“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ” (Romans 1:7). Before returning to our particular Churches, we, Bishops
of the whole world gathered by the invitation of the Bishop of Rome Pope
Benedict XVI to reflect on “the new evangelization for the transmission of the
Christian faith”, wish to address all of you spread throughout the world in
order to sustain and direct the preaching and teaching of the Gospel in the
diverse contexts in which the Church finds herself today to give witness.
1.
Like the Samaritan woman at the well
Let us draw light from a Gospel passage: Jesus’ encounter with the
Samaritan woman (cf. John 4:5-42). There is no man or woman who, in one’s life,
would not find oneself like the woman of Samaria beside a well with an empty
bucket, with the hope of finding the fulfillment of the heart’s most profound
desire, that which alone could give full meaning to existence. Today, many
wells offer themselves to quench humanity’s thirst, but we must discern in
order to avoid polluted waters. We must orient the search well, so as not to
fall prey to disappointment, which can be disastrous.
Like Jesus at the well of Sychar, the Church also feels obliged to
sit beside today’s men and women. She wants to render the Lord present in their
lives so that they could encounter him because he alone is the water that gives
true and eternal life. Only Jesus can read the depths of our heart and reveal
the truth about ourselves: “He told me everything I have done”, the woman
confesses to her fellow citizens. This word of proclamation is united to the
question that opens up to faith: “Could he possibly be the Messiah?” It shows
that whoever receives new life from encountering Jesus cannot but proclaim
truth and hope to others. The sinner who was converted becomes a messenger of
salvation and leads the whole city to Jesus. The people pass from welcoming her
testimony to personally experiencing the encounter: “We no longer believe
because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is
truly the savior of the world”.
2.
A new evangelization
Leading the men and women of our time to Jesus, to the encounter
with him is a necessity that touches all the regions of the world, those of the
old and those of the recent evangelization. Everywhere indeed we feel the need
to revive a faith that risks eclipse in cultural contexts that hinders its
taking root in persons and its presence in society, the clarity of its content
and its coherent fruits.
It is not about starting again, but entering into the long path of
proclaiming the Gospel with the apostolic courage of Paul who would go so far
as to say “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16).
Throughout history, from the first centuries of the Christian era to the
present, the Gospel has edified communities of believers in all parts of the
world. Whether small or great, these are the fruit of the dedication of generations
of witnesses to Jesus – missionaries and martyrs – whom we remember with
gratitude.
Changing societies and cultures call us to something new: to live
our communitarian experience of faith in a renewed way and to proclaim it
through an evangelization that is “new in its ardor, in its methods, in its
expressions” (John Paul II, Discourse to the XIX Assembly of CELAM,
Port-au-Prince, 9 March 1983, n. 3) as John Paul II said. Benedict XVI recalled
that it is an evangelization that is directed “principally at those who, though
baptized, have drifted away from the Church and live without reference to the
Christian life… to help these people encounter the Lord, who alone fills our
existence with deep meaning and peace; and to favor the rediscovery of the faith,
that source of grace which brings joy and hope to personal, family and social
life”(Benedict XVI, Homily for the Eucharistic celebration for the solemn
inauguration of the XIII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops,
Rome, 7 October 2012).
3.
The personal encounter with Jesus Christ in the Church
Before saying anything about the forms that this new
evangelization must assume, we feel the need to tell you with profound
conviction that the faith determines everything in the relationship that we build
with the person of Jesus who takes the initiative to encounter us. The work of
the new evangelization consists in presenting once more the beauty and
perennial newness of the encounter with Christ to the often distracted and
confused heart and mind of the men and women of our time, above all to
ourselves. We invite you all to contemplate the face of the Lord Jesus Christ,
to enter the mystery of his existence given for us on the cross, reconfirmed in
his resurrection from the dead as the Father’s gift and imparted to us through
the Spirit. In the person of Jesus, the mystery of God the Father’s love for
the entire human family is revealed. He did not want us to remain in a false
autonomy. Rather he reconciled us to himself in a renewed pact of love.
The Church is the space offered by Christ in history where we can
encounter him, because he entrusted to her his Word, the Baptism that makes us
God’s children, his Body and his Blood, the grace of forgiveness of sins above
all in the sacrament of Reconciliation, the experience of communion that
reflects the very mystery of the Holy Trinity, the strength of the Spirit that
generates charity towards all.
