1.0. PREAMBLE
The Second Vatican Council declared in the Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World: “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.” (Gaudium et Spes, no. 1). Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God (Mark 1: 14-15) and called upon His followers to pray and work (Matthew 6: 9-13) for the realization of the Kingdom of God. As sacrament of salvation, the Church is a sign and instrument of communion with God and with humanity (Lumen Gentium, no. 1:1). In this YEAR OF MERCY, in communion with the Universal Church, let us be channels of God’s mercy to one and all, especially the poor, the deprived, the sick and suffering. And thus, making our contribution to our beloved nation.
As leaders of the Church, 182 Bishops from 170 Dioceses of the Church in India are gathered at St. John’s National Academy of Health Sciences, Bangalore, from 02 to 09 March 2016 to deliberate on “The Response of the Church in India to the Present Day Challenges” during the 32nd Plenary Assembly of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI). The Church in India is a vibrant community making significant contribution to nation building through education, social development, health care and service, especially to the poor. The CBCI appreciates the spirit of understanding and collaboration among the three Sui Iuris Churches. The composite culture of India has noble values of religiosity, peace, simplicity and tolerance as lived by Mahatma Gandhi and various Indian sages. We, however, express our sorrow over the killing of innocent people by extremists in India and in various parts of the world. We are shocked by the recent killing of the nuns of the Missionaries of Charity and their collaborators in Yemen.
The Bishops have resolved to respond to the challenges facing the Church in India, identifying the following:
2.0. CHALLENGES WITHIN THE CHURCH AND WITHIN THE COUNTRY
2.1. CHALLENGES WITHIN THE CHURCH
i.Declining family values – tensions and break ups in families, an increasing number of divorces, abortions and a lack of understanding of marriage as a sacrament.
ii.Growing materialism, consumerism and addiction to social media, due to decline of spiritual and moral values.
iii.Growing indifference and lack of commitment to the Christian vocation.
iv.Insensitivity regarding gender, caste, language, creed, status and region.
v.Lack of commitment to Ecumenical unity
vi.Excessive preoccupation with institutionalization.
vii.Insufficient zeal and fear of proclaiming Christ as unique Saviour.
viii.Large scale migration of families affecting community life.
2.2. CHALLENGES WITHIN THE COUNTRY
i.Large scale poverty and growing gap between the rich and the poor
ii.Corruption, illiteracy, child labour, increasing unemployment, growing addiction to alcohol and drugs.
iii.Atheistic Secularism (and practical atheism)
iv.Narrow unitary cultural Nationalism
v.Sensationalism and dictatorship of a section of the media.
vi.Systematic concerted effort to manipulate the education system
vii.Opposition to the fundamental human right of every person to convert.
viii.Widespread intolerance, religious fanaticism and fundamentalism, attacks and atrocities against intellectuals, social activists, religious personnel and institutions.
ix.Violation of Fundamental Rights enshrined in the Constitution, esp. minority rights
x.Growing criminalization and terrorism.
xi.Denial of SC status to Christian Dalits.
3.0. Restating the Vision and Mission
3.1. VISION: As a community of Christ’s disciples, the Church is at the service of the Kingdom of God. As an inclusive and welcoming community, the Church which is a continued presence of Christ, actualizes the values of love, justice, equality, mercy and peace. As light, salt and leaven of society, she lives in total solidarity with people, especially the poor.
3.2. MISSION: The Church is called to lead people to an encounter with Christ, practising the Gospel values and living for the wellbeing of people without fear and discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, gender, language, culture or status in society.
4.0. The Response of the Church in India to the Present Day Challenges
The following areas were chosen by the Bishops for review and for an appropriate response: i) Family Life Today ii) Renewal of Consecrated Life iii) The Lay Faithful and the Mission of the Church iv) Ecumenism v) Inter-religious Dialogue vi) The Education Apostolate and vii) Care of the Earth, our Common Home and viii) A New Way of Being Church for an effective response
4.1. FAMILY LIFE
The well-being of the Church and the society at large are intimately linked with the nurturing of the family. It is the lifeline of the Church and society (Instrumentum Laboris, nos. 32, 38). However, “married love is too often dishonoured by selfishness, hedonism and unlawful contraceptive practices” (Gaudium et Spes, no. 47). The two recent Synods on the Family, held in Rome, have drawn attention to the urgency of providing sustained pastoral care to families.
Proposals:
1.Frequent visits of Parish Priests to the families
2.Organizing Marriage Encounter and Marriage Enrichment Programmes.
3.Educating families to live in unity and to reach out to others.
4.Responding to the challenges, the media and society pose for family life. e.g. prolife issues, issues in human sexuality, pornography and marital fidelity.
5.Promoting Family counselling centres and Diocesan Family Commissions, training seminarians and priests to be family counsellors, accompanying them constantly.
6.Promoting family values, family prayer, family meals, family outings and use of bible sharing methods through SCC’s.
7.Creating facilities for care of the elderly, respecting them and learning from them.
4.2. RENEWAL OF CONSECRATED PERSONS
The Catholic Church in India is blessed with over one hundred and twenty five thousand religious priests, religious brothers and religious sisters, who serve the Church significantly through a large network of educational, health care and social service institutions. Even as we greatly appreciate the selfless and dedicated life of the consecrated persons, in recent times, there is a decrease in the number of candidates opting for consecrated life. A fresh, creative and a self-critical approach is needed in order to make this gift of God more attractive and relevant. While appreciating the generous commitment of thousands of clergy who are witnessing the mercy of God through parish community and their attached apostolate, we are of the opinion that priestly life needs a thorough renewal and updating.
Proposals:
1.Rediscovering the Founder’s charism and rededicating oneself to pastoral ministry with a clear shift of emphasis from maintenance to mission.
2.Consecrated way of life should be a combination of contemplation and active service, as recommended by St. John Paul II.
3.Maintaining the quality of Consecrated life by careful selection of candidates and Christ centred formation and commitment to the poor.
4.Participating in the mission of the Church through greater collaboration with the Bishop and integration into the pastoral life of the parish community.
4.3. THE LAY FAITHFUL AND THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH
The lay faithful have a distinct role in the spreading of the Gospel, which the Church really needs them to carry out with the authority, creativity, and power that the Holy Spirit has given them in Baptism. Lumen Gentium no. 31 states: “the laity, by their very vocation, seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God. They live in the world, that is, in each and in all of the secular professions and occupations. … They are called there by God that by exercising their proper function and led by the spirit of the Gospel they may work for the sanctification of the world from within as a leaven”. The laity likewise share in the priestly, prophetic, and royal office of Christ (Apostolicam Actuositatem, no. 2).
Proposals:
1.Accepting the dignity, role and importance of the role of the lay faithful in the Church
2.Encouraging the laity to involve themselves in the Church and temporal order, through the Small Christian Communities (SCC’s).
3.Undertaking faith formation and professional training programmes.
4.Encouraging our laity to take up important leadership positions in the Parliament, Assemblies, Civil Services, Entrepreneurship in business and in the judiciary.
5.Recognizing the dignity of labour by providing just wages and social security.
6.Helping and encouraging lay faithful by providing them with scholarships and facilities and promoting lay participation in the life and mission of the Church.
4.3.1. THE MARGINALIZED AND WEAKER SECTIONS WITHIN THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY (VIZ. THE DALITS, TRIBALS, DIFFERENTLY ABLED and WOMEN)
The Church commits herself to the liberation of the weaker sections, like tribals, women and dalits. She wants to reach out more to the unorganized groups like fisher-flock, farmers, migrants, domestic workers, victims of trafficking, through advocacy and networking with NGO’s and other like-minded groups and individuals, dedicated to the cause of the poor.
Proposals:
1.Realizing that caste system is a reality in India, which has also crept in certain parts of the Church, we need to pursue with the Government that Christian Dalits be treated on par with the Hindu Dalits.
2.Introducing positive measures to integrate Christians of Dalit origin along with others in the Church through education and employment.
3.Strengthening advocacy on the socio-political, economic and cultural rights of Tribals, enshrined in the Constitution of India.
4.Fostering advocacy and networking to address the issues of land alienation, induced displacement, human trafficking and migration.
5.Showing sensitivity to the differently abled by providing facilities that suit their needs.
6.Alleviating the plight of the farmers in distress and preventing suicide of our farmers.
7.Fostering gender equity and providing a greater role of women in our collaborative structures.
8.Establishing/ Revitalizing Grievance Cells to address women’s issues to protect their rights.
4.3.2. YOUTH APOSTOLATE:
Recognizing that India is predominantly young, so is the Church in India, there is an urgent need to prepare tomorrow’s leaders today.
Proposals:
1.Promoting youth apostolate at all levels, such as the Jesus Youth, YCS/YSM, ICYM and AICUF and Youth Associations of the Sui Iuris Churches (SMYM and MCYM) in all parishes and institutions.
2.Encouraging faith formation for youth through YOUCAT, DOCAT and Youth Bible, fostering ethical and moral values, enhancing critical thinking and problem solving.
3.Promoting young talents for leadership roles in the Church and society, particularly in political life and civil service.
4.4.1. ECUMENISM
Our common faith in God through Baptism is the foundation for us to overcome divisions among Christians and to promote mutual relations, friendship and collaboration. “The restoration of unity among all Christians is one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council. Christ the Lord founded one Church and one Church only…However, many Christians…differ in mind and go their different ways, as if Christ Himself were divided” (Unitatis Redintegratio, no. 1). Therefore, the need of the hour is to take initiatives to foster better cooperation among Christians through dialogue and common ecumenical services.
Proposals:
1.Creating ecumenical bodies such as Inter-Church Councils and United Christian Groups (at Regional and National Level)
2.Dialoguing with ecumenical groups to study social and legal issues (such as environmental issues human rights and legal issues).
3.Organizing of special programmes for training seminarians, priests, religious and laity in Ecumenism.
4.Reaching out and dialoguing with fundamentalist groups and sects.
5.Promoting Spiritual Ecumenism - common prayers, using common ecumenical bibles and sharing spiritual riches.
