Four evangelists from the San Francisco team took the Catholic Faith to the downtown Civic Center Plaza. This is a very busy hub with tourists, homeless, workers, and people from every race, age, religion, culture, and walk of life.

One passerby was a young Chinese woman with two babies in a stroller. Evangelist Mary speaks Cantonese and so she talked with the mother in her native language. This woman asked Mary how to pray the Rosary and Mary took the time to teach her. The woman lives in the Richmond district and was not attending church there so Mary told her of a Catholic Chinese church in Chinatown. She gave her Marian and Divine Mercy prayer cards as well as a website URL that has Catholic information in Chinese.

Catholic means universal. And, although the Catholic Church is spread throughout the nations (as well as in purgatory and heaven), it is one Church. Jesus Christ, her Head, is present in her and thus, “Where there is Christ Jesus, there is the Catholic Church” (CCC 830). This is the first reason the Catholic Church is catholic. The second reason is “because she has been sent out by Christ on a mission to the whole of the human race” (CCC 831; cf. Mt 28:19).

The common desire of peoples is for peace. “Peace is not merely the absence of war. … Peace is ‘the tranquillity of order’ … the work of justice and the effect of charity.” Earthly peace, in turn, is “the image and fruit of the peace of Christ, the messianic ‘Prince of Peace.’ By the blood of his Cross … he reconciled men with God and made his Church the sacrament of the unity of the human race and of its union with God. ‘He is our peace’” (CCC 2305; Isa 9:5; Eph 2:14).

Thus, the “Desire of All Nations” is none other than Jesus Christ Himself. He is the One whose coming we long for during this holy season. He is the One our teams, like the one in San Francisco, take to the streets to proclaim. People of every nation, tribe, and tongue need to hear this Good News. And you can help.