We must form welcoming communities in which all outcasts find a
home, concrete experiences of communion which attract the disenchanted glance
of contemporary humanity with the ardent force of love – “See how they love one
another!” (Tertullian, Apology, 39, 7). The beauty of faith must particularly
shine in the actions of the sacred Liturgy, above all in the Sunday Eucharist.
It is precisely in liturgical celebrations that the Church reveals herself as
God’s work and renders the meaning of the Gospel visible in word and gesture.
It is up to us today to render experiences of the Church
concretely accessible, to multiply the wells where thirsting men and women are
invited to encounter Jesus, to offer oases in the deserts of life. Christian
communities and, in them, every disciple of the Lord are responsible for this:
an irreplaceable testimony has been entrusted to each one, so that the Gospel
can enter the lives of all. This requires of us holiness of life.
4.
The occasions of encountering Jesus and listening to the Scriptures
Someone will ask how to do all this. We need not invent new
strategies as if the Gospel were a product to be placed in the market of
religions. We need to rediscover the ways in which Jesus approached persons and
called them, in order to put them into practice in today’s circumstances.
We recall, for example, how Jesus engaged Peter, Andrew, James and
John in the context of their work, how Zaccheus was able to pass from simple
curiosity to the warmth of sharing a meal with the Master, how the Roman
centurion asked him to heal a person dear to him, how the man born blind
invoked him as liberator from his own marginalization, how Martha and Mary saw
the hospitality of their house and of their heart rewarded by his presence. By
going through the pages of the Gospels as well as the apostles’ missionary
experiences in the early Church, we can discover the various ways and
circumstances in which persons’ lives were opened to Christ’s presence.
The frequent reading of the Sacred Scriptures – illuminated by the
Tradition of the Church who hands them over to us and is their authentic
interpreter – is not only necessary for knowing the very content of the Gospel,
which is the person of Jesus in the context of salvation history. Reading the
Scriptures also helps us to discover opportunities to encounter Jesus, truly
evangelical approaches rooted in the fundamental dimensions of human life: the
family, work, friendship, various forms of poverty and the trials of life, etc.
5.
Evangelizing ourselves and opening ourselves to conversion
We, however, should never think that the new evangelization does
not concern us personally. In these days voices among the Bishops were raised
to recall that the Church must first of all heed the Word before she could
evangelize the world. The invitation to evangelize becomes a call to
conversion.
We firmly believe that we must convert ourselves above all to the
power of Christ who alone can make all things new, above all our poor
existence. With humility we must recognize that the poverty and weaknesses of
Jesus’ disciples, especially of his ministers, weigh on the credibility of the
mission. We are certainly aware – we Bishops first of all – that we could never
really be equal to the Lord’s calling and mandate to proclaim his Gospel to the
nations. We know that we must humbly recognize our vulnerability to the wounds
of history and we do not hesitate to recognize our personal sins. We are,
however, also convinced that the Lord’s Spirit is capable of renewing his
Church and rendering her garment resplendent if we let him mold us. This is
demonstrated by the lives of the Saints, the remembrance and narration of which
is a privileged means of the new evangelization.
If this renewal were up to us, there would be serious reasons to
doubt. But conversion in the Church, just like evangelization, does not come
about primarily through us poor mortals, but rather through the Spirit of the
Lord. Here we find our strength and our certainty that evil will never have the
last word whether in the Church or in history: “Do not let your hearts be
troubled or afraid” (John 14:27), Jesus said to his disciples.
The work of the new evangelization rests on this serene certainty.
We are confident in the inspiration and strength of the Spirit, who will teach
us what we are to say and what we are to do even in the most difficult moments.
It is our duty, therefore, to conquer fear through faith, humiliation through
hope, indifference through love.
6.
Seizing new opportunities for evangelization in the world today
This serene courage also affects the way we look at the world
today. We are not intimidated by the circumstances of the times in which we
live. Our world is full of contradictions and challenges, but it remains God’s
creation. The world is wounded by evil, but God loves it still. It is his field
in which the sowing of the Word can be renewed so that it would bear fruit once
more.