4.4.2. INTER-RELIGIOUS DIALOGUE:
Inter-religious dialogue has become an urgent priority today. The goal of dialogue is to establish friendship, peace and harmony and to share spiritual and moral values and experiences in a spirit of truth and love. Redemptoris Missio clearly states that “inter-religious dialogue is part of the Church's evangelizing mission”. “In the light of the economy of salvation, the Church sees no conflict between proclaiming Christ and engaging in interreligious dialogue… Each member of the faithful and all Christian communities are called to practice dialogue. Dialogue is a path toward the kingdom” (Redemptoris Missio, no. 56, 57).
Proposals:
1.Introducing Formation Programmes on inter-religious dialogue in our institutions, seminaries and formation houses.
2.Including Inter-religious dialogue as a subject in school catechism classes.
3.Promoting Inter-religious dialogue through SCC’s.
4.Respecting the sentiments of the people of other religions.
5.Using Catholic Guilds and other Associations to promote dialogue with businessmen, politicians, journalists.
6.Organizing training programmes for promoting justice and peace.
7.Promoting religious harmony and National Integration through a proactive and conciliatory role.
8.Breaking the divisive and intolerant walls of caste, language and ethnicity.
4.5. THE EDUCATION APOSTOLATE
Educational Institutions need to rise above the maintenance mode to impart holistic education with a heart for the poor and the marginalized. The CBCI Education Policy has clearly stated: “The Catholic educational institutions are to provide inclusive and holistic education especially for the marginalized and girls enabling them to live life to the full and responsibly, thus transforming the individual and society” (AICEP 2007).
Proposals:
1.Having recourse to legal action when Constitutional rights are violated and the appointment/approval of staff, issue of Minority certificate, grant in aid, scholarships and other support systems are denied.
2.Promoting Faith formation of Christian students and value education, reaching out to those living in “social and geographical periphery” and providing quality education in the slums and rural areas.
3.Recognizing the need to positively promote higher education institutions, to form persons of character and conviction, capable of delivering quality leadership and administrative service, upholding the constitutional values and the socialistic, secular and democratic character of our country (National Education Coordinators’ Meet, 18 December 2015).
4.Networking with local, district and state leaders and administrators and befriending people of the neighbourhood and all people of good will to ensure administrative autonomy, proper to the Minority institutions.
5.Providing educational opportunities, especially to the socially backward and girl children, and ensuring administrative transparency, financial accountability and participatory management.
4.6. CARE OF THE EARTH, OUR COMMON HOME
The ruthless exploitation of the earth’s resources has adverse effects on humanity. Pope Francis affirmed: “As stewards of God’s creation, we are called to make the earth a beautiful garden for the human family. When we destroy our forests, ravage our soil and pollute our seas, we betray that noble calling” (Speech, Manila, Philippines, January 18, 2015). In this regard, we must go to the heart of the ecological degradation and advocate an education in ecological responsibility because “we are all really responsible for all”.
Proposals:
1.Every Diocese and Parish to draw up an Environment (Green) Policy.
2.Organizing programmes for protecting the environment and fostering love for nature.
3.Encouraging use of solar energy, rain-water harvesting, and use of bio-gas plants.
4.Promoting sustainable development through change of lifestyle (reuse, reduce, recycle).
5.Encouraging organic farming and say no to pesticides and plastics.
6.Facilitating Environmental Education and Ecological Conversion
4.7. A NEW WAY OF BEING CHURCH FOR AN EFFECTIVE RESPONSE
Both Blessed Mother Teresa and Pope Francis are exemplary models for living with such a vision and mission. Mother Teresa changed her routine way of living and made a radical decision for living her religious / consecrated life in a thoroughly new way. So also, the lifestyle of Pope Francis challenges us to be authentic in our Christian vocation, by freeing ourselves of traditional structures, institutionalisation and to break new ground, shedding the comforts and privileges of office and status, embodying the gracious mercifulness and love of Christ and bringing the joy of the Gospel to one and all. “…All of us are asked to obey his call (the Lord’s) to go forth from our own comfort zones in order to reach all the “peripheries” in the light of the Gospel” (Evangelii Gaudium, no. 20). We are also challenged and inspired by the exemplary life of the Saints of India, namely, St. Thomas the Apostle, St. Francis Xavier, St. Gonsalo Garcia, St. Alphonsa, St. Kuriakose Elias Chavara, St. Euphrasia, St. Joseph Vaz, Blessed Mother Teresa, Blessed Devasahayam Pillai, Blessed Maria Theresa Chiramel, Blessed Augustine Thevarparampil (Kunjachan), Servant of God, Father Constant Lievens and others.
4.7.1.BISHOPS AND PRIESTS:
Bishops and priests, while exercising their role as administrators, should be first and foremost, shepherds of the flock, available and service minded. Their lifestyle should be an example of simplicity and spirituality that can be an inspiration to everyone.
Proposals:
1.Shunning excessive institutionalization, clericalism and extravaganza.
2.Animating pastoral structures, such as Diocesan/Parish Pastoral Councils and Finance Committees, etc.
3.Adopting simple lifestyle, following the example of the Good Shepherd and opening our houses and our institutions to the poor.
4.Rediscovering the power of the Word of God and prayer
5.Making apostolates, such as healthcare, social development and education into agents of evangelisation.
6.Refashioning the formation of priests and religious, enabling them to respond to the challenges of our times with faith and courage.
7.Promoting transparency and accountability at all levels of Church’s administration.
5.0. CONCLUSION:
As authentic citizens of the country, we repose our confidence in the democratic values and the Constitution of India. Trusting in God’s grace, love and mercy, we march ahead to carry out our God-given mission, confident of the goodwill and support of our people everywhere. We appeal to all people of goodwill in India to join hands with us in solidarity to work for a better Church and a better society. May Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy and Star of Evangelization, who brought joy and hope to the world, guide us and help us to fulfil our mission.
09.03.2016
Sd/-
Bangalore
Baselios Cardinal Cleemis
President, CBCI
Message of His Holiness
Francis
for the Celebration of the
World Day of Peace
1 JANUARY 2014
FRATERNITY, THE FOUNDATION AND PATHWAY TO PEACE
1. In this, my first Message for the World Day of Peace, I wish to offer to everyone, individuals and peoples, my best wishes for a life filled with joy and hope. In the heart of every man and woman is the desire for a full life, including that irrepressible longing for fraternity which draws us to fellowship with others and enables us to see them not as enemies or rivals, but as brothers and sisters to be accepted and embraced.
Fraternity is an essential human quality, for we are relational beings. A lively awareness of our relatedness helps us to look upon and to treat each person as a true sister or brother; without fraternity it is impossible to build a just society and a solid and lasting peace. We should remember that fraternity is generally first learned in the family, thanks above all to the responsible and complementary roles of each of its members, particularly the father and the mother. The family is the wellspring of all fraternity, and as such it is the foundation and the first pathway to peace, since, by its vocation, it is meant to spread its love to the world around it.
The ever-increasing number of interconnections and communications in today’s world makes us powerfully aware of the unity and common destiny of the nations. In the dynamics of history, and in the diversity of ethnic groups, societies and cultures, we see the seeds of a vocation to form a community composed of brothers and sisters who accept and care for one another. But this vocation is still frequently denied and ignored in a world marked by a “globalization of indifference” which makes us slowly inured to the suffering of others and closed in on ourselves.
In many parts of the world, there seems to be no end to grave offences against fundamental human rights, especially the right to life and the right to religious freedom. The tragic phenomenon of human trafficking, in which the unscrupulous prey on the lives and the desperation of others, is but one unsettling example of this. Alongside overt armed conflicts are the less visible but no less cruel wars fought in the economic and financial sectors with means which are equally destructive of lives, families and businesses.
Globalization, as Benedict XVI pointed out, makes us neighbours, but does not make us brothers.[1] The many situations of inequality, poverty and injustice, are signs not only of a profound lack of fraternity, but also of the absence of a culture of solidarity. New ideologies, characterized by rampant individualism, egocentrism and materialistic consumerism, weaken social bonds, fuelling that “throw away” mentality which leads to contempt for, and the abandonment of, the weakest and those considered “useless”. In this way human coexistence increasingly tends to resemble a mere do ut des which is both pragmatic and selfish.
At the same time, it appears clear that contemporary ethical systems remain incapable of producing authentic bonds of fraternity, since a fraternity devoid of reference to a common Father as its ultimate foundation is unable to endure.[2] True brotherhood among people presupposes and demands a transcendent Fatherhood. Based on the recognition of this fatherhood, human fraternity is consolidated: each person becomes a “neighbour” who cares for others.
“Where is your brother?” (Gen 4:9)
2. To understand more fully this human vocation to fraternity, to recognize more clearly the obstacles standing in the way of its realization and to identify ways of overcoming them, it is of primary importance to let oneself be led by knowledge of God’s plan, which is presented in an eminent way in sacred Scripture.
According to the biblical account of creation, all people are descended from common parents, Adam and Eve, the couple created by God in his image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:26), to whom Cain and Abel were born. In the story of this first family, we see the origins of society and the evolution of relations between individuals and peoples.
Abel is a shepherd, Cain is a farmer. Their profound identity and their vocation is to be brothers, albeit in the diversity of their activity and culture, their way of relating to God and to creation. Cain’s murder of Abel bears tragic witness to his radical rejection of their vocation to be brothers. Their story (cf. Gen 4:1-16) brings out the difficult task to which all men and women are called, to live as one, each taking care of the other. Cain, incapable of accepting God’s preference for Abel who had offered him the best of his flock – “The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering; but for Cain and his offering he had no regard” (Gen 4:4-5) – killed Abel out of jealousy. In this way, he refused to regard Abel as a brother, to relate to him rightly, to live in the presence of God by assuming his responsibility to care for and to protect others. By asking him “Where is your brother?”, God holds Cain accountable for what he has done. He answers: “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen 4:9). Then, the Book of Genesis tells us, “Cain went away from the presence of the Lord” (4:16).
