Mission, Evangelism and Catholic Charities
What Is Mission?
Mission is the task given by the risen Jesus to his followers: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19–20). This command, known as the Great Commission, is foundational to Catholic identity. The Catholic Church understands itself as a missionary Church — not in the sense of imposing its beliefs on others, but in the sense that it has something of great importance to offer: the Good News of God’s love and the invitation to share in the life of Christ.
Evangelism (or evangelisation) is the process of sharing the Good News. For Catholics today in Britain, evangelism takes many forms: inviting friends and neighbours to Mass, running faith exploration courses (such as RCIA — the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults), speaking openly about faith in workplaces and schools, and engaging in dialogue with people of other faiths. Pope Francis has consistently urged Catholics to be a “missionary Church” — one that reaches out rather than waiting for people to come to it.
The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19–20): Jesus commands his disciples to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” This is the foundation of Catholic mission: the Gospel is not private property but a gift to be shared with everyone. Catholics in Britain today engage in evangelism through faith courses, parish outreach and community service.
The Society of Saint Vincent de Paul (SVP)
The Society of Saint Vincent de Paul (SVP) was founded in Paris in 1833 by a group of young Catholic university students led by Frédéric Ozanam. It is named after St Vincent de Paul (1581–1660), a French priest who dedicated his life to the service of the poor and who reformed the training of priests and the care of the sick and orphaned in seventeenth-century France.
The SVP is an international lay organisation operating in 153 countries. Its members — called Vincentians — visit people in their homes, hospitals and care homes, offer practical help (food parcels, clothing, furniture), befriend the lonely and isolated, and run projects for the homeless, the unemployed and those in financial difficulty. The SVP operates through local parish conferences (groups), making it one of the most locally embedded Catholic charitable organisations in Britain. Its motto is “Serviens in Spe” — “Serving in Hope.”
What distinguishes the SVP from purely secular charities is its emphasis on the personal relationship: Vincentians do not simply deliver goods, they sit with the people they serve, treating each person as Christ. The theological grounding is Matthew 25:40: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” In a Catholic parish in Liverpool, for example, the local SVP conference might visit elderly parishioners who cannot attend Mass, bring Holy Communion to the housebound, run a lunch club for the lonely, and collect food for a local food bank.
Pax Christi (Latin: “Peace of Christ”) is an international Catholic peace movement founded in 1945, initially as a movement of Franco-German reconciliation after the Second World War. It now works in over forty countries, campaigning for disarmament (including opposition to nuclear weapons), challenging militarism, and promoting reconciliation between enemies as a concrete expression of the Gospel.
Pax Christi’s theological foundation is the Beatitude “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9) and the Catholic commitment to the “just war” tradition alongside its increasingly strong pacifist strand. In Britain, Pax Christi UK campaigns against the Trident nuclear weapons programme, works with schools on peace education, and runs interfaith peace-building initiatives. The organisation sees disarmament not as political preference but as a moral requirement flowing from the sanctity of human life and the command to love one’s enemy (Matthew 5:44).
The Corrymeela Community is an ecumenical Christian reconciliation community in Northern Ireland, founded in 1965 by Ray Davey — a Presbyterian minister who had been a prisoner of war and had witnessed the destruction of Dresden. Located at a residential centre on the Antrim coast, Corrymeela brings together Catholics and Protestants divided by the violence of the Troubles, young people from different communities, and families affected by conflict, to work together on healing and understanding.
Corrymeela is notable for being explicitly Christian but ecumenical — it does not belong to one denomination. Its work is grounded in the conviction that the Gospel calls all Christians to reconciliation, drawing on Paul’s letter to the Corinthians: “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18). While primarily Protestant in origin, the GCSE specification names Corrymeela alongside Pax Christi as an example of Catholic-engaged peace-building, because it works across the Catholic-Protestant divide and many Catholics participate in its work.
Catholics in Great Britain: Mission Today
There are approximately five million Catholics in England and Wales, making Catholicism the second largest Christian denomination after the Church of England. Catholics in Britain today engage in mission in a context very different from earlier centuries: a secular, pluralist society in which faith is often treated as a private matter. The challenge of Catholic mission in Britain is therefore not primarily overseas but local: how to share the Gospel with a society that is largely unchurched, and how to demonstrate the relevance of Catholic teaching and practice to contemporary life.
This local mission takes many forms. Westminster Cathedral in London hosts regular public events, concerts, lectures and open days to engage people who might not otherwise encounter Catholicism. Individual parishes run Alpha and RCIA courses for people exploring the faith. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales speaks publicly on issues of justice, education and family life, acting as a public voice for Catholic Social Teaching in national debate. For Catholics, none of this is separate from the central command: “Love the Lord your God… and love your neighbour as yourself” (Matthew 22:37–39).
SVP: international lay organisation visiting and serving the poor person-to-person in 153 countries, grounded in Matthew 25:40 (“Whatever you did for the least…”). Pax Christi: international Catholic peace movement working for disarmament and nonviolent conflict resolution, grounded in the Beatitude (Matthew 5:9). Corrymeela: ecumenical reconciliation community in Northern Ireland, bringing Catholics and Protestants together, grounded in 2 Corinthians 5:18.