There is no room for pessimism in the minds and hearts of those
who know that their Lord has conquered death and that his Spirit works with
might in history. We approach this world with humility, but also with
determination. This comes from the certainty that the truth triumphs in the
end. We choose to see in the world God’s invitation to witness to his Name. Our
Church is alive and faces the challenges that history brings with the courage
of faith and the testimony of her many daughters and sons.
We know that we must face in this world a difficult struggle
against the “principalities” and “powers”, “the evil spirits” (Ephesians 6:12).
We do not ignore the problems that such challenges bring, but they do not
frighten us. This is true above all for the phenomena of globalization which
must be opportunities for us to expand the presence of the Gospel. Despite the
intense sufferings for which we welcome migrants as brethren, migrations have
been and continue to be occasions to spread the faith and build communion in
its various forms. Secularization – as well as the crisis brought about the
ascendancy of politics and of the State – requires the Church to rethink its
presence in society without however renouncing it. The many and ever new forms
of poverty open new opportunities for charitable service: the proclamation of
the Gospel binds the Church to be with the poor and to take on their sufferings
like Jesus. Even in the most bitter forms of atheism and agnosticism, we can recognize
– although in contradictory forms – not a void but a longing, an expectation
that awaits an adequate response.
In the face of the questions that dominant cultures pose to faith
and to the Church, we renew our trust in the Lord, certain that even in these
contexts the Gospel is the bearer of light and capable of healing every human
weakness. It is not we who are to conduct the work of evangelization, but God,
as the Pope reminded us: “The first word, the true initiative, the true
activity comes from God and only by inserting ourselves in to the divine
initiative, only by begging this divine initiative, will we too be able to
become – with him and in him – evangelizers”(Benedict XVI, Meditation during
the first general Congregation of the XIII General Ordinary Assembly of the
Synod of Bishops, Rome, 8 October 2012).
7.
Evangelization, the family and consecrated life
Ever since the first evangelization, the transmission of the faith
from one generation to the next found a natural home in the family where women
play a very special role without diminishing the figure and responsibility of
the father. In the context of the care that every family provides for the
growth of its little ones, infants and children are introduced to the signs of
faith, the communication of first truths, education in prayer, and the witness
of the fruits of love. Despite the diversity of their geographical, cultural
and social situations, all the Bishops of the Synod reconfirmed this essential
role of the family in the transmission of the faith. A new evangelization is
unthinkable without acknowledging a specific responsibility to proclaim the
Gospel to families and to sustain them in their task of education.
We do not ignore the fact that today the family, established in
the marriage of a man and of a woman which makes them “one flesh” (Matthew
19:6) open to life, is assaulted by crises everywhere. It is surrounded by
models of life that penalize it and neglected by the politics of society of
which it is also the fundamental cell. It is not always respected in its
rhythms and sustained in its tasks by ecclesial communities. It is precisely
this, however, that impels us to say that we must particularly take care of the
family and its mission in society and in the Church, developing specific paths
of accompaniment before and after matrimony. We also want to express our
gratitude to the many Christian couples and families who, through their
witness, show the world an experience of communion and of service which is the
seed of a more loving and peaceful society.
Our thoughts also went to the many families and couples living
together which do not reflect that image of unity and of lifelong love that the
Lord entrusted to us. There are couples who live together without the
sacramental bond of matrimony. More and more families in irregular situations
are established after the failure of previous marriages. These are painful
situations that negatively affect the education of sons and daughters in the
faith. To all of them we want to say that God’s love does not abandon anyone,
that the Church loves them, too, that the Church is a house that welcomes all,
that they remain members of the Church even if they cannot receive sacramental
absolution and the Eucharist. May our Catholic communities welcome all who live
in such situations and support those who are in the path of conversion and
reconciliation.
Family
life is the first place in which the Gospel encounters the ordinary life and
demonstrates its capacity to transform the fundamental conditions of existence
in the horizon of love. But not less important for the witness of the Church is
to show how this temporal existence has a fulfillment that goes beyond human
history and attains to eternal communion with God. Jesus does not introduce
himself to the Samaritan woman simply as the one who gives life, but as the one
who gives “eternal life” (John 4:14). God’s gift, which faith renders present,
is not simply the promise of better conditions in this world. It is the
proclamation that our life’s ultimate meaning is beyond this world, in that
full communion with God that we await at the end of time.