We need to ask ourselves what were the real reasons which led Cain to disregard the bond of fraternity and, at the same time, the bond of reciprocity and fellowship which joined him to his brother Abel. God himself condemns and reproves Cain’s collusion with evil: “sin is crouching at your door” (Gen 4:7). But Cain refuses to turn against evil and decides instead to raise his “hand against his brother Abel” (Gen 4:8), thus scorning God’s plan. In this way, he thwarts his primordial calling to be a child of God and to live in fraternity.
The story of Cain and Abel teaches that we have an inherent calling to fraternity, but also the tragic capacity to betray that calling. This is witnessed by our daily acts of selfishness, which are at the root of so many wars and so much injustice: many men and women die at the hands of their brothers and sisters who are incapable of seeing themselves as such, that is, as beings made for reciprocity, for communion and self-giving.
“And you will all be brothers” (Mt 23:8)
3. The question naturally arises: Can the men and women of this world ever fully respond to the longing for fraternity placed within them by God the Father? Will they ever manage by their power alone to overcome indifference, egoism and hatred, and to accept the legitimate differences typical of brothers and sisters?
By paraphrasing his words, we can summarize the answer given by the Lord Jesus: “For you have only one Father, who is God, and you are all brothers and sisters” (cf. Mt 23:8-9). The basis of fraternity is found in God’s fatherhood. We are not speaking of a generic fatherhood, indistinct and historically ineffectual, but rather of the specific and extraordinarily concrete personal love of God for each man and woman (cf. Mt 6:25-30). It is a fatherhood, then, which effectively generates fraternity, because the love of God, once welcomed, becomes the most formidable means of transforming our lives and relationships with others, opening us to solidarity and to genuine sharing.
In a particular way, human fraternity is regenerated in and by Jesus Christ through his death and resurrection. The Cross is the definitive foundational locus of that fraternity which human beings are not capable of generating themselves. Jesus Christ, who assumed human nature in order to redeem it, loving the Father unto death on the Cross (cf. Phil 2:8), has through his resurrection made of us a new humanity, in full communion with the will of God, with his plan, which includes the full realization of our vocation to fraternity.
From the beginning, Jesus takes up the plan of the Father, acknowledging its primacy over all else. But Christ, with his abandonment to death for love of the Father, becomes the definitive and new principle of us all; we are called to regard ourselves in him as brothers and sisters, inasmuch as we are children of the same Father. He himself is the Covenant; in his person we are reconciled with God and with one another as brothers and sisters. Jesus’ death on the Cross also brings an end to the separation between peoples, between the people of the Covenant and the people of the Gentiles, who were bereft of hope until that moment, since they were not party to the pacts of the Promise. As we read in the Letter to the Ephesians, Jesus Christ is the one who reconciles all people in himself. He is peace, for he made one people out of the two, breaking down the wall of separation which divided them, that is, the hostility between them. He created in himself one people, one new man, one new humanity (cf. 2:14-16).
All who accept the life of Christ and live in him acknowledge God as Father and give themselves completely to him, loving him above all things. The reconciled person sees in God the Father of all, and, as a consequence, is spurred on to live a life of fraternity open to all. In Christ, the other is welcomed and loved as a son or daughter of God, as a brother or sister, not as a stranger, much less as a rival or even an enemy. In God’s family, where all are sons and daughters of the same Father, and, because they are grafted to Christ, sons and daughters in the Son, there are no “disposable lives”. All men and women enjoy an equal and inviolable dignity. All are loved by God. All have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, who died on the Cross and rose for all. This is the reason why no one can remain indifferent before the lot of our brothers and sisters.
Fraternity, the foundation and pathway to peace
4. This being said, it is easy to realize that fraternity is the foundation and pathway of peace. The social encyclicals written by my predecessors can be very helpful in this regard. It would be sufficient to draw on the definitions of peace found in the encyclicals Populorum Progressio by Pope Paul VI and Sollicitudo Rei Socialis by John Paul II. From the first we learn that the integral development of peoples is the new name of peace.[3] From the second, we conclude that peace is an opus solidaritatis.[4]
Paul VI stated that not only individuals but nations too must encounter one another in a spirit of fraternity. As he says: “In this mutual understanding and friendship, in this sacred communion, we must also… work together to build the common future of the human race”.[5] In the first place, this duty falls to those who are most privileged. Their obligations are rooted in human and supernatural fraternity and are manifested in three ways: the duty of solidarity, which requires the richer nations to assist the less developed; the duty of social justice, which requires the realignment of relationships between stronger and weaker peoples in terms of greater fairness; and the duty of universal charity, which entails the promotion of a more humane world for all, a world in which each has something to give and to receive, without the progress of the one constituting an obstacle to the development of the other.[6]
If, then, we consider peace as opus solidaritatis, we cannot fail to acknowledge that fraternity is its principal foundation. Peace, John Paul II affirmed, is an indivisible good. Either it is the good of all or it is the good of none. It can be truly attained and enjoyed, as the highest quality of life and a more human and sustainable development, only if all are guided by solidarity as “a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good”.[7]This means not being guided by a “desire for profit” or a “thirst for power”. What is needed is the willingness to “lose ourselves” for the sake of others rather than exploiting them, and to “serve them” instead of oppressing them for our own advantage. “The ‘other’ – whether a person, people or nation – [is to be seen] not just as some kind of instrument, with a work capacity and physical strength to be exploited at low cost and then discarded when no longer useful, but as our ‘neighbour’, a ‘helper’”.[8]
Christian solidarity presumes that our neighbour is loved not only as “a human being with his or her own rights and a fundamental equality with everyone else, but as the living image of God the Father, redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ and placed under the permanent action of the Holy Spirit”,[9] as another brother or sister. As John Paul IInoted: “At that point, awareness of the common fatherhood of God, of the brotherhood of all in Christ – ‘children in the Son’ – and of the presence and life-giving action of the Holy Spirit, will bring to our vision of the world a new criterion for interpreting it”,[10] for changing it.
Fraternity, a prerequisite for fighting poverty
5. In his encyclical Caritas in Veritate, my predecessor reminded the world how the lack of fraternity between peoples and men and women is a significant cause of poverty.[11] In many societies, we are experiencing a profound poverty of relationships as a result of the lack of solid family and community relationships. We are concerned by the various types of hardship, marginalization, isolation and various forms of pathological dependencies which we see increasing. This kind of poverty can be overcome only through the rediscovery and valuing of fraternal relationships in the heart of families and communities, through the sharing of joys and sorrows, of the hardships and triumphs that are a part of human life.
Moreover, if on the one hand we are seeing a reduction in absolute poverty, on the other hand we cannot fail to recognize that there is a serious rise in relative poverty, that is, instances of inequality between people and groups who live together in particular regions or in a determined historical-cultural context. In this sense, effective policies are needed to promote the principle of fraternity, securing for people – who are equal in dignity and in fundamental rights – access to capital, services, educational resources, healthcare and technology so that every person has the opportunity to express and realize his or her life project and can develop fully as a person.
One also sees the need for policies which can lighten an excessive imbalance between incomes. We must not forget the Church’s teaching on the so-called social mortgage, which holds that although it is lawful, as Saint Thomas Aquinas says, and indeed necessary “that people have ownership of goods”,[12] insofar as their use is concerned, “they possess them as not just their own, but common to others as well, in the sense that they can benefit others as well as themselves”.[13]
Finally, there is yet another form of promoting fraternity – and thus defeating poverty – which must be at the basis of all the others. It is the detachment of those who choose to live a sober and essential lifestyle, of those who, by sharing their own wealth, thus manage to experience fraternal communion with others. This is fundamental for following Jesus Christ and being truly Christian. It is not only the case of consecrated persons who profess the vow of poverty, but also of the many families and responsible citizens who firmly believe that it is their fraternal relationship with their neighbours which constitutes their most precious good.
The rediscovery of fraternity in the economy
6. The grave financial and economic crises of the present time – which find their origin in the progressive distancing of man from God and from his neighbour, in the greedy pursuit of material goods on the one hand, and in the impoverishment of interpersonal and community relations on the other – have pushed man to seek satisfaction, happiness and security in consumption and earnings out of all proportion to the principles of a sound economy. In 1979 John Paul II had called attention to “a real perceptible danger that, while man’s dominion over the world of things is making enormous advances, he should lose the essential threads of his dominion and in various ways let his humanity be subjected to the world and become himself something subject to manipulation in many ways – even if the manipulation is often not perceptible directly – through the whole of the organization of community life, through the production system and through pressure from the means of social communication.”[14]
The succession of economic crises should lead to a timely rethinking of our models of economic development and to a change in lifestyles. Today’s crisis, even with its serious implications for people’s lives, can also provide us with a fruitful opportunity to rediscover the virtues of prudence, temperance, justice and strength. These virtues can help us to overcome difficult moments and to recover the fraternal bonds which join us one to another, with deep confidence that human beings need and are capable of something greater than maximizing their individual interest. Above all, these virtues are necessary for building and preserving a society in accord with human dignity.
Fraternity extinguishes war
7. In the past year, many of our brothers and sisters have continued to endure the destructive experience of war, which constitutes a grave and deep wound inflicted on fraternity.
Many conflicts are taking place amid general indifference. To all those who live in lands where weapons impose terror and destruction, I assure you of my personal closeness and that of the whole Church, whose mission is to bring Christ’s love to the defenceless victims of forgotten wars through her prayers for peace, her service to the wounded, the starving, refugees, the displaced and all those who live in fear. The Church also speaks out in order to make leaders hear the cry of pain of the suffering and to put an end to every form of hostility, abuse and the violation of fundamental human rights.[15]
For this reason, I appeal forcefully to all those who sow violence and death by force of arms: in the person you today see simply as an enemy to be beaten, discover rather your brother or sister, and hold back your hand! Give up the way of arms and go out to meet the other in dialogue, pardon and reconciliation, in order to rebuild justice, trust, and hope around you! “From this standpoint, it is clear that, for the world’s peoples, armed conflicts are always a deliberate negation of international harmony, and create profound divisions and deep wounds which require many years to heal. Wars are a concrete refusal to pursue the great economic and social goals that the international community has set itself”.[16]
Nevertheless, as long as so great a quantity of arms are in circulation as at present, new pretexts can always be found for initiating hostilities. For this reason, I make my own the appeal of my predecessors for the non-proliferation of arms and for disarmament of all parties, beginning with nuclear and chemical weapons disarmament.
