PARTNERSHIP, COLLABORATION AND EMPOWERMENT IN MISSION (PACEM) ETS
PACEM E.T.S. is the socio-economic development arm of the Society of African Missions (SMA).
It is a foundation whose activities are centred of the development of the human person. The scope of our work covers justice, peace, promotion of the common good, solidarity and subsidiarity, tenets of the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church.
The aim of evangelization is for everyone to attain complete humanity in God. “Jesus came to bring integral salvation, one which embraces the whole person and all humankind, and opens up the wondrous prospect of divine filiation” (John-Paul II in Redemptoris Missio no. 11).
The Society of African Missions as SMA from its Latin title: i.e. Societas Missionum ad Afros, was founded at Lyons (France) in 1856 by the Venerable Bishop Melchior de Marion Brésillac with the principal aim of bringing the Gospel of Christ to the people of Africa. The SMA believes in the liberating power of the Gospel.
“The Gospel is the word of life: it does not oppress people, (but) on the contrary it frees those who are enslaved by so many evil spirits in this world: vanity, the attachment to money, pride, sensuality”- Pope Francis (St. sPeter’s Square Feb. 1, 2015).
As a missionary society dedicated to the progress of Africa, the SMA is very much concerned by the socio-economic evolution of the African society. Our intervention in solving problems in the societies in which it works is driven by its charism of preferential option for the poor which is expressed in the founder’s words as the most abandoned.
PACEM as foundation is registered in Italy under the category of Ente del Terzo Settore.