Of this supernatural horizon of the meaning of human existence,
there are particular witnesses in the Church and in the world whom the Lord has
called to consecrated life. Precisely because it is totally consecrated to him
in the exercise of poverty, chastity and obedience, consecrated life is the
sign of a future world that relativizes everything that is good in this world.
May the gratitude of the Assembly of the Synod of Bishops reach these our
brothers and sisters for their fidelity to the Lord’s calling and for the
contribution that they have given and give to the Church’s mission. We exhort
them to hope in situations that are difficult even for them in these times of
change. We invite them to establish themselves as witnesses and promoters of
new evangelization in the various fields to which the charism of each of their
institutes assigns them.
8.
The ecclesial community and the many agents of evangelization
No one person or group in the Church has exclusive right to the
work of evangelization. It is the work of ecclesial communities as such, where
one has access to all the means for encountering Jesus: the Word, the
sacraments, fraternal communion, charitable service, mission.
In this perspective, the role of the parish emerges above all as
the presence of the Church where men and women live, “the village fountain”, as
John XXIII loved to call it, from which all can drink, finding in it the
freshness of the Gospel. It cannot be abandoned, even though changes can
require of it to be made up of small Christian communities or to either the
articulation into small communities or forge bonds of collaboration within
larger pastoral contexts. We exhort our parishes to join the new forms of
mission required by the new evangelization to the traditional pastoral care of
God’s people. These must also permeate the various important expressions of
popular piety.
In the parish, the ministry of the priest – father and pastor of
his people – remains crucial. To all priests, the Bishops of this Synodal
Assembly express thanks and fraternal closeness for their difficult task. We
invite them to strengthen the bonds of the diocesan presbyterium, to deepen
their spiritual life, to an ongoing formation that enables them to face the
changes.
Alongside the priests, the presence of deacons is to be sustained,
as well as the pastoral action of catechists and of many other ministers and
animators in the fields of proclamation, catechesis, liturgical life,
charitable service. The various forms of participation and co-responsibility of
the faithful must also be promoted. We cannot thank enough our lay men and
women for their dedication in our communities’ manifold services. We ask all of
them, too, to place their presence and their service in the Church in the
perspective of the new evangelization, taking care of their own human and
Christian formation, their understanding of the faith and their sensitivity to
contemporary cultural phenomena.
With regard to the laity, a special word goes to the various forms
of old and new associations, together with the ecclesial movements and the new
communities: All are an expression of the richness of the gifts that the Spirit
bestows on the Church. We also thank these forms of life and of commitment in
the Church, exhorting them to be faithful to their proper charism and to
earnest ecclesial communion especially in the concrete context of the
particular Churches.
Witnessing to the Gospel is not the privilege of one or of a few.
We recognize with joy the presence of many men and women who with their lives
become a sign of the Gospel in the midst of the world. We recognize them even
in many of our Christian brothers and sisters with whom unity unfortunately is
not yet full, but are nevertheless marked by the Lord’s Baptism and proclaim
it. In these days it was a moving experience for us to listen to the voices of
many authorities of Churches and ecclesial communities who gave witness to
their thirst for Christ and their dedication to the proclamation of the Gospel.
They, too, are convinced that the world needs a new evangelization. We are
grateful to the Lord for this unity in the necessity of the mission.
9.
That the youth may encounter Christ
The youth are particularly dear to us, because they, who are a
significant part of humanity’s and the Church’s present, are also their future.
With regard to them, the Bishops are far from being pessimistic. Concerned,
yes; but not pessimistic. We are concerned because the most aggressive attacks
of our times happen to converge precisely on them. We are not, however,
pessimistic, above all because what moves in the depths of history is Christ’s
love, but also because we sense in our youth deep aspirations for authenticity,
truth, freedom, generosity, to which we are convinced that the adequate
response is Christ.
We want to support them in their search and we encourage our
communities to listen to, dialogue with and respond boldly and without
reservation to the difficult condition of the youth. We want our communities to
harness, and not to suppress, the power of their enthusiasm; to struggle for
them against the fallacies and selfish ventures of worldly powers which, to
their own advantage, dissipate the energies and waste the passion of the young,
taking from them every grateful memory of the past and every earnest vision of
the future.