We cannot however fail to observe that international agreements and national laws – while necessary and greatly to be desired – are not of themselves sufficient to protect humanity from the risk of armed conflict. A conversion of hearts is needed which would permit everyone to recognize in the other a brother or sister to care for, and to work together with, in building a fulfilling life for all. This is the spirit which inspires many initiatives of civil society, including religious organizations, to promote peace. I express my hope that the daily commitment of all will continue to bear fruit and that there will be an effective application in international law of the right to peace, as a fundamental human right and a necessary prerequisite for every other right.
Corruption and organized crime threaten fraternity
8. The horizon of fraternity also has to do with the need for fulfilment of every man and woman. People’s legitimate ambitions, especially in the case of the young, should not be thwarted or offended, nor should people be robbed of their hope of realizing them. Nevertheless, ambition must not be confused with the abuse of power. On the contrary, people should compete with one another in mutual esteem (cf. Rm 12:10). In disagreements, which are also an unavoidable part of life, we should always remember that we are brothers and sisters, and therefore teach others and teach ourselves not to consider our neighbour as an enemy or as an adversary to be eliminated.
Fraternity generates social peace because it creates a balance between freedom and justice, between personal responsibility and solidarity, between the good of individuals and the common good. And so a political community must act in a transparent and responsible way to favour all this. Citizens must feel themselves represented by the public authorities in respect for their freedom. Yet frequently a wedge is driven between citizens and institutions by partisan interests which disfigure that relationship, fostering the creation of an enduring climate of conflict.
An authentic spirit of fraternity overcomes the individual selfishness which conflicts with people’s ability to live in freedom and in harmony among themselves. Such selfishness develops socially – whether it is in the many forms of corruption, so widespread today, or in the formation of criminal organizations, from small groups to those organized on a global scale. These groups tear down legality and justice, striking at the very heart of the dignity of the person. These organizations gravely offend God, they hurt others and they harm creation, all the more so when they have religious overtones.
I also think of the heartbreaking drama of drug abuse, which reaps profits in contempt of the moral and civil laws. I think of the devastation of natural resources and ongoing pollution, and the tragedy of the exploitation of labour. I think too of illicit money trafficking and financial speculation, which often prove both predatory and harmful for entire economic and social systems, exposing millions of men and women to poverty. I think of prostitution, which every day reaps innocent victims, especially the young, robbing them of their future. I think of the abomination of human trafficking, crimes and abuses against minors, the horror of slavery still present in many parts of the world; the frequently overlooked tragedy of migrants, who are often victims of disgraceful and illegal manipulation. As John XXIII wrote: “There is nothing human about a society based on relationships of power. Far from encouraging, as it should, the attainment of people’s growth and perfection, it proves oppressive and restrictive of their freedom”.[17] Yet human beings can experience conversion; they must never despair of being able to change their lives. I wish this to be a message of hope and confidence for all, even for those who have committed brutal crimes, for God does not wish the death of the sinner, but that he converts and lives (cf. Ez 18:23).
In the broad context of human social relations, when we look to crime and punishment, we cannot help but think of the inhumane conditions in so many prisons, where those in custody are often reduced to a subhuman status in violation of their human dignity and stunted in their hope and desire for rehabilitation. The Church does much in these environments, mostly in silence. I exhort and I encourage everyone to do more, in the hope that the efforts being made in this area by so many courageous men and women will be increasingly supported, fairly and honestly, by the civil authorities as well.
Fraternity helps to preserve and cultivate nature
9. The human family has received from the Creator a common gift: nature. The Christian view of creation includes a positive judgement about the legitimacy of interventions on nature if these are meant to be beneficial and are performed responsibly, that is to say, by acknowledging the “grammar” inscribed in nature and by wisely using resources for the benefit of all, with respect for the beauty, finality and usefulness of every living being and its place in the ecosystem. Nature, in a word, is at our disposition and we are called to exercise a responsible stewardship over it. Yet so often we are driven by greed and by the arrogance of dominion, possession, manipulation and exploitation; we do not preserve nature; nor do we respect it or consider it a gracious gift which we must care for and set at the service of our brothers and sisters, including future generations.
In a particular way, the agricultural sector is the primary productive sector with the crucial vocation of cultivating and protecting natural resources in order to feed humanity. In this regard the continuing disgrace of hunger in the world moves me to share with you the question: How are we using the earth’s resources? Contemporary societies should reflect on the hierarchy of priorities to which production is directed. It is a truly pressing duty to use the earth’s resources in such a way that all may be free from hunger. Initiatives and possible solutions are many, and are not limited to an increase in production. It is well known that present production is sufficient, and yet millions of persons continue to suffer and die from hunger, and this is a real scandal. We need, then, to find ways by which all may benefit from the fruits of the earth, not only to avoid the widening gap between those who have more and those who must be content with the crumbs, but above all because it is a question of justice, equality and respect for every human being. In this regard I would like to remind everyone of that necessary universal destination of all goods which is one of the fundamental principles of the Church’s social teaching. Respect for this principle is the essential condition for facilitating an effective and fair access to those essential and primary goods which every person needs and to which he or she has a right.
Conclusion
10. Fraternity needs to be discovered, loved, experienced, proclaimed and witnessed to. But only love, bestowed as a gift from God, enables us to accept and fully experience fraternity.
The necessary realism proper to politics and economy cannot be reduced to mere technical know-how bereft of ideals and unconcerned with the transcendent dimension of man. When this openness to God is lacking, every human activity is impoverished and persons are reduced to objects that can be exploited. Only when politics and the economy are open to moving within the wide space ensured by the One who loves each man and each woman, will they achieve an ordering based on a genuine spirit of fraternal charity and become effective instruments of integral human development and peace.
We Christians believe that in the Church we are all members of a single body, all mutually necessary, because each has been given a grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ, for the common good (cf. Eph 4:7,25; 1 Cor12:7). Christ has come to the world so as to bring us divine grace, that is, the possibility of sharing in his life. This entails weaving a fabric of fraternal relationships marked by reciprocity, forgiveness and complete self-giving, according to the breadth and the depth of the love of God offered to humanity in the One who, crucified and risen, draws all to himself: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:34-35). This is the good news that demands from each one a step forward, a perennial exercise of empathy, of listening to the suffering and the hopes of others, even those furthest away from me, and walking the demanding path of that love which knows how to give and spend itself freely for the good of all our brothers and sisters.
Christ embraces all of humanity and wishes no one to be lost. “For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (Jn 3:17). He does it without oppressing or constraining anyone to open to him the doors of heart and mind. “Let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves” – Jesus Christ says – “I am among you as one who serves” (Lk 22:26-27). Every activity therefore must be distinguished by an attitude of service to persons, especially those furthest away and less known. Service is the soul of that fraternity that builds up peace.
May Mary, the Mother of Jesus, help us to understand and live every day the fraternity that springs up from the heart of her Son, so as to bring peace to each person on this our beloved earth.
From the Vatican, 8 December 2013
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[1]Cf. Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate (29 June 2009), 19: AAS 101 (2009), 654-655.
[2]Cf. FRANCIS, Encyclical Letter Lumen Fidei (29 June 2013), 54: AAS 105 (2013), 591-592.
[3]Cf. PAUL VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio (26 March 1967), 87: AAS 59 (1967), 299.
[4]Cf. JOHN PAUL II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (30 December 1987), 39: AAS 80 (1988), 566-568.
[5]Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio (26 March 1967), 43: AAS 59 (1967), 278-279.
[6]Cf. ibid., 44: AAS 59 (1967), 279.
[7]Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (20 December 1987), 38: AAS 80 (1988), 566.
[8]Ibid., 38-39: AAS 80 (1988), 566-567.
[9]Ibid., 40: AAS 80 (1988), 569.
[10]Ibid.
[11]Cf. Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate (29 June 2009), 19: AAS 101 (2009), 654-655.
[12]Summa TheologiaeII-II, q. 66, art. 2.
[13]SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 69; cf. LEO XIII, Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum (15 May 1891), 19: ASS 23 (1890-1891), 651; JOHN PAUL II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (30 December 1987), 42: AAS 80 (1988), 573-574; PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 178.
[14]Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Hominis (4 March 1979), 16: AAS 61 (1979), 290.
[15]Cf. PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 159.
[16]FRANCIS, Letter to President Putin, 4 September 2013: L’Osservatore Romano, 6 September 2013, p. 1.
[17]Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris (11 April 1963), 17: AAS 55 (1963), 265.
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© Copyright - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
International Human Rights Day – Dec 10, 2013
Message from the CBCI Office for Justice, Peace and Development
Human Rights Day has been observed on 10 December every year since 1950 to mark the anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly's adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. The Declaration is the common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations. Pope John XXIII praised it as “a step in the right direction” and as “a solemn recognition of the personal dignity of every human being…” (Pacem in Terris, no. 144)
This year, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights marks 20 years since its establishment. It is also the 20th anniversary of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action. According to the UN Human Rights Chief, Ms. Navi Pillay, the Vienna Declaration “is the most significant overarching human rights document produced in the past 40 years.” On this occasion, the UN Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon appeals to the global community “to fulfil our collective responsibility to promote and protect the rights and dignity of all people everywhere.”
Down the years, there has been a growing awareness among individuals and communities about their rights and dignity, leading to burgeoning of human rights movements everywhere. Commonplace today is people’s intense struggle for defence of human rights, even in India. This situation indicates, on the other hand, the widespread and flagrant violations of their rights adversely impacting the lives and livelihood of the poor and the vulnerable groups.
