The first mission statement

Our mission is to bring Catholicism to the Indians.

If you are accusing me of politically incorrect by not using the term "Native Americans," in this case you are wrong. I speak of the Indians in India:

About that time John of Montecorvino came to Rome with similar promising news, and Nicholas IV entrusted him with the important mission to Farther China, where about this time Marco Polo, the celebrated traveller, still lingered. He started on his journey in 1289, provided with letters to the Khan Argun, to the great Emperor Kublai Khan, to Kaidu, Prince of the Tatars, to the King of Armenia and to the Patriarch of the Jacobites. His companions were the Dominican Nicholas of Pistoia and the merchant Peter of Lucalongo. From Persia he went by sea to India, in 1291, where he preached for thirteen months and baptized about one hundred persons. Here also his companion, Nicholas, died.

It's interesting that this religious term "mission," which represented an activity to bring something of value to people who did not have it, has been adopted by numerous businesses and organizations who come up with "mission statements" describing what they do.

This is yet another example of how organizations strive to fulfill ideals.