The world of the young is a demanding but also particularly
promising field of the New Evangelization. This is demonstrated by many
experiences, from those that draw many of them like the World Youth Days, to
the most hidden – but nonetheless powerful – like the different experiences of
spirituality, service and mission. The youth’s active role in evangelizing
first and foremost their world is to be recognized.
10.
The Gospel in dialogue with human culture and experience and with religions
The New Evangelization is centered on Christ and on care for the
human person in order to give life to a real encounter with him. However, its
horizons are as wide as the world and beyond any human experience. This means
that it carefully cultivates the dialogue with cultures, confident that it can
find in each of them the “seeds of the Word” about which the ancient Fathers
spoke. In particular, the new evangelization needs a renewed alliance between
faith and reason. We are convinced that faith has the capacity to welcome every
product of a sound mind open to transcendence and the strength to heal the
limits and contradictions into which reason could fall. Faith does not close
its eyes, not even before the excruciating questions arising from evil’s
presence in life and in history, in order to draw the light of hope from
Christ’s Paschal Mystery.
The encounter between faith and reason nourishes also the
Christian community’s commitment in the field of education and culture. The
institutions of formation and of research – schools and universities – occupy a
special place in this. Wherever human intelligence is developed and educated,
the Church is pleased to bring her experience and contribution to the integral
formation of the person. In this context particular care is to be reserved for
catholic schools and for catholic universities, in which the openness to
transcendence that belongs to every authentic cultural and educational course,
must be fulfilled in paths of encounter with the event of Jesus Christ and of
his Church. May the gratitude of the Bishops reach all who, in sometimes
difficult conditions, are involved in this.
Evangelization requires that we pay much attention to the world of
social communication, especially the new media, in which many lives, questions
and expectations converge. It is the place where consciences are often formed,
where people spend their time and live their lives. It is a new opportunity for
touching the human heart.
A particular field of the encounter between faith and reason today
is the dialogue with scientific knowledge. This is not at all far from faith,
since it manifests the spiritual principle that God placed in his creatures. It
allows us to see the rational structures on which creation is founded. When
science and technology do not presume to imprison humanity and the world in a
barren materialism, they become an invaluable ally in making life more humane.
Our thanks also go to those who are involved in this sensitive field of
knowledge.
We also want to thank men and women involved in another expression
of the human genius, art in its various forms, from the most ancient to the
most recent. We recognize in works of art a particularly meaningful way of
expressing spirituality inasmuch as they strive to embody humanity’s attraction
to beauty. We are grateful when artists through their beautiful creations bring
out the beauty of God’s face and that of his creatures. The way of beauty is a
particularly effective path of the new evangelization.
In addition to works of art, all of human activity draws our
attention as an opportunity in which we cooperate in divine creation through
work. We want to remind the world of economy and of labor of some reminders
arising from the Gospel: to redeem work from the conditions that often make it
an unbearable burden and an uncertain future threatened by youth unemployment,
to place the human person at the center of economic development, to think of
this development as an occasion for humanity to grow in justice and unity.
Humanity transforms the world through work. Nevertheless he is called to
safeguard the integrity of creation out of a sense of responsibility towards
future generations.
The Gospel also illuminates the suffering brought about by
disease. Christians must help the sick feel that the Church is near to persons
with illness or with disabilities. Christians are to thank all who take care of
them professionally and humanely.
A field in which the light of the Gospel can and must shine in
order to illuminate humanity’s footsteps is politics. Politics requires a
commitment of selfless and sincere care for the common good by fully respecting
the dignity of the human person from conception to natural end, honoring the
family founded by the marriage of a man and a woman and protecting academic
freedom; by removing the causes of injustice, inequality, discrimination,
violence, racism, hunger and war. Christians are asked to give a clear witness
to the precept of charity in the exercise of politics.
Finally, the Church considers the other religions are her natural
partners in dialogue. One is evangelized because one is convinced of the truth
of Christ, not because one is against another. The Gospel of Jesus is peace and
joy, and his disciples are happy to recognize whatever is true and good that
humanity’s religious spirit has been able to glimpse in the world created by
God and that it has expressed in the various religions.