The Indian State has been miserably failing in its duty to respect, protect, and fulfil the rights of its citizens. For survivors of 1984 Bhopal Gas tragedy and for the victims and survivors of caste/communal pogroms, justice has been evasive. The impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of communal pogroms – be it in Gujarat or in Kandhamal in Odisha or Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh or anywhere in India – is abhorrently scandalous. The State’s indifference to people’s demand for deletion of para 3 the Scheduled Caste Order of 1950, which discriminates on the basis of religion; its obdurate refusal to end death penalty; and to repeal Armed Forces Special Powers Act that shields armed personnel from prosecution for their human rights violations illustrate the State’s disrespect for human rights.
Moreover, the State has chosen to sacrifice the rights of its citizens on the altar of development. Mass displacement of tribals in view of mining operations or construction of power plants – thermal or nuclear – to the detriment of the livelihoods of fisher-folks or farmers is not uncommon. Indian State’s failure to protect women and children from abuse and sexual assault – despite ‘severe’ laws – is only too well known.
Against this milieu, deliberating on the Church’s Role for a Better India, the Catholic Bishops in India during their 30th General Body Meeting in 2012 stated that “the Church commits herself to the liberation of the weaker sections like tribals, women and dalits,” and asserted that it “will engage in advocacy and networking…The Church will be a voice for the voiceless.” (8.6). The Indian bishops’ statement has been reaffirmed by Pope Francis in his recent apostolic exhortation when he said, “Each individual Christian and every community is called to be an instrument of God for the liberation and promotion of the poor, and for enabling them to be fully a part of society. This demands that we be docile and attentive to the cry of the poor and to come to their aid.” (The Joy of the Gospel, Evangelii Gaudium, no. 187). Let us pay heed, on this Human Rights Day, to the appeal that the Indian Bishops and Pope Francis have made, as mentioned above, and commit ourselves to leading a life of prophetic witness by lending voice to the voiceless.
Dr Charles Irudayam
Secretary
CBCI Office for Justice, Peace and Development
May Day Message 2013
A PoorChurch and for the Poor
At the outset, being in solidarity with the workers of the world, the labour Office, CBCI, extends cordial greetings and warm felicitations to all the workers of India and of the world. May St. Joseph the Worker, under whose patronage the workers rally, intercede for them.
A Poor Church and for the Poor
Pope Francis in his audience with the journalist on march 15th, two days after his election as the supreme pontiff of the 1.2 billion Catholics in the world said that he wanted to see an austere church. A church, that is serving the poor. He continued to say, “How much I would like a poor Church, and for the poor”. The inspiration behind the choice of the name Francis by the Pope was the life and mission of Francis of Assisi. He said, “The man who gives us this spirit of peace is the poor man” (www.huffingtonpost.com). “We live in the most unequal part of the world, which has grown the most yet reduced the misery of the least,” said the Pope as Cardinal Bergoglio during a gathering of Latin American Bishops in 2007. “The unjust distribution of goods persists, creating a situation of social sin that cries out to heaven and limits the possibilities of a fuller life for so many of our brothers” (www.ncronline.org). The mandate of the Church is to work for the underprivileged of this beautiful universe. But he says that the Church is not a compassionate Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), but Christ is the centre. He advocated for social action alongside deep spirituality. It is with this background that we are going to celebrate the May Day 2013.
May Day Celebration in the Catholic Church
The International Workers’ Day, on May 1, is commemorated as the feast of St. Joseph the worker in the Catholic Church since 1955. Dedicating May 1 as the Workers’ Day, the Church has also been officially partaking in the struggle of the Workers and the World Workers’ Movements promoted by Catholic luminaries in different parts of the world to secure the Human Rights of the poor workers. In 1933
Servant of God Dorothy Day of the United States, wrote in the news paper called ‘Catholic Worker’ that “Worker” referred to those who worked with hands or brain, those who did physical, mental, or spiritual work. But we think primarily of the poor, the dispossessed, and the exploited as ‘Worker’. (www.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Catholic_Worker).
Catholic Labour Movements have the strong root in the progressive teachings of the Church enshrined in her social documents and the firm belief in the God-given dignity of every human person. The constitution of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) affirms that universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon social justice (Preamble of ILO Constitution). The labour movements of the Catholic Church advocate Social Justice for the poor especially the migrants, nomads and itinerant people, marginalised, fishermen, domestic workers and generally the unorganised workers of our country.
Labour: Supreme Good of Human Person
The Human person is the crown of God’s creation. He has been created in the image and likeness of God Almighty. God has entrusted all created things to man, so that they should be submissive to him and obey him. He has been made the custodian of the entire universe. “Gave him power over the works of your hand, put all things under his feet” (Ps 8: 6). To toil and work is the duty entrusted by God where all the faculties of human beings are made use of. Therefore Pope John Paul II in his document Laborum Exercens (1981) observed that “work” is the fundamental good of the human person and the paradigm of natural and supernatural vocation. “Work reprsents a fundamental dimension of human existence as participation not only in the act of creation but also in that of redemption” (CSDC 263). Although work is duty, it can even be considered a means of sanctification (CSDC 263). In Laborum Excercens work is called the “essential key” to the whole social question as a necessary condition “not only for economic development but also for the cultural and moral development of persons, family, society and the entire human race” (CSDC 269)
Year of Faith
This year the Church celebrates the ‘Year of faith’ on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican council. Faith and Hope are inseparable in the hearts of the workers. This feeling pushes them forward in life in search of a better contented life in future. In the event of economic recession in the world the workers in the world are on the verge of immense poverty and suffering. The year of faith entrusts in us the need for a new evangelisation in the world and also demands special care and support for our suffering workers who lose their job and are at times subjected to extreme poverty and misery.
Labour office of CBCI
Labour office of CBCI leaves no stone unturned in terms of spreading the social teachings of the church. It actively participates in the day to day struggles of the workers and accompanies them in their cry for Justice. The Labour office has created an independent body – ‘Workers India Federation’, to coordinate the activities of different national and regional labour movements. The five national labour movements like Apostleship of Sea (AOS), National Domestic Workers Movement (NDWM), Christian Workers Movement (CWM), Young Christian Workers Movement (YCWM) and Pastoral Care of Nomads and Itinerant People and several regional movements like Kerala Labour Movement etc. are partners of Workers India Federation.
In order to intervene meaningfully in the issues of the poor workers of our country we need to strengthen these national movements and regional structures for the labour development under each the Catholic Church advocate the family wage for the employee. We bargain and fight for just wages for all the employees of our country, we also struggle hard to ensure just wages for the employees in the institutions run by the catholic managements. The social security for the employees in our institutions is also the special concern of the Church. Therefore CBCI has come forward with Mazdoor Suraksha Yojana (MSY) for our workers in all categories. This is a contributory pension scheme where a minimum of Rs.1000/- is deposited for the employee and the Government also will contribute for the worker. At the age of sixty (60) Governments through PFRDA will give pension for our staff and family. During the tenure of his employment he is covered under life insurance also. Therefore we encourage our workers to join in this scheme in order to ensure their social security.
Pastoral Care of the Interstate Migrant Workers
Internal migration within our country from one state to another has increased due to varied push and pulls factors of economic and social natures. The exact number of the people moving like this is not so far estimated as they are all part of the unstructured migrations. The people who are moving from the rural to the urban parts of our country are semi and unskilled labourers and poor and illiterate villagers. Women and children are also part of these groups. They undergo many hardships, sufferings and different forms of exploitation in their host country. Pope Benedict XVI in his message in the ‘World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2013’ called “Migration: pilgrimage of faith and hope” he said, the Church should impart maternal concern to these people; new pastoral structures for spiritual communion and human communion have to be created.
Minimum Wages for the Workers
Minimum Wages for the workers is the mandate under our Constitution and is legally binding on all the employers of our country. Social Justice enshrined in the teachings of the Magisterium of regional bishops conference along with those coordinated in the national level under Workers India Federation.
CBCI office for labour has initiated some efforts to accompany the poor migrants of our country and a separate committee has been set up for that. They in association with the different stakeholders in the source and destination of migration will formulate appropriate programmes for the welfare of the migrants in their abode. Migration is the basic right of the human being and it is also the reality we cannot deny. Pope Benedict XVI says, “Every migrant is a human person who, as such, possesses fundamental, inalienable rights that must be respected by everyone and in every circumstance.”
Our Commitment
Accompanying the Holy Father Pope Francis in his desire – “how much I would like a poor Church and for the poor”, Church in India is committed:
1.To organize special programmes for the workers in the diocesan level and parish/local levels have to be arranged with special focus with the year of faith. Because, “Work represents a fundamental dimension of human existence as participation not only in the act of creation but also in that of redemption” (CSDC 263)
2.To promote just wages and social security (MSY) are promoted by the Church in the civil society as well as within our institutions because Right to Work and right to rest are the fundamental rights of every human being.
3.To make use of the possibilities with the Government to enhance the skill of unskilled and semi skilled workers of our country for better opportunity for work in the technology driven universe.
4.To create a pastoral desk in each diocese/ local units to cater to the needs of the interstate migrants of our country to promote their spiritual and social integration in the alien country.
5.To combat the child labour in the workplace and promote children’s rights.
6.To ensure the safety of women workers in the workplace and promote gender justice in the labour scenario.
7.To organize the informal labourers in some format in order to secure justice. The Compendium of Social Doctrine of the Church states that unions are “a positive influence for social order and solidarity, and are therefore and indispensable element of social life.”
Conclusion
“The joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the people of our time, especially of those who are poor and afflicted, are the joys and hopes, grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well.” (Gaudium et Spes, No.40). Therefore the Church cannot set back to the comfort zone’s idleness and ignorance of the realities of the World today. We have to toil and call the generous hearted people of the world to accomplish a new heaven and earth where everybody has peace and joy as the children of God. Indifference is a far worse malady to be deterred from. Let us unite for a happy and joyous world!
May God Bless all Workers!
