The Congregation of Holy Cross will celebrate a special Year of Mission beginning on 28 April 2025, the 185th anniversary of Blessed Basile Moreau’s sending of the first Holy Cross missionaries outside of France in 1840. That was the public declaration made by Br. Paul Bednarczyk, C.S.C., Superior General, in an open letter and accompanying video to Holy Cross religious, colleagues, and friends on 11 February 2025.

Br. Bednarczyk had previously announced to the Congregation’s membership his intention to convoke the Year of Mission in his sixth circular letter Holy Cross Mission: Continuing to Cross New Borders on 28 April 2024.

“It is my hope that this year would provide the impetus for all Holy Cross jurisdictions, ministries, and apostolates, not only to reflect on how we currently carry out our Holy Cross mission but also to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit in discerning new pathways forward in mission,” wrote Br. Bednarczyk. “The goal is for our reflection to lead to action, whereby we might provide hope to those who remain on the periphery and who are most in need.”

Br. Bednarczyk announced that the Year of Mission will have for its theme Hope Beyond Borders, which draws upon the Congregation’s Constitutions which state that “our mission sends us across borders of every sort” (2:17).

Noting that the theme “beautifully coincides with the theme of the current Holy Year, Pilgrims of Hope,” Br. Bednarczyk wrote, “This year encourages us to reach out and cross not only the physical borders that separate nations and states but all borders and walls we construct between ourselves and others, whoever those ‘others’ might be.”

The Superior General presented four goals and three specific questions to guide the Congregation’s discernment and action during the Year of Mission. He invited all the Congregation’s partners in mission and friends to join with Holy Cross religious in this process because the “challenges [in the mission today] also remind us that we cannot just rely on what we have always done before. To do so not only risks irrelevance but even worse, it means failing to provide hope to people depending upon us to live out our God-given charism and mission with fidelity and zeal.”

Explore the Year of Mission web page

To spur that transformation in the Holy Cross Family and its mission, the Superior General said that two patrons had been selected for the year: Servant of God, Brother Flavian LaPlante, and Servant of God, Bishop Vincent McCauley.Both Holy Cross religious lived their vocations in ways that exemplify the mission of bringing hope beyond borders.

In addition, a web page dedicated to the Year of Mission has been added to the Congregation’s website. The page includes many resources, including prayers, a new hymn, and writings from the Holy Cross tradition, to help the Congregation’s religious, colleagues, students, parishioners, and friends enter to the year. Additional resources will be added during the year as they become available.

“Through the intercession of Brother Flavian and Bishop McCauley, and with the guidance of Our Lady of Holy Cross, our beloved Mother of Sorrows, I am confident that together, during this special Year of Mission, we will ‘prepare that better time’ for both our Church and world,” concluded Br. Bednarczyk.