The dialogue among religions intends to be a contribution to
peace. It rejects every fundamentalism and denounces every violence that is
brought upon believers as serious violations of human rights. The Churches of
the whole world are united in prayer and in fraternity to the suffering
brethren and ask those who are responsible for the destinies of peoples to
safeguard everyone’s right to freely choose, profess and witness to one’s
faith.
11.
Remembering the Second Vatican Council and referring to the Catechism of the
Catholic Church in the Year of Faith
In the path opened by the New Evangelization, we might also feel
as if we were in a desert, in the midst of dangers and lacking points of
reference. The Holy Father Benedict XVI, in his homily for the Mass opening the
Year of Faith, spoke of a “spiritual ‘desertification’” that has advanced in
the last decades. But he also encouraged us by affirming that “it is in
starting from the experience of this desert, from this void, that we can again
discover the joy of believing, its vital importance for us, men and women. In
the desert we rediscover the value of what is essential for living” (Homily for
the Eucharistic celebration for the opening of the Year of Faith, Rome, 11
October 2012). In the desert, like the Samaritan woman, we seek water and a
well from which to drink: blessed is the one who encounters Christ there!
We thank the Holy Father for the gift of the Year of Faith, an
exquisite portal into the path of the new evangelization. We thank him also for
having linked this Year to the grateful remembrance of the opening of the
Second Vatican Council fifty years ago. Its fundamental magisterium for our
time shines in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is proposed once
more as a sure reference of faith twenty years after its publication. These are
important anniversaries, which allow us to reaffirm our close adherence to the
Council’s teaching and our firm commitment to carry on its implementation.
12.
Contemplating the mystery and being at the side of the poor
In this perspective we wish to indicate to all the faithful two
expressions of the life of faith which seem particularly important to us for
witnessing to it in the New Evangelization.
The first is constituted by the gift and experience of contemplation.
A testimony that the world would consider credible can arise only from an
adoring gaze at the mystery of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, only from the
deep silence that receives the unique saving Word like a womb. Only this
prayerful silence can prevent the word of salvation from being lost in the many
noises that overrun the world.
We now address a word of gratitude to all men and women who
dedicate their lives in monasteries and hermitages to prayer and contemplation.
Moments of contemplation must interweave with people’s ordinary lives: spaces
in the soul, but also physical ones, that remind us of God; interior
sanctuaries and temples of stone that, like crossroads, keep us from losing
ourselves in a flood of experiences; opportunities in which all could feel
accepted, even those who barely know what and whom to seek.
The other symbol of authenticity of the new evangelization has the
face of the poor. Placing ourselves side by side with those who are wounded by
life is not only a social exercise, but above all a spiritual act because it is
Christ’s face that shines in the face of the poor: “Whatever you did for one of
these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).
We must recognize the privileged place of the poor in our communities,
a place that does not exclude anyone, but wants to reflect how Jesus bound
himself to them. The presence of the poor in our communities is mysteriously
powerful: it changes persons more than a discourse does, it teaches fidelity,
it makes us understand the fragility of life, it asks for prayer: in short, it
brings us to Christ.
The gesture of charity, on the other hand, must also be
accompanied by commitment to justice, with an appeal that concerns all, poor
and rich. Hence, the social doctrine of the Church is integral to the pathways
of the new evangelization, as well as the formation of Christians to dedicate
themselves to serve the human community in social and political life.
13.
To the Churches in the various regions of the world
The vision of the Bishops gathered in the synodal assembly
embraces all the ecclesial communities spread throughout the world. Their
vision seeks to be comprehensive, because the call to encounter Christ is one,
while keeping diversity in mind.
The Bishops gathered in the Synod gave special consideration, full
of fraternal affection and gratitude, to you Christians of the Catholic
Oriental Churches, those who are heirs of the first wave of evangelization – an
experience preserved with love and faithfulness – and those present in Eastern
Europe. Today the Gospel comes to you again in a new evangelization through
liturgical life, catechesis, daily family prayer, fasting, solidarity among
families, the participation of the laity in the life of communities and in dialogue
with society. In many places your Churches are amidst trials and tribulation
through which they witness to their participation in the sufferings of Christ.