Most Rev. Oswald LewisMost Rev. Jose Porunnedam
Bishop in ChargeMost Rev. M. Devadass Ambrose
Office of LabourMembers, Office of Labour
Published by,
Fr. Jaison Vadassery, Secretary & Director WIF
CBCI, Office for Labour, CBCI Centre, Ashok Place 1, New Delhi – 110001
Tel (0): + 91: 011 23362907, 23344470, Website: www.cbcilabour.info,
E - mails: cbcilabour@gmail.com, msywif@gmail.com
Your Eminence/Your Grace/Your Excellency,
The Holy Father’s announcement of his resignation has taken all of us by surprise and brought us sadness. Pope Benedict XVI has proclaimed with clarity what God has shown to the world in Christ our Lord; he has safeguarded the Apostolic Faith; he has loved all of God’s people with the heart of Christ. He has now shown great courage and love for the Church in deciding, after prayer and reflection, to step down from his Office at the end of this month. We will miss his outstanding leadership in these challenging times.
The Cardinals will soon meet in Conclave to elect the new Pope. We have received no official communication about the date till now. As we five Cardinals from India enter the Conclave it is with feelings of trepidation because we realize the extremely important role we will be playing when participating in the election of the new Pope.
I encourage all to keep our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI in your prayers and to pray for us Cardinals as we fulfill this scared duty as Cardinal-Electors. This is a special moment for the Universal Church to join in intense prayer that the Holy Spirit be powerfully present with us as this important Conclave is taking place. Jesus promised us “I am with you always”; at this moment we need to be specially conscious of this reassurance. I am suggesting that a special Holy Hour be conducted in all our Churches and Institutions; families could make this intention in the Family Rosary.
February 22nd, being the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, will be an appropriate day to have the special Holy Hour. If this is too short notice you can have it on another convenient day.
As Pope Benedict XVI steps down, it is particularly fitting to thank God for the gift of this gentle and humble Holy Father for his inspiring leadership. We pray to God that Pope Benedict XVI continues to assist the Church as said in his own words, “through a life dedicated to prayer.”
I wish all of you a most blessed season of Lent as we journey towards Holy Week and Easter Sunday.
Oswald Cardinal Gracias
Archbishop of Bombay
& President, CBCI
February 20, 2013
XXV PLENARY ASSEMBLY OF THE CCBI
Feb 5-10, 2013, Veilankanni, Tamil Nadu, India
MESSAGE
CALLED TO BELIEVE, TO LOVE, TO SERVE AND TO PROCLAIM
INTRODUCTION
1.Conscious of our Episcopal calling and with joyful confidence in the Lord we, 117 bishops of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI), gathered at the Shrine of Our Lady of Health, Vailankanni, Feb 5-10, 2013 for the XXV Plenary Assembly and to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of the Conference. The main topic of our deliberations was the “Pastoral Plan for the Church in India”, considered as a milestone in the onward journey of the Conference. Several ecclesial events made our Plenary Assembly more meaningful: - the Promulgation of the Year of Faith by Pope Benedict XVI on the Golden Jubilee of the inauguration of the Second Vatican Council and the 20th Anniversary of the promulgation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), as also the Golden Jubilee of the declaration of the Shrine of Our Lady of Health at Veilankanni as a minor Basilica.
SIGNS OF THE TIMES
2.The Catholic Church in India finds herself in the context of rich cultural and religious multiplicity in which she is called upon to fulfill her evangelical mission. It is heartening to note the numerous signs of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the Church:
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Fruitful relationship of communion among the three sui juris Churches namely: Syro-Malabar, Syro-Malankara and Latin.
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Joyful celebration of the sacraments especially the Eucharist as the source and summit of Christian Life.
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Thirst for the Word of God and desire for greater holiness of life manifested through large participation in Charismatic Conventions, Retreats, Seminars and other events.
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Zeal for the proclamation of the Word of God in word and deed and through modern means of communication.
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Growing participation of laity, especially women and youth, in the Church’s life and mission.
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Widespread reception of SCCs as the New Way of Being Church in India.
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Emergence of new ecclesial movements such as Jesus Youth, Christeen Ministry, Santvana Community, Sahradaya, Couples for Christ, etc.
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Increase in vocations in the younger churches
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Beatification of Blessed Devasahayam Pillai, the first Indian Lay Martyr.
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Celebration of the Year of Faith as an opportunity to deepen, to live and to proclaim the faith.
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Initiatives for social justice, women’s empowerment, human rights particularly the rights of children, environmental protection, greater transparency and accountability, etc.
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Growth in ecumenical relations and inter-religious dialogue.
3. At the same time, we are aware of the challenges faced by the Church in many places in India today such as:
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Divisions based on caste, class, language and ethnicity leading to groupism causing scandals.
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Materialism invading sacred precincts of the family undermining spiritual and moral values.
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Routine and perfunctory worship and lack of proper pastoral care adversely affecting the faith life.
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Renewal envisaged by Vatican II yet to be fully realized particularly in the areas of participatory structures, clergy-laity relationship, ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue.
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Continued harassment, discrimination and attacks on Christians and denial of constitutional privileges to Christians of Scheduled Caste Origin.
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Nevertheless, these challenges do not discourage us; rather they are opportunities to renew our discipleship of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
PASTORAL PLAN FOR THE CHURCH (LATIN) IN INDIA
4.The Pastoral Plan is the fruit of a process that began in 2011 at the XXIII Plenary Assembly at Poonamallee (Chennai). After a nationwide survey on the major areas of the life and mission of the Church in India, a National Colloquium of nearly 300 participants comprising a cross section of bishops, priests, religious and laity representing the 13 Regions of the CCBI was held in June 2012. Continuing the process, this Plenary Assembly reflected on the four pillars of the Church’s identity as a Believing Community, Praying Community, Serving Community, and Proclaiming Community. After due deliberations under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we affirm the following priorities:
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Faith formation for all age groups of the faithful and ongoing formation of the clergy, religious and catechists to strengthen and nurture the faith.
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Biblical Apostolate to focus on proper celebration of the Liturgy of the Word, Word-based homilies, training of the laity for the service of the Word, reaching the Bible to every family and at least the New Testament to every Catholic and promotion of Lectio Divina (meditative-reflective reading of the Word).
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Liturgy celebrated in a well-prepared, devout and meaningful manner so as to ensure conscious, active and full participation by the congregation.
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Prayer Life and Popular Devotions founded on the Word of God and oriented to the Eucharist.
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Integral Evangelization to be promoted enthusiastically at all levels, proclaiming Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.
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In the light of New Evangelization reaching out to Catholics who have distanced themselves from the Church in order to reconcile them.
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SCCs to be established all over India through proper training and motivation.
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Establishment and effective functioning of Participatory Structures, namely pastoral councils and finance committees/councils at parish and diocesan levels and to ensure total transparency and accountability at all levels.
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Empowering the Laity to play an effective role in the Church and society with special emphasis on the marginalized sections, in accordance with the teachings of the Church.
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Family Apostolate to focus on mandatory marriage preparation courses, ongoing formation for parents, family prayer and family pastoral visits to make our families Christ-centred.
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To Unflinchingly Defend the Rights of the Unborn and oppose all anti-life policies and practices.
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To boldly uphold the Church’s teachings on Marriage and Family at all costs.
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To prepare the Youth spiritually, intellectually and emotionally to play a leadership role in the Church and society encouraging them, and supporting them financially whenever required, to enter public life and service.
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To implement the National Catholic Policy of Education of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) in letter and spirit.
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To promote Gospel-based sensitivity towards Women and make all-out efforts to empower them in Church and society so that they can live life to the full in accordance with their God-given dignity and vocation.
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To encourage holistic Inculturation in life-style and worship in keeping with the Indian ethos.
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To promote Ecumenism by relating with other Churches and ecclesial communities, through prayer meetings, study sessions and social activities, in mutual support springing from Christian solidarity.
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To foster Inter-Religious Dialogue through openness to people of other religions, willingness to listen to them with respect and understand them with their differences.
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To extend wholehearted solidarity to the much discriminated Dalit Christians who, in contrast to other people of Dalit origin, are denied their Constitutional privileges.
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To stand for the Constitutional Rights of all people, particularly the farmers, fisher folk, tribals and the displaced claiming their right to life, security, land, livelihood and identity.
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We express our solidarity with the suffering people who have been protesting against the establishment of Nuclear Power Plant at Koodankulam/ Idinthakarai, and call for prayers for a speedy and just solution to the problem.
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To carry on a sustained campaign for the recognition of religious liberty, a fundamental human right which, unfortunately, is being systematically undermined.
RESPONSIBILITY TO THE NATION
5.India is a sovereign republic – secular, democratic, progressive and strong - well-respected in the comity of nations. We the Church commit ourselves to the growth, progress and transformation of our beloved nation through our selfless service in the fields of education, healthcare and other areas of human development. We want to continue to play a constructive role in nation building by promoting peace and national integration through inter-religious harmony and by continuation of our struggle against the evils of caste system, corruption in public life, communal politics, crimes against women and children and all divisive forces in society. Inspired by the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ we wish to join the universal campaign to preserve the environment as responsible citizens. We look forward to a democratically strong India by taking full part in the democratic processes of our nation.
In this connection, we urge all Christians who are eligible to vote, to ensure that their names are registered in the voters’ list and to vote without fail to elect suitable candidates who will serve the people upholding the Constitution.
CONCLUSION
6. As we promulgate the Pastoral Plan for the Church (Latin) in India, we fervently pray that all sections of the People of God be filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit and walk in newness of life.
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We appeal to you, lay people, to be conscious of the dignity of your lay vocation and never forget your call to be witnesses to Christ in an increasingly secularized world of today.
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We appeal to you, beloved children, to open your hearts always to Jesus Christ our loving Saviour who blesses children, and wants everyone to be childlike.
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We appeal to you, young people, to make Jesus Christ your Friend, and know that he is the answer to your life-questions.
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We appeal to you, men and women in consecrated life, to never diminish in zeal for the Kingdom of God and loyalty to the Church.
