Meeting the Pope

On Friday, May 11, Pope Benedict XVI welcomed the world's National Directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies during their annual spring meeting in Rome. Included in that group, Father Andrew Small, OMI, National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States.

Below is a video report on that meeting, followed by some photographs sent by Father Andrew.

Pope Benedict XVI speaks with National Directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies; to read the full text of the message, click here.

National Director Father Andrew Small, OMI, speaks with Father Celestino Bundi, National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Kenya during the spring gathering of National Directors. It was through a plea from Father Celestino that the U.S. Pontifical Mission Societies launched its Appeal for the Church in East Africa, as it responded to the victims of drought and famine there.

Another "look" into the meeting of National Directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies, which took place the week of May 7, 2012, in Rome. Here National Director Father Andrew Small, OMI chats with Sister Merieti Riiki, National Director in the Pacific Islands. Sister Merieti was featured in MISSION ("Passing on Hope" / Fall-Winter 2010), speaking of how missionary Sisters inspired her vocation and service today. In her work especially with children, she tries to follow the example of those Sisters and "touch the lives of others with God's great love."