Some of the faithful are forced to emigrate. Keeping alive their oneness with
their community of origin, they can contribute to the pastoral care and to the
work of evangelization in the countries that have welcomed them. May the Lord
continue to bless your faithfulness. May your future be marked by the serene
confession and practice of your faith in peace and religious liberty.
We look to you Christians, men and women, who live in the
countries of Africa and we express our gratitude for your witness to the Gospel
often in difficult circumstances. We exhort you to revive the evangelization
that you received in recent times, to build the Church as the family of God, to
strengthen the identity of the family, to sustain the commitment of priests and
catechists especially in the small Christian communities. We affirm the need to
develop the encounter between the Gospel and old and new cultures. Great
expectation and a strong appeal is addressed to the world of politics and to
the governments of the various countries of Africa, so that, in collaboration
with all people of good will, basic human rights may be promoted and the
continent freed from violence and conflicts which still afflict it.
The Bishops of the synodal Assembly invite you, Christians of
North America, to respond with joy to the call to a new evangelization, while
they look with gratitude at how your young Christian communities have borne
generous fruits of faith, charity and mission. You need to recognize the many
expressions of the present culture in the countries of your world which are
today far from the Gospel. Conversion is necessary, from which is born a
commitment that does not bring you out of your cultures, but in their midst to
offer to all the light of faith and the power of life. As you welcome in your
generous lands new populations of immigrants and refugees, may you be willing to
open the doors of your homes to the faith. Faithful to the commitments taken at
the synodal Assembly for America, be united with Latin America in the ongoing
evangelization of the continent you share.
The synodal assembly addressed the same sentiment of gratitude to
the Church in Latin America and the Caribbean. Particularly striking throughout
the ages is the development in your countries of forms of popular piety still
fixed in the hearts of many people, of charitable service and of dialogue with
cultures. Now, in the face of many present challenges, first of all poverty and
violence, the Church in Latin America and in the Caribbean is encouraged to
live in an ongoing state of mission, announcing the Gospel with hope and joy,
forming communities of true missionary disciples of Jesus Christ, showing in
the commitment of its sons and daughters how the Gospel could be the source of
a new, just and fraternal society. Religious pluralism also tests your Churches
and requires a renewed proclamation of the Gospel.
To you, Christians of Asia, we also offer a word of encouragement
and of exhortation. As a small minority in the continent which houses almost
two thirds of the world’s population, your presence is a fruitful seed
entrusted to the power of the Spirit, which grows in dialogue with the diverse
cultures, with the ancient religions and with the countless poor. Although
often outcast by society and in many places also persecuted, the Church of
Asia, with its firm faith, is a valuable presence of the Christ’s Gospel which
proclaims justice, life and harmony. Christians of Asia, feel the fraternal
closeness of Christians of other countries of the world which cannot forget
that in your continent – in the Holy Land – Jesus was born, lived, died and
rose from the dead.
The Bishops address a word of gratitude and hope to the Churches
of the European continent, in part marked today by a strong – sometimes even
aggressive – secularization, and in part still wounded by many decades of
regimes with ideologies hostile to God and to man. We look with gratitude
towards the past, but also to the present, in which the Gospel has created in
Europe singular theologies and experiences of faith – often overflowing with
holiness – that have been decisive for the evangelization of the whole world:
richness of theological thought, variety of charismatic expressions, varied
forms of charitable service towards the poor, profound contemplative
experiences, the creation of a humanistic culture which has contributed to
defining the dignity of the person and shaping the common good. May the present
difficulties not pull you down, dear Christians of Europe: may you consider
them instead as a challenge to be overcome and an occasion for a more joyful
and vivid proclamation of Christ and of his Gospel of life.
Finally, the bishops of the synodal assembly greet the people of
Oceania who live under the protection of the southern Cross, they thank them
for their witness to the Gospel of Jesus. Our prayer for you is that you might
feel a profound thirst for new life, like the Samaritan Woman at the well, and
that you might be able to hear the word of Jesus which says: “If you knew the
gift of God” (John 4:10). May you more strongly feel the commitment to preach
the Gospel and to make Jesus known in the world of today. We exhort you to
encounter him in your daily life, to listen to him and to discover, through
prayer and meditation, the grace to be able to say: “We know that this is truly
the Savior of the World” (John 4:42).