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We appeal to you, dear priests, our beloved coworkers in the vineyard of the Lord, never to cease in your efforts to conform to Christ, the Priest, Prophet and Shepherd.
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We conclude our XXV Plenary Assembly held in this hallowed shrine at Veilankanni dedicated to Mary, Mother of Good Health, on the joyful occasion of the Golden Jubilee of its declaration as a Minor Basilica thanking God for the faith of the thousands of pilgrims who flock here to seek her intercession and return home touched by the healing love of Jesus Christ.
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May Mary, our Blessed Mother, the Star of New Evangelization, teach us in this Year of Faith, to be faithful disciples of her Son, and be ready to say our “yes” to God’s will in all circumstances.
Oswald Cardinal Gracias
Archbishop of Bombay
& President, CCBI
February 10. 2013
Shrine of Our Lady of Veilankanni
VEILANKANNI
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI
FOR THE WORLD DAY OF MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES (2013)
Migrations: pilgrimage of faith and hope
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, in the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, recalled that “the Church goes forward together with humanity” (No. 40); therefore “the joys and the hopes, the grief and anguish of the people of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted, are the joys and hopes, grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts” (ibid., 1). The Servant of God Paul VI echoed these words when he called the Church an “expert in humanity” (Populorum Progressio, 13), as did Blessed John Paul II when he tated that the human person is “the primary route that the Church must travel in fulfilling her mission... the way traced out by Christ himself” (Centesimus Annus, 53). In the footsteps of my predecessors, I sought to emphasize in my Encyclical Caritas in Veritate that “the whole Church, in all her being and acting – when she proclaims, when she celebrates, when she performs works of charity – is engaged in promoting integral human development” (No. 11). I was thinking also of the millions of men and women who, for various reasons, have known the experience of migration. Migration is in fact “a striking phenomenon
because of the sheer numbers of people involved, the social, economic, political, cultural and religious problems it raises, and the dramatic challenges it poses to nations and the international community” (ibid., 62), for “every migrant is a human person who, as such, possesses fundamental, inalienable rights that must be respected by everyone and in every circumstance” (ibid.).
For this reason, I have chosen to dedicate the 2013 World Day of Migrants and Refugees to the theme “Migrations: pilgrimage of faith and hope”, in conjunction with the celebrations marking the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and the sixtieth anniversary of the promulgation of the Apostolic Constitution Exsul Familia, and at a time when the whole Church is celebrating the Year of Faith, taking up with enthusiasm the challenge of the new evangelization.
Faith and hope are inseparable in the hearts of many migrants, who deeply desire a better life and not infrequently try to leave behind the “hopelessness” of an unpromising future. During their journey many of them are sustained by the deep trust that God never abandons his children; this certainty makes the pain of their uprooting and separation more tolerable and even gives them the hope of eventually returning to their country of origin. Faith and hope are often among the possessions which emigrants carry with them, knowing that with them, “we can face our present: the present, even if it is arduous, can be lived and accepted if it leads towards a goal, if we can be sure of this goal, and if this goal is great enough to justify the effort of the journey” (Spe Salvi, 1).
In the vast sector of migration, the Church shows her maternal concern in a variety of ways. On the one hand, she witnesses the immense poverty and suffering entailed in migration, leading often to painful and tragic situations. This inspires the creation of programmes aimed at meeting emergencies through the generous help of individuals and groups, volunteer associations and movements, parochial and diocesan organizations in cooperation with all people of good will. The Church also works to highlight the positive aspects, the potential and the resources which migrations offer. Along these lines, programmes and centres of welcome have been established to help and sustain the full integration of migrants, asylum
seekers and refugees into a new social and cultural context, without neglecting the religious dimension, fundamental for every person’s life. Indeed, it is to this dimension that the Church, by virtue of the mission entrusted to her by Christ, must devote special attention and care: this is her most important and specific task. For Christians coming from various parts of the world, attention to the religious dimension also entails ecumenical dialogue and the care of new communities, while for the Catholic faithful it involves, among other things, establishing new pastoral structures and showing esteem for the various rites, so as to foster full participation in the life of the local ecclesial community. Human promotion goes
side by side with spiritual communion, which opens the way “to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the only Saviour of the world” (Porta Fidei, 6). The Church always offers a precious gift when she guides people to an encounter with Christ, which opens the way to a stable and trustworthy hope.
Where migrants and refugees are concerned, the Church and her various agencies ought to avoid offering charitable services alone; they are also called to promote real integration in a society where all are active members and responsible for one another’s welfare, generously offering a creative contribution and rightfully sharing in the same rights and duties. Emigrants bring with them a sense oftrust and hope which has inspired and sustained their search for better opportunities in life. Yet they do not seek simply to improve their financial, social and political condition. It is true that the experience of migration often begins in fear, especially when persecutions and violence are its cause, and in the trauma of having to leave behind family and possessions which had in some way ensured survival. But suffering, great losses and at times a sense of disorientation before an uncertain future do not destroy the dream of being able to build, with hope and courage, a new life in a new country. Indeed, migrants trust that they will encounter acceptance, solidarity and help, that they will meet people who sympathize with the distress and tragedy experienced by others, recognize the values and resources the latter have to offer, and are open to sharing humanly and materially with the needy and disadvantaged. It is important to realize that “the reality of human solidarity, which is a benefit for us, also imposes a duty” (Caritas in Veritate, 43). Migrants and refugees can experience, along with difficulties, new, welcoming relationships which enable them to enrich their new countries with their professional skills, their social and cultural heritage and, not infrequently, their witness of faith, which can bring new energy and life to communities of ancient Christian tradition, and invite others to encounter Christ and to come to know the Church.
Certainly every state has the right to regulate migration and to enact policies dictated by the general requirements of the common good, albeit always in safeguarding respect for the dignity of each human person. The right of persons to migrate – as the Council’s Constitution Gaudium et Spes, No. 65, recalled – is numbered among the fundamental human rights, allowing persons to settle wherever they consider best for the realization of their abilities, aspirations and plans. In the current social and political context, however, even before the right to migrate, there is need to reaffirm the right not to emigrate,
that is, to remain in one’s homeland; as Blessed John Paul II stated: “It is a basic human right to live in one’s own ountry. However this rights become effective only if the factors that urge people to emigrate are constantly kept under control” (Address to the Fourth World Congress on the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees, 9 October 1998). Today in fact we can see that many migrations are the result of economic instability, the lack of essential goods, natural disasters, wars and social unrest. Instead of a pilgrimage filled with trust, faith and hope, migration then becomes an ordeal undertaken for the sake of survival, where men and women appear more as victims than as agents responsible for the decision to migrate. As a result, while some migrants attain a satisfactory social status and a dignified level of life through proper integration into their new social setting, many others are living at the margins, frequently exploited and deprived of their fundamental rights, or engaged in forms of behaviour harmful to their host society. The process of integration entails rights and duties, attention and concern for the dignified existence of migrants; it also calls for attention on the part of migrants to the values offered by thesociety to which they now belong.
In this regard, we must not overlook the question of irregular migration, an issue all the more pressing when it takes the form of human trafficking and exploitation, particularly of women and children. These crimes must be clearly condemned and prosecuted, while an orderly migration policy which does not end up in a hermetic sealing of borders, more severe sanctions against irregular migrants and the adoption of measures meant to discourage new entries, could at least limit for many migrants the danger of falling prey to such forms of human trafficking. There is an urgent need for structured multilateral
interventions for the development of the countries of departure, effective countermeasures aimed at eliminating human trafficking, comprehensive programmes regulating legal entry, and a greater openness to considering individual cases calling for humanitarian protection more than political asylum. In addition to suitable legislation, there is a need for a patient and persevering effort to form minds and consciences. In all this, it is important to strengthen and develop understanding and cooperation between ecclesial and other institutions devoted to promoting the integral development of the human person. In the Christian vision, social and humanitarian commitment draws its strength from fidelity to the Gospel, in the knowledge that “to follow Christ, the perfect man, is to become more human oneself” (Gaudium et Spes, 41).
Dear brothers and sisters who yourselves are migrants, may this World Day help you renew your trust and hope in the Lord who is always at our side! Take every opportunity to encounter him and to see his face in the acts of kindness you receive during your pilgrimage of migration. Rejoice, for the Lord is near, and with him you will be able to overcome obstacles and difficulties, treasuring the experiences of openness and acceptance that many people offer you. For “life is like a voyage on the sea of history, often dark and stormy, a voyage in which we watch for the stars that indicate the route. The true stars of our life are the people who have lived good lives. They are lights of hope. Certainly, Jesus Christ is the true light, the sun that has risen above all the shadows of history. But to reach him we also need lights close by – people who shine with his light and so guide us along our way” (Spe Salvi, 49). I entrust each of you to the Blessed Virgin Mary, sign of sure hope and consolation, our “guiding star”, who with her maternal presence is close to us at every moment of our life. To all I affectionately impart my Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, 12 October 2012
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
Human Rights Day Message – 2012
(From CBCI Office for Justice, Peace and Development)
On Human Rights Day 2012, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights proffers to the international community the message of Inclusion and the right to participate in public life. The highlights of the message are: everybody has the right to have their voice heard and to have a role in making the decisions that shape their communities; fulfilment of the right to participate in public life is fundamental to the functioning of a democratic society and an effective human rights protection system; participation and inclusion are critical in the development and implementation of durable, workable policy solutions.
As we observe Human Rights Day with the international community today, 10 December and emphasise the relevance of Human Rights in our daily lives, we cannot miss or overlook the poignancy of the human rights situation in India. The people who non-violently oppose nuclear power plants and Uranium mines, are greeted with atrocious and brutal attacks by the police, dangerous fabricated cases like sedition, waging war on the state etc., imprisonment (even women have not been spared), curfew and prohibitory orders. When thousands of tribal villagers oppose Government’s move to dispossess them of their land and fields in favour of the POSCO mining project, they are brutally attacked by paid goons of the company. Instead of arresting those goons, the police slap false cases against protesters including women.
