The message by Fr. Rogerio Gomes, the Superior General, for the Year Dedicated to Mission and the 9th World Day of the Poor highlights the Redemptorist vocation to be Missionaries of Hope in a wounded world, following Christ who was sent to proclaim Good News to the poor. The poor are at the heart of the Gospel and are both recipients and witnesses of Christian hope, which is born from trust in God rather than material security.
The Redemptorist mission emphasizes an evangelical option for the poor, calling for authentic evangelization, solidarity, and the transformation of unjust structures. The text invites Redemptorists to three commitments:
- Revisit evangelical poverty and embrace a simple, fraternal lifestyle;
- Strengthen the Congregation’s work in Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Creation (JPIC), ensuring resources and structures truly serve human dignity;
- Live personal poverty with joy, resisting consumerism and cultivating missionary availability.
Amid global challenges—exclusion, migration, invisible poverty—the message urges renewed missionary zeal and concrete actions in communities to welcome, listen to, and uplift the poor. It encourages the use of prayer resources and openness to being evangelized by the poor. The text ends by entrusting the mission to Mary, Our Perpetual Help, and the Redemptorist saints, so that all may walk as true missionaries of hope in the footsteps of the Redeemer.
Read the complete message below:
Rome, November 16th, 2025
Missionaries of Hope in the Footsteps of the Redeemer
YEAR DEDICATED TO MISSION
The Lord who sends us as Missionaries and Pilgrims of Hope in a Wounded World
Lk 4:16-19, Mk 6:7-12, Lk 9:2-6, Ps 130:7 Const. 1-20, Stat. 01-020
Message for the World Day of the Poor
“You are my hope” (Psalm 71:5)
- The 9th World Day of the Poor, which we celebrate this Sunday and which was instituted by Pope Francis in 2017 to remind us that the poor are at the heart of the Gospel, invites us to renew our gaze and our commitment to the poorest and most abandoned.
- Our Constitutions clearly define our vocation: “follow the example of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, by preaching the word of God to the poor, as he declared of himself: ‘He sent me to preach the Good News to the poor’” (Const. 1). Among groups of people more in need of spiritual help, they will give special attention to the poor, the deprived and the oppressed. The evangelization of these is a sign of messianic activity (cf. Luke 4:18), and Christ, in a certain sense, wished to identify himself with them (cf. Matt. 25:40) (Const. 4). This call, therefore, is neither optional nor secondary: it is profoundly linked to the mission of the Redeemer and confirms that our missionary presence is most authentically realized where the world suffers, where poverty is visible and where hope is weakened.
- The theme proposed by Pope Leo XIV ” You are my hope ” invites us to recognize that Christian hope is not born of abundance, power or material security, but of need, vulnerability and trust in God. In this context, the poor do not appear as passive subjects, but as witnesses of a strong and trustworthy hope. Often deprived of human solidarity and material means, they find in God the only safe refuge, the One who, through faith and hope, sustains their lives[1]. It is this trust in God that allows them to dream and not fall into despair in the face of the precariousness of resources and the lack of opportunities. In this way, trust becomes a refuge, consolation, a force in the struggle for dignity and justice.
- For us Redemptorists, this has a particular significance: the option for the poor is not sociological or ideological, but evangelical, and is at the heart of our missionary vocation. Constitution 14 recalls that “…apostolic work of the Congregation is distinguished more by its missionary dynamism than by any particular forms of activity; in other words, by evangelization in the true sense, and by service of persons and groups who are poor and more neglected within the Church and society” (cf. Const. 3-5). This means that the poor are not outside the mission: they are our interlocutors and make us rediscover the face of the Redeemer, which is manifested in the “many faces of the poor and of poverty” (cf. Dilexi te, n. 9). This implies that the Redemptorist mission must be open to the conversion of structures, to the integral promotion of the human person and to creative solidarity, which generates new ways of being Church and community.
- The World Day of the Poor invites us to cultivate three important attitudes. a) Revisiting our Redemptorist consecrated life starting from the experience of Evangelical Poverty. Constitutions 61 to 70 offer us a rich source of discernment about this vow, reminding us that our poverty is a real and spiritual configuration to the poor Christ. For us, poverty is manifested in fraternity, sharing, sobriety, openness to mobility and missionary availability. We are called to live coherently, to work responsibly and to witness, both personally and communally, to the joy and freedom that spring from a life of detachment. In this way, carefully revisiting these Constitutions will help us to reflect on our own missionary identity and will open up an opportunity for personal conversion. b) As an Institution, the Congregation is called upon to strengthen its commitment to Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation (JPIC). Our social work, parishes, shrines, mission centres and educational or reception institutions are the concrete expression of our charism with the poor. However, we cannot limit our response to assistance alone; we must effectively structure our presence alongside the most vulnerable, ensuring that a part of our resources is at the service of promoting human dignity. JPIC is a direct expression of the Gospel we proclaim. Strengthening these structures, accompanying social pastoral agents and ensuring the sustainability of our work are concrete ways to root our charism in the reality of today’s poor. In addition, we must take on the arduous task of forming the conscience of people in their different social strata, so that they may be true agents in the construction of a world that is a home for all. c) As professed members, we are invited to seriously reflect on our lifestyle in the light of evangelical simplicity: how we use goods, how we consume, how we share. Living in poverty today means resisting the culture of excess, individualism and accumulation. It is also to cultivate a true missionary availability, expressed in the readiness to meet the most urgent needs, even if this implies sacrifices, changes or renunciations. Personal poverty, lived with joy and authenticity, becomes a prophetic sign in a society marked by inequality and indifference. It is a concrete form of kenosis, of distacco, of real communion with the poor, which sensitizes us and makes us faithful witnesses of the Redeemer, who had compassion for the exhausted multitudes who were “like sheep without a shepherd” (Mt 9:36); he makes us witnesses of the One who “though rich, became poor for us” (2 Cor 8:9) and who “had nowhere to lay his head” (Mt 8:20).
- Dear confreres, those in formation and members of the Redemptorist Family, in the face of the challenges of the contemporary world, exclusion, fear of others, aporophobia, migration, invisible poverty, the fragility of the young and the marginalized, we feel called to redouble our missionary commitment, inspired by Christ the Redeemer, who became poor for us (cf. Mt 5:3, 11; Lk 6:20).
- May this World Day of the Poor be for us a moment of authentic prayer, of reviewing our vocation and our missionary audacity. May each Redemptorist community find concrete ways of welcoming, listening to and proclaiming the Good News to the poorest, and at the same time of promoting their dignity.
- Let us use the prayer aid prepared by the Dicastery for Evangelization, available in different languages: (https://www.evangelizatio.va/content/pcpne/en/attivita/gmdp/2024/sussidio.html), adapting it to our local reality. Let us allow the poor to evangelize us and impel us to live the mission with renewed vigour.
- May Mary, our Perpetual Help, a maternal presence among the humble and a sign of God’s tenderness for the little ones, accompany us and strengthen us on the path of hope that does not disappoint. May our Saints, Martyrs and Blesseds help us to live faithfully the option for the poor, as a distinctive sign of our vocation and witness to the Gospel, so that we may be able to walk as Missionaries of Hope, in the footsteps of the Redeemer, in this wounded world, but full of possibilities.
Fraternally
Fr. Rogério Gomes, C.Ss.R
Superior General
Original: Spanish
[1]Message of the Holy Father Leo XIV for the Ninth World Day of the Poor. https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/messages/poor/documents/20250613-messaggio-giornata-poveri.html
