Komunikat Nru 9 mis-Sinodu tal-Isqfijiet dwar l-Evanġelizzazzjoni Ġdida
biex innisslu l-Fidi Nisranija
Mibgħut lilna
mill-Eċċellenza Tiegħu
Monsinjur Mario Grech, Isqof ta' Għawdex.
24 Ottubru 2012
(1) Fr. Bruno CADORÉ,
O.P., Master General of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans)
The labor of
evangelization finds its joy and strength in contemplation. This
insight made by mendicant Orders brings to light three of the
challenges that evangelization faces.
The challenge of
knowledge; faced in dialogue with all seekers of truth,
philosophers, scientists, researchers. Deploying the sciences and
knowledge provides the opportunity to realize this “beautiful
friendship between faith and the sciences” proclaimed by the
Council. In faith one contemplates the mystery of the ongoing
creation of God and his faithful call to the freedom and reason of
man. In friendship we can, with men of science, discern the
challenges in order to build together a world for man.
The challenge of
freedom. In meeting with our contemporaries, believers and
non-believers, it is necessary first of all to present the
friendship of God with man, rather than formulating questions and
answers that at times are not asked in the proper terms. Being led
by God’s patience rather than relying on man, so that he learns to
place his freedom at the height of his dignity and to contemplate
the mercy of Christ, who precedes him, He who teaches his friends
what he received from the Father.
The challenge of
brotherhood. Religious communities desire to be places in which
brotherhood constructed in diversity aspires to be transformed by
the spirit of communion in “sacrament” of friendship of God with the
world. And, because of this hope, they are challenged to broaden
this hope of communion, tying their destination to the forgotten of
the world, making of them the conviction of the Synod of 1971:
“Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation
of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the
preaching of the Gospel”.
(2) Card. Angelo
AMATO, S.D.B., Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints
(VATICAN CITY)
Saints as
indispensable protagonists of the new evangelization: “the key
element in the work of the new evangelization is for every Christian
to answer the call to holiness” The theme of the sanctity of the
Church in her being and in the acting of her children constitutes a
recurring theme of the document.
In the Saints the
Church offers an edifying display of the Gospel lived out, witnessed
to and proclaimed sine glossa. Indeed, the Saints evangelize with
their virtuous lives, nourished by faith, hope and charity. They
personify the evangelical beatitudes, which are a faithful
reflection of Christ: blessed are the poor in spirit, the gentle,
the pure of heart, the merciful, the peacemakers, the persecuted.
They respond with extraordinary creativity to the commandment to
love God and neighbor: I was hungry and thirsty and you gave me food
and drink, I was a stranger and you made me welcome, sick and in
prison and you visited me. The saints embrace humanity with their
love, rendering coexistence better, more peaceful, more fraternal.
This is why the days of our calendars are marked with the names of
the saints.
The history of the
Church, in the East as well as the West, in the North as in the
South, records saints of every age, country, race, language and
culture, so that the grace of God the Trinity might be like the
morning dew. It is found on all of the plants in the garden, yet on
the rose it is red, on the leaves it is green, on the lilies it is
white. It is the same with sanctity which, though being unique as a
Divine gift, lightly penetrates and transforms the hearts of
children of the Church all around the world, in Asia as well as
Africa, in America as well as in Oceania or Europe. There are holy
martyrs, holy confessors, holy doctors in the Church. All are
witnesses to Christ and evangelizers.
(3) H. E. Mons.
Emmanuel Adetoyese BADEJO, Bishop of Oyo (NIGERIA)
The Church needs to
explore the possibility of turning the celebration of the sacraments
themselves into more efficacious moments of faith impact which can
attract non-Christians to catechesis and commitment. This can be
done if we continually update homiletics and sacramental procedure
with engaging art, language, idioms and imagery which can better
communicate their power and meaning.....
Many in the world of
today may not go to Church but they need the Church to come to them,
right there where people are found, especially in those places where
churches are emptying. Or is it the Holy Spirit calling us out of
the “catacombs of fear and self-consciousness” to share Jesus more
with others? The “original spaces of social media” namely the
playgrounds, the streets, town squares, market places, nightclubs,
shopping malls, even pubs and the slums, thirst to be “Church” in
some form......
I would like this
Synod to strongly reaffirm the role and responsibility of Catholic
media professionals and practitioners in the New Evangelization and
the need to pay particular attention to their spiritual development.
Millions of youth all over the world are sharing the same stories,
experiences and challenges, irrespective of their location, thanks
to the new social, personal and digital media. The Church must
humbly seek their confidence and trust knowing that youth prefer a
co-communicator relationship to the old teacher-learner,
speaker-listener model. When they feel like allies with the Church
they can with the right format and language bring their Christian
faith and values to the new social forums.
(4) - H. Exc. Rev.
Mons. Ägidius Johann ZSIFKOVICS, Bishop of Eisenstadt (AUSTRIA)
We all live in a world
where the existence of not only the individual person but also all
of humanity has become precarious. Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
saw life and the universe as a creative movement done by God, a
movement which still has not reached its goal. I am convinced that
this vision of the Church and the world could indicate a resolution
to the crisis and, on the division which exists between faith and
life, will have the same beneficial effect on the problems of
understanding between Christian reasoning and technological
research.
(5) H. E. Mons.
Joseph Anthony ZZIWA, Bishop of Kiyinda-Mityana (UGANDA)
We cannot hope to
raise human persons with strong moral character if their education
is not founded on faith in God. That is why the first missionaries
in Uganda simultaneously built churches and schools. Where they
failed to convert directly the elders, they eventually succeeded by
converting the young generation through schools. In such cases, when
the young people were evangelized and converted to Christianity,
they in turn evangelized the elders. The Church as teacher and
custodian of faith and morals has played an important role in the
educational sector in many countries....
The way forward for
New Evangelisation: Catholic schools be a channel of evangelization
for the transmission of Christian faith; Priests, men and women of
consecrated life and other pastoral agents like catechists be
qualitatively empowered to teach religion in schools; Christian
Religious Education should be reinstated in the school syllabus
where it has been neglected or removed. The Church must be assertive
in this area. Lay apostolic movements should be revived in
schools. Ethics, the Catechism of the Catholic Church and Social
Doctrine of the Church should be components of the syllabus in
centres of higher learning.Catholic identity in our schools and
institutions should be visible and respected. Use mass media as an
effective instrument to catechize and to educate.
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