Tanscript:
What are your feelings regarding your appointment by Pope Leo XIV?
It’s a great honour to be chosen as the President of the Pontifical Mission Societies and therefore Adjunct Secretary to the Dicastery for Evangelization.
So today, with the announcement, I feel it’s a great privilege as an OLA to have been asked, and really, for me today, it’s like I’m carrying so many missionary women — their hopes, their joys — and I’ve had so many messages. But also, as an OLA, for our own missionary family, the Brésillac-Planque missionary family, it’s a real privilege for us in our Jubilee Year to be honoured in this way.
But it’s also a challenge, a huge challenge, to be asked to fulfil a role of this type. It’s very different, I imagine, to what I’ve been doing within the Congregation, so it will take some time to learn what it entails and to be able to do the job.
What does this new call mean to you?
As a leader of OLA, I take it more in that sense than as something personal. This year, in the Jubilee, it’s like I’m one of the successors of Father Planque, and when we read his letters, he was so connected to Propaganda Fide at the time.
And then the fact that the Pontifical Mission Societies were born in Lyon — Pauline Jaricot was the foundress — I think, personally, it just seems a call. When I was asked, I was very excited as a missionary to be asked to fulfil this type of a role. Of course, I was also terrified at the thought of having that level of responsibility.
But personally, it is a call. It’s a missionary call to be able to offer something from our missionary experience to the wider Church. It excites me, but also frightens me a little bit.
How has your experience as Congregational Leader of OLA, a missionary congregation, prepared you for this new chapter?
Well, I think first and foremost, the fact of being a missionary is helpful. Not all Presidents of the Pontifical Mission Societies have been missionaries.
So I think just having that experience of — you know, there’s a missionary spirit which enables us, I think, to make connections across cultures. And I would say within the Congregation that has been a very important part of the past eight years, where I’ve been the Congregational Leader: that cross-cultural, international, intercultural, intergenerational working together.
I suppose synodality, for me, is also very strong. It’s a strong experience within our Congregation, and I think that will only enrich the wider Church: that capacity to really listen together, discern together, take decisions and respond to whatever God’s call is, together.
What are your hopes, and what are you looking forward to discovering in this new responsibility?
Already today, with the announcement, I was in the Dicastery, so I met a lot of the staff there in the Dicastery, and that was already very exciting because you have the whole world in one building, so many different countries.
And I think, for me, Pope Francis and Pope Leo now have given us a real missionary mandate within the Church. And so it’s how we can work together to bring that to fruition, to help the Church to live this missionary discipleship that every baptised person is called to.
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith has a very strong responsibility within that. And so, for me, it’s exciting to have the world in one building and that we will be working together, guided by what the Pope is saying about mission today, and that whole mission that flows from Francis’s magisterium right into Pope Leo now, and of course under the leadership of Cardinal Tagle.
How do you feel being the first woman at this level of service in the Dicastery for Evangelization?
I knew it was going to be something that would get a lot of reaction from around the world, and I had so many messages from women, both women that I know and women that I don’t know. Just that, you know, again, there’s a woman occupying a leadership role within the Vatican.
For me, I just feel it’s recognition of the role that women play and, particularly, I suppose, as a missionary, those thousands and thousands of missionary women who have lived their lives dedicated to mission, to fulfilling God’s dream for our world.
And for me, it’s an honour, but it’s very humbling to represent all these women. And it’s, I suppose, another responsibility, but it’s beautiful. And I’ve had so many lovely messages from women saying, “We women are all behind you.” So I know everyone will be praying for me, so all will be well.
What message would you like to share with missionaries around the world?
For me, I think this year’s message for Mission Sunday is really “One in Christ, united in mission.”
But when you read the message, you know that the first part is talking about that call to be one, where we are one family under God. And so, how can we work towards that oneness? And I think for all missionaries, within our own communities but also with all those we’re working with, how do we foster that oneness?
And then the unity in mission — that’s very strong on the diversity, that we’re not being called into uniformity, but all the many, many things that happen in the missionary world are all that unity in diversity that is united in mission.
But the last part, which I love, of the message is it brings it back to: mission is love. Mission is just knowing God’s love and witnessing to God’s love.
So I think my message would be: let us open ourselves to God’s love so that we can then witness to God’s love and bring that. You know, the world needs peace. The world needs… and if we can witness to God’s love, it will help to bring peace and justice into our world.
Message from the Vicar General of the SMA
So today we received the news of the new appointment of Sister Mary Barron from the Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles, and yes, congratulations to Mary.
It’s really a recognition. It’s an honour, a recognition of all that Mary has shared in her missionary life and, of course, a great honour and privilege for the Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles, for OLA all over the world.
