change in terminology was not just a question
5
of words but of concepts. Ad Gentes in the first
place affirmed that the entire Church by her very
6
nature is missionary (AG 2). Although the Decree
sometimes continue to employ the phrase ‘the
missions’ in the traditional sense, it introduces a
new, more dynamic concept: ‘missionary activity.’
It is based on the conviction that the evangelizing
mission of the Church is one, but it is differentiated
in its exercise given the condition of the ones
for whom it is directed, the different types of
communities being evangelized. Thus, Ad Gentes
distinguishes missionary activity, directed to the
evangelization of those peoples or groups that do
not yet know Christ and among which no mature
local Church exists, from pastoral activity, directed
to the on-going evangelization of those who are
already Catholic (AG 6). The same was emphatically
reiterated by John Paul II in Redemptoris Missio.
Ten years after the Council, in 1975, Pope Paul VI
in his Evangelii Nuntiandi makes a point of not
reducing evangelization to mission activity, the first
announcing of Christ to those who do not yet know
him. While b ɥ