What the Mission Month Logo Means

The logo for the Extraordinary Missionary Month October 2019 shows a missionary cross whose traditional colours recall the five continents.

The Symbols

The cross welcomes the world and connects peoples, in communication between people with the Universal Church and as a link, it creates real bonds between the peoples.

The cross is the instrument and the effective sign of the communion between God and men for the universality of our mission. The Cross is luminous, full of colour, a sign of victory and resurrection.

The world is transparent, because our action of evangelisation has no barriers or boundaries: it is the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Christian charity and the world transfigured in the Spirit overcome distances and open the gaze of our minds and hearts. It is the love of Jesus that knows no limits and boundaries.

The Motto

The motto “Baptised and Sent”, which accompanies the image, indicates the two characteristic and inalienable elements of every Christian: baptism and proclamation. From the Cross flows forth baptism for the salvation of the people, to whom we are sent to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus.

The colours of the cross are those traditionally attributed to the five continents: red for America, green for Africa, white for Europe, yellow for Asia and blue for Oceania. Each colour has a symbolic meaning that makes the connection between the continents possible through the peoples, in the communion of God with humanity.

The Colours

Green is the colour of life, of nature, of vegetation. It symbolises growth, fertility, youth and vitality. Green is the colour that harmonises the whole. The African continent is called to such harmony even in the midst of the desert and suffering. It is also the colour of hope, one of the three theological virtues.

White is a symbol of joy, the beginning of new life in Christ. It is the challenge for an old Europe, so that it is able to reappropriate the evangelising force that generated it, thanks to so many churches and so many saints.

Red recalls the blood of the martyrs of the American continent, seeds for a new life in the Christian faith. It is the colour of the passion of the missionaries who, having arrived in a new country, are interested in the salvation of the people. Red recalls the earth and all that is terrestrial: it is a vivid and communicative colour.

Yellow is a colour of light, which feeds on light by invoking the true Light. Asia is the continent where Jesus was born the Son of God, our Sun, which rises from above.

Blue is the colour of Oceania, formed by innumerable islands scattered in the ocean. It is the colour that is closest to the invisible, recalls the divine life, remembers the mystery and invites us to transcendence in relation to all that is earthly and sensitive.

It is the colour of the water of life that quenches us and restores us along the path to God; it is the colour of our sky, a sign of God’s dwelling with mankind.