14.
The star of Mary illumines the desert
Arriving at the end of this experience of communion among Bishops
of the entire world and of collaboration with the ministry of the Successor of
Peter, we hear echoing in us the actual command of Jesus to his disciples: “Go
and make disciples of all nations [...] and behold, I am with you always, until
the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19,20). This time, the mission is not addressed
to one geographic area only, but goes to the very hidden depths of the hearts
of our contemporaries to draw them back to an encounter with Jesus, the Living
One who makes himself present in our communities.
This presence fills our hearts with joy. Grateful for the gifts
received from him in these days, we raise to him the hymn of praise: “My soul
proclaims the greatness of the Lord [...] The Mighty One has done great things
for me” (Luke 1:46,49). We make Mary’s words our own: the Lord has indeed done
great things for his Church throughout the ages in various parts of the world
and we magnify him, certain that he will not fail to look on our poverty in
order to show the strength of his arm in our days and to sustain us in the path
of the new evangelization.
The figure of Mary guides us on our way. Our work, as Pope
Benedict XVI told us, can seem like a path across the desert; we know that we
must journey, taking with us what is essential: the company of Jesus, the truth
of his word, the Eucharistic bread which nourishes us, the fellowship of
ecclesial communion, the impetus of charity. It is the water of the well that
makes the desert bloom. As stars shine more brightly at night in the desert, so
the light of Mary, Star of the new evangelization, brightly shines in heaven on
our way. To her we confidently entrust ourselves
Message
from the 260 Synod Fathers gathered in Rome around the See of St Peter during
the missionary month of October 2012
1. New Evangelization is not new
in content, but new in energy and approach. The New
Evangelization re-proposes the faith to a world longing for answers to life’s
most profound questions. It is a call to share Christ and bring the Gospel,
with renewed energy and through ever-changing methods, to new and different
audiences.
2. It begins with personal conversion. The New
Evangelization begins internally and spreads outward. We are called to deepen
our own faith in order to better share it with others. Then-Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger described this in the Jubilee Year 2000 as daring to have faith with the humility of the mustard
seed that leaves up to God how and when the tree will grow. Conversion to
Christ is the first step.
3. It is for believers and
non-believers alike. In fact the most difficult people to evangelize are the ones who
think they’ve already been converted. So whether it’s someone at Mass every
Sunday, an inactive Catholic or someone for whom religion is not part of life,
the New Evangelization invites all people to discover faith anew.
4. It is about a personal
encounter with Jesus Christ. Before a person can share Christ with others, they must first
experience Christ in their own life. The New Evangelization is about promoting
a personal encounter with Christ for all people, wherever they are in their
lives. Whether that means finding faith for the first time or spreading the
Good News, the most authentic and effective efforts are the ones closest to
Christ.
5. It is not an isolated moment,
but an ongoing practice. Personal conversion and the encounter with Christ is an ongoing
experience that lasts a lifetime. Catholics are blessed to encounter their Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ in the Sacraments. Catholics are called to live in a
way that reflects the love of Christ. God’s love is shared with our neighbors
through caring for the poor and welcoming those who feel distant from God.
6. It is meant to counter secular
culture. G.K. Chesterton wrote that “each generation is converted by the
saint who contradicts it most.” The New Evangelization responds to Western
society’s ongoing move away from religion by urging Catholics to
enthusiastically share Christ in word and through the credible witness of their
lives. This is why Pope Benedict encourages Catholics to study the lives of the
saints during the Year of Faith and learn from their example.
7. It is a priority for the
Church. Blessed Pope John Paul II made it a major priority of his
26-year pontificate. Continuing this, Pope Benedict launched the Pontifical
Council for Promoting New Evangelization in 2010 and made it the theme of the
2012 Synod of Bishops. New Evangelization,” focused on welcoming inactive
Catholics back to the faith. The New Evangelization calls us to be disciples.
There is an urgency for all Catholics to embrace the grace of our baptismal
call and share the Good News of Jesus Christ with family, friends, neighbors
and even strangers. Indeed we are called to be witnesses of Jesus Christ in
everything.
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