is the charism, dynamically and by divine grace, that possesses us in the different seasons of our lives, in the changing epochs and generations of an institute or community” (p. 185). This also leads to a reflection on the relationship between charism and institution, which struggles to keep pace: “We find more inspiration, charism and prophecy regarding the mission in the words and gestures of Pope Francis than in the structures designed to accompany and support the mission” (p. 201).
According to the author, the reform of the Curia with the constitution Praedicate Evangelium, while on the one hand seeming to propose a missionary reconfiguration of the Church, establishing the Dicastery for Evangelization in first place among the dicasteries, and having it presided over directly by the pope, on the other hand “will not fail to arouse some lively concern among missionaries” (p. 203). With John Paul II’s reform of the Curia, missionaries had already moved from the canonical jurisdiction of the Congregation “De Propaganda Fide,” under whose patronage they were born and received support, to that of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, which in fact fragmented the focus on the mission and missionaries and shifted the emphasis of their identity: “Missionaries thus came to be seen as religious (and also missionaries), rather than missionaries (and also religious)” (p. 199).
“The history of missionary institutes founded in the nineteenth century is a beautiful one, which reawakens hope and makes us hope for new things” (p. 210), in a Church that does not have a mission, but is mission. As Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça writes in the Preface: “The complexity of the current season should not […] be seen as an obstacle, but as an opportunity” (p. 6).
Manuel Augusto Ferreira, Modelli di Missione: La Riconfigurazione della Missione con Papa Francesco, Padua, Messaggero, 2023, 228, €18.00.
Book review by Clara Maria Fusciello
