UNITED STATES CATHOLIC MISSION ASSOCIATION

The United States Catholic Mission Association (USCMA) unites and supports people committed to the global mission of Jesus in service to Church and world. Its membership includes mission-sending congregations and societies, diocesan mission offices, and individual missioners. The USCMA carries out its mandate through conferences and seminars, publications, and ongoing mission research. Its headquarters are in Washington, D.C.

Historically, the USCMA is linked both to the Mis sion Secretariat, which served mission-sending groups from 1949 to 1969, and to the U.S. Catholic Mission Council (USCMC) which existed from 1969 to 1981, when it was dissolved into the present association. The Mission Secretariat, an affiliate with the National Catho lic Welfare Conference (NCWC), had a fourfold purpose: (i) to assist Catholic U.S.-based missionary communities by providing a convenient means of contact both among themselves and with governmental and private agencies; (ii) to facilitate information exchange for the various community headquarters and American missioners in the field; (iii) to help in the gathering of statistics and other information; and (iv) to provide Catholic agencies in the United States with a convenient means of contact with Catholic missionaries. Its successor, the USCMC emerged in response to the call for the establishment of a national mission council as recommended by the Mis sionary Decree, Ad gentes of Vatican II (art. 30). The USCMC consisted of five constituent committees, repre senting the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB), the Conference of Major Superiors of Men (CMSM), the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), lay missionary groups and mission agencies. It provided a forum for exchange of ideas and information on mission issues, as well as enabled its members to collaborate on common projects. Since 1981, the USCMA continues the work of the USCMC in collaboration with the NCCB's Secretariat for Evangelization and Missions and U.S.-based mission sending societies.

Bibliography: r. rustemeyer, "United States Catholic Mission Association: A Pastoral Perspective on Mission," The Living Light 34 (1998) 22–25.

[r. rustemeyer]