We are missionaries, evangelists, apostles

In his Herald of Hope column in the Catholic Heraldof October 20, 2005, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan's Eucharistic procession leads him to mission.

There is an essentially missionary dimension to every Eucharist. The final words of the celebrant are, literally, go. In fact, our common word for the celebration of the Eucharist, Mass, comes from the Latin close of the liturgy, "Ite, missa est," "Go, you are sent." As I carried the Body of Christ outside the cathedral, so are we all summoned to bring Christ to the world. We are missionaries, evangelists, apostles.

But he warns of a danger of congregationalism, as when people say,

"We're not going to give any more money from our parish to that consolidated Catholic school to help those kids; hardly any of our kids go there ... ."

Which reminds me that my parish can't even give a tuition break to students from other parishes in our "cluster."