Komunikat Nru 3 mis-Sinodu tal-Isqfijiet dwar l-Evanġelizzazzjoni Ġdida
biex innisslu l-Fidi Nisranija
Mibgħut lilna
mill-Eċċellenza Tiegħu
Monsinjur Mario Grech, Isqof ta' Għawdex.
19 Ottubru 2012
(1) H. E. Mons. José
Rafael QUIRÓS, (COSTA RICA)
What becomes
imperative for the new evangelization is the renewal of the parish
as a space that renders possible and organic an authentic experience
of meeting with Jesus Christ and of participating in his following
as disciples. The parish must articulate itself as a great community
of small communities and communal experiences in which it becomes
possible to redeem the personalizing value of the meeting.
In this sense, in the
context of a society in which anonymity and indifference, the hunger
for domination and the affirmation of relationships marked by power,
apathy in the defense of the dignity of human beings, the desire to
possess and the rampant consumerism that derives from that, appear
to us as the characteristics of a lifestyle that is
anti-evangelical, the normative character of the first Christian
community leads us to re-evaluate the importance of the promotion of
an alternative lifestyle, marked by Gospel values, that transforms
the community of believers into a motor for the promotion of the
confession of faith as a matrix of cultural,
ethical, political and economic meaning that is authentically human.
(2) H. E. Mons. Yves
PATENÔTRE, Archbishop of Sens (FRANCE)
If the phenomenon of
secularization exists in our countries of old Christianity, this
should not discourage us but rather renew the missionary spirit in
us. We must look at today’s world with the gaze of the Father. This
world is loved by God. He sees it as the world of his children in
the diversity of peoples, cultures and religions. He is the Father
of the human family. The divine trace of this paternity is love at
the heart of every human being. Christians, by the grace of
Revelation, we know that love comes from God, that love is God, how
to make it recognized? This was the mission of Jesus. ..... In some
way, we are not signs of the Church, but signs of Christ, and in
this we will be the Church: face and word of Christ, living and
proclaiming the faith of today in the words of yesterday. This
reminds me of an always relevant phrase by Cardinal Suhard, the
founder of the Mission in France: “This does not mean making the
world enter the Church as she is, but making the Church capable of
welcoming the world as it is.”
(3) H. E. Mons. Luis
A. CASTRO QUIROGA, I.M.C. (COLOMBIA)
The first Christians,
thanks to the power of the first announcement, took Jesus
everywhere, but without being able to count on the support of
culture, the state, religions or public opinion. This is the
situation the Church finds itself in in many places throughout the
world. We are called to invent, to build roads and new forms that
help to sow the seed of the first announcement of Jesus in the lives
of those who no longer believe in him.
(4) Rev. F. NICOLÁS
PACHÓN, S.I., Superior General of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits)
A New Evangelization
has to learn from the good and not-so-good points of the First
Evangelization. I come from a tradition of Evangelization and
Spirituality that encourages “Finding God in all things”.
I am afraid that we,
missionaries, have not done it with sufficient depth and, thus, have
not enriched the Universal Church as the Church could expect from
us. We have looked for Western signs of Faith and Sanctity and have
not discovered how God had been at work in other peoples. This
impoverishes all. We miss important clues, insights and discoveries.
We have learnt from
the past as effective for communicating the Gospel: the way of
humility, the awareness of human limitation when it comes to
expressing the Spirit, the simplicity of the message, generosity and
joy in acknowledging goodness and holiness, our life as a factor of
credibility, forgiveness and reconciliation, the message of the
Cross in our own self-denial.
(5) Rev. F. Josep M.
ABELLA BATLLE, C.M.F., Superior General of Claretians
The call to the New
Evangelization is above all an appeal to be joyful and responsible
Christians of the 21st century, in a great fidelity to the Gospel
and the people of our time as well as with a new style for the
mission. We are not talking therefore about a punctual action or a
series of activities but rather a “process” in which various
elements play a role.
The New Evangelization
always sets out from reality, observed with the compassionate heart
of Jesus, since it is from the constant dialectic between the Spirit
and reality that the novelty and guidelines that will direct it will
emerge.....
It requires more
attention to be paid to quality rather than to quantity; to what is
essential, rather than what is accidental; and it promotes a
tireless dialogue.
(6) Card. Stanisław
DZIWISZ, Archbishop of Kraków (POLAND)
The new evangelization
should dare to restore the question of God and help man to emerge
from this “interior desert”. Thus is born the question of how to
lead man out of this desert. One thing is certain. Science is not
enough. Documents are not enough. Our Church structures are not
enough. These do not quite reach the heart of man.
A characteristic sign
of our times is that the Church today speaks much more effectively
when she expresses herself with the message of Divine Mercy. It
seems that this discussion touches more effectively the heart of the
man closed in himself, enmeshed in sin and in outward
self-sufficiency but in reality searching for meaning in his life
and reasons to hope.
Humanity will not find
peace until it returns to the source of mercy”, which is in Jesus
(Sister Faustina, Diary, no.699). It seems that man today has
managed to preserve within himself a sensitivity toward a
disinterested mercy. And this itself - God’s mercy which influences
his fate - makes itself heard and touches the deepest chords of the
human heart. Devotion to the Divine Mercy has become a means of
formation for zealous and
responsible
Christians. The heart of merciful God speaks to the heart of man.
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