Jesus founded his Church as a "universal sacrament of salvation" (Lumen Gentium, 48). The Church is to bring the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ to all peoples, cultures and times: ''You will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to earth's remotest end" (Acts 1:8). "Evangelisation is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize, that is to say in order to preach and teach, to be the channel of the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners with God, and to perpetuate Christ's sacrifice in the Mass, which is the memorial of his death and glorious Resurrection" (Paul VI: Evangelii Nuntiandi, 14).

His Eminence, Francis Cardinal Arinze, Retired Prefect, Congregation for Divine Worship, Vatican