And, of course, if you can imagine, the OLA Sisters in Ireland have a particular sense of pride when one of their own daughters and Sisters has taken this special role.
It’s not going to be a small job, by the looks of things, and I don’t know too much about it, but what I see on paper, it looks to be a lot of hard work. But no better woman to take on hard work, no better woman to bring all her creativity and all her gifts.
And so we wish Mary the very, very best. And, of course, in the SMA we’re all very proud as well of our OLA Sister, and very, very proud and very grateful.
We pray God — I’m standing here, I’m conscious of the statue of Our Lady behind me in this month of Mary, but also, of course, October being the month of mission, and Mary’s appointment is very much a missionary appointment, a missionary role.
So we just pray that Mary, and Our Lady of Apostles in particular, will look after her, keep her safe always, and give her the gifts that she needs day by day.
We all live one day at a time, and no doubt Mary will be fully present to every day that she’s blessed with and called by God to serve in this very particular missionary role.
So Mary, all the very best.
FRENCH FOLLOWS:
Translation:
What feelings move you on your appointment by Pope Leo XIV?
It is truly an honour to be chosen by Pope Leo XIV for this level of responsibility: to be President of the Pontifical Mission Societies and, at the same time, Adjunct Secretary of the Dicastery for Evangelisation. The appointment was only published today, and I am very grateful, first of all to the Pope, who dared to name a woman, a missionary, at this level, and also to the Lord who has accompanied me throughout the discernment. For me it is a beautiful sign for the Church, but also a responsibility that I imagine will be quite difficult to take on. But God is there, and through God’s grace I can live this responsibility. Above all, I am a missionary, before being responsible for the congregation, and I think that being a missionary prepares us to work together with different cultures.
How has your experience as Superior General of the OLA, a missionary congregation, prepared you for this new chapter?
I think being a missionary prepares us somewhat to work together with different cultures. This morning, when the appointment was announced, I was at the Dicastery with all the members and staff, and the whole world was there: people from Asia, Africa, Latin America and, of course, Europe. In the congregation we are of twenty nationalities, I think, from four continents. So I have this experience of working with different cultures and different generations. I know I have the capacity to work in a team and to help others work in a team, and my experience in synodality will also, I think, be very important for working together as a team at the Dicastery.
What are your expectations, and what do you hope to discover in this new role?
I think this is quite an important moment for the Church. I would say it is a moment when the Church is awakening to the responsibility for mission. Before, mission was for missionaries. Today, every person, every baptised person, is called to be a missionary disciple. So, as for my expectations, I am very happy with the guidelines coming from the Vatican, from Pope Francis and now Pope Leo, to orient us for the future. For me it is the possibility of working with the people of the Dicastery from all over the world, working together and discerning together, to try to see where we can help the Church live its mission and fulfil God’s dream for the world.
How do you feel about being the first woman at this level of service within the Dicastery for Evangelisation?
First of all, it is an honour to be the first woman chosen, and I take it as representing all the women who are here today, but also all the women who have worked for the mission of the Church since the beginning. I already know that it is very important for women, and I have received many messages from all over the world. Some are from women I know well, but others are from women I don’t know at all, who are very happy that it is a woman, a missionary. Perhaps this makes me more humble in taking on the fact that I represent missionary women from all over the world.
What message would you like to share with missionaries around the world?
We are in the month of mission. In English they always say “Mission Month”; in French I think it is “missionary week”. But the Pope’s message for this year is truly beautiful. It begins by speaking of being one in Christ. We are called to be united, to live in communion, not only among ourselves but with the whole family of God. The second part is unity in mission, and the message speaks of diversity. We have many ministries and many apostolates, but all this unity bears witness to the diversity of God, to the immensity of God. We cannot really limit God. But it is the third part of the message that particularly resonates with me, because it echoes our our slogan for this mandate: mission is love. To live mission, we must be anchored in God’s love and then bear witness to that love. So for me the message is to take care of our lives so that we are truly anchored in God’s love. And when we are touched by God’s love, mission is very easy, because we want to bear witness to that love. So I encourage everyone to be touched by God’s love in order to witness to it better.
Do you have a final word?
Among the messages I received, everyone wrote at the end, “I am praying for you.” So I just want to say thank you for the prayers, and also to encourage everyone to keep praying, because the appointment is a beautiful thing but it will be quite difficult, and I need a great deal of prayer.
Message from the Superior General of the SMA
My feeling is one of a certain pride. We share the pride of the OLA Sisters. It is our family that is honoured by this appointment.
First of all, I have confidence in Sister Mary, and I know that she is capable of carrying out this delicate mission well. I wish her every success, and that she may find true friends who can accompany her.