According to the recent Human Rights in India: Status Report 2012 by Working Group on Human Rights (WGHR), glaring violations of human rights include: starvation deaths (though officials refrain from acknowledging their occurrence); one farmer suicide every 43 minutes; wilful neglect of healthcare (India spends only 4.4% of its budget on health, which is far below the global median of 11.5%); criminal neglect of Children (constituting over 40% of the Indian population, children receive only 5.3% of the national budget); enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in conflict areas, reinforced by extraordinary powers of arrest, detention and immunity available to the security forces (The National Human Rights Commission has admitted that 191 fake encounter killings took place in the country in the last five years); custodial torture (on an average, 1.8 million people are victims of police torture and violence in India every year); high incidence of violence against women (every 60 minutes, two women are raped, and every six hours a young married woman is found beaten to death, burnt or driven to suicide); discrimination and growing atrocities against dalits (one crime against dalits every 18 minutes; every day 3 rapes, 11 assaults and 13 murders etc.); acute discrimination and targeting of religious minorities (communal pogroms against minorities have been masterminded in complete impunity).
What do we, as rights-holders and as Christians, do in the face of these flagrant human violations, especially when the state – the duty-bearer neither respects nor protects the rights of its citizens?
In his Message to the UN on the 25th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Pope Paul VI said that we ought not to “remain indifferent in the face of the many grave and often systematic violations of human rights.” Affirming his predecessor’s view, Pope John Paul II, added: “Can we remain silent in the face of such grave crimes against humanity? No effort must be judged too great when it is a question of putting an end to such abuses, which are violations of human dignity.” The Church document, Justice in the World, admitted that Church’s “mission involves defending and promoting the dignity and fundamental rights of the human person.” In short, the Church‘s defence of human rights is an inescapable requirement of her mission of justice and love in the spirit of the Gospel message.
On this Human Rights Day, let us remind ourselves of Pope John Paul II’s message that “citizens have not only the right but also the responsibility to participate” and that “when they are prevented from exercising this responsibility, development of a sound democratic system then becomes practically impossible.” Affirming his teaching that respect for human rights is the secret of true peace, let us endeavour to make respect for human dignity the heritage of humanity and a culture of human rights the responsibility of all. Truly, the culture of human rights cannot fail to be a culture of peace.
Rev Dr Charles Irudayam
Secretary,
CBCI Office for Justice, Peace and Development
The Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People has issued a Message for the
2012 World Tourism Day (September 27th).
The theme this year is “Tourism and Sustainable Energy: Powering Sustainable Development”.
In the message, the President of the Council, Antonio Maria Cardinal Vegliò, said: “Tourism has an important role in achieving the Millennium Development Goals which include ‘ensuring environmental sustainability’, and it must do everything in its power so that these goals will be reached. Therefore, it has to adapt to the conditions of climate change by reducing its emissions of hothouse gas, which at present represent 5% of the total. However, tourism not only contributes to global warming: it is also a victim of it.”
The full message is below:
Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People Message for the 2012 World Tourism Day (September 27)
“Tourism and Sustainable Energy: Powering Sustainable Development”
The World Tourism Day is celebrated on September 27th, promoted every year by the World Tourism Organization (WTO). The Holy See has adhered to this initiative from its first edition. It considers it an opportunity to dialogue with the civil world and offers its concrete contribution, based on the Gospel, and also sees it as an occasion to sensitize the whole Church about the importance of this sector from the economic and social standpoint and, in particular, in the context of the new evangelization.
As this message is being published, the echoes are still heard from the Seventh World Congress of the Pastoral Care of Tourism which was held last April in Cancún (Mexico) at the initiative of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People in collaboration with the Prelature of Cancún-Chetumal and the Mexican Bishops' Conference. The work and the conclusions of that meeting will enlighten our pastoral action in the coming years. Also in this edition of the World Day we make the theme proposed by the WTO our own: “Tourism and Sustainable Energy: Powering Sustainable Development”. It is in harmony with the present “International Year of Sustainable Energy For All” promulgated by the United Nations with the objective of highlighting “the need to improve access to reliable, affordable, economically viable, socially acceptable and environmentally sound energy services and resources for sustainable development”.
Tourism has grown at a significant rhythm in the past decades. According to the World Tourism Organization statistics, it is foreseen that during the year in progress the quota will reach one billion international tourist arrivals, which will become two billion in the year 2030. To these should be added the even higher numbers involved in local tourism. This growth, which surely has positive effects, can lead to a serious environmental impact owing, among other factors, to the immoderate consumption of energy resources, the increase in polluting agents and the production of waste. Tourism has an important role in achieving the Millennium Development Goals which include “ensuring environmental sustainability” (goal 7), and it must do everything in its power so that these goals will be reached. Therefore, it has to adapt to the conditions of climate change by reducing its emissions of hothouse gas, which at present represent 5% of the total. However, tourism not only contributes to global warming: it is also a victim of it.
The concept of “sustainable development” is already engrained in our society and the tourism sector cannot and must not remain on the margin. When we talk about “sustainable tourism”, we are not referring to one means among others, such as cultural, beach or adventure tourism. Every form and expression of tourism must necessarily be sustainable and cannot be otherwise. Along this way, the energy problems have to be taken into due consideration. It is an erroneous assumption to think that “an infinite quantity of energy and resources are available, that it is possible to renew them quickly, and that the negative effects of the exploitation of the natural order can be easily absorbed”.
It is true, as the WTO Secretary General points out, that “tourism is leading the way in some of the world’s most innovative sustainable energy initiatives. However, we are also convinced that there is still much work to be done.
In this area also the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People wishes to offer its contribution based on the conviction that “the Church has a responsibility towards creation and she must assert this responsibility in the public sphere”. It is not up to us to propose concrete technical solutions but to show that development cannot be reduced to mere technical, political or economic parameters. We wish to accompany this development with some appropriate ethical guidelines which stress the fact that all growth must always be at the service of the human being and the common good. In fact, in the Message sent to the Cancún Congress mentioned earlier, the Holy Father stresses that it is important “to shed light on this reality using the social teaching of the Church and promote a culture of ethical and responsible tourism, in such a way that it will respect the dignity of persons and of peoples, be open to all, be just, sustainable and ecological”. We cannot separate the theme of environmental ecology from concern for an appropriate human ecology in the sense of interest in the human being's integral development. In the same way, we cannot separate our view of man and nature from the bond which unites them with the Creator. God has entrusted the good stewardship of creation to the human being.
In the first place, a great educational effort is important in order to promote “an effective shift in mentality which can lead to the adoption of new life-styles”. This conversion of the mind and heart “allows us rapidly to become more proficient in the art of living together that respects the alliance between man and nature”. It is right to acknowledge that our daily habits are changing and that a greater ecological sensitivity exists. However, it is also true that the risk is easily run of forgetting these motivations during the vacation period in a search for certain comforts to which we believe we are entitled, without always reflecting on their consequences.
It is necessary to cultivate the ethics of responsibility and prudence and to ask ourselves about the impact and consequences of our actions. In this regard, the Holy Father says: “The way humanity treats the environment influences the way it treats itself, and vice versa. This invites contemporary society to a serious review of its life-style, which, in many parts of the world, is prone to hedonism and consumerism, regardless of their harmful consequences”. On this point, it will be important to encourage both entrepreneurs and tourists to consider the repercussions of their decisions and attitudes. In the same way, it is crucial “to encourage more sober lifestyles, while reducing their energy consumption and improving its efficiency”. These underlying ideas must necessarily be translated into concrete actions. Therefore, and with the objective of making the tourist destinations sustainable, all initiatives that are energy efficient and have the least environmental impact possible and lead to using renewable energies, should be promoted and supported to promoting the saving of resources and avoiding contamination. In this regard, it is fundamental for the ecclesial tourism structures and vacations proposals promoted by the Church to be characterized, among other things, by their respect for the environment.
All of the sectors involved (businesses, local communities, governments and tourists) must be aware of their respective responsibilities in order to achieve sustainable forms of tourism. Collaboration between all the parts involved is necessary. The Social Doctrine of the Church reminds us that “care for the environment represents a challenge for all of humanity. It is a matter of a common and universal duty, that of respecting a common good”. A good which human beings do not own but are “stewards” (Cf. Gn 1:28), a good which God entrusted to them so that they would administer it properly.
Pope Benedict XVI says that “the new evangelization, to which all are called, requires us to keep in mind and to make good use of the many occasions that tourism offers us to put forward Christ as the supreme response to modern man’s fundamental questions”. Therefore, we invite everyone to promote and use tourism in a respectful and responsible way in order to allow it to develop all of its potentialities, with the certainty that in contemplating the beauty of nature and peoples we can arrive at the encounter with God.
Vatican City, July 16th, 2012
Antonio Maria Card. Vegliò,
President, Joseph Kalathiparambil Secretary
Pope Benedict XVI's Message for World Mission Day, which this year will be celebrated on Sunday, October 21on the theme "Called to radiate the Word of truth":
HOLY FATHER'S MESSAGE
WORLD MISSION DAY 2012
"Called to radiate the Word of truth" (Apost. Lett. Porta Fidei No. 6)
Dear brothers and sisters,
This year the celebration of World Mission Day has a very special meaning. The 50th anniversary of the conciliar decree Ad Gentes, the opening of the Year of Faith and the Synod of Bishops on the theme of the New Evangelization contribute to reaffirming the Church's desire to engage with more courage and zeal in the missio ad Gentes so that the Gospel reaches the ends of the earth.
The II Vatican Council, with the participation of Catholic Bishops from all corners of the earth, was a truly luminous universal sign of the Church, welcoming for the first time such a large number of Council Fathers from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceania. Missionary bishops and native Bishops, Pastors from communities scattered among non-Christian populations, who brought during the Council the image of a Church present in all Continents and were the interpreters of the complex realities of the then so-called 'Third World'.
Due to the rich experience of being Pastors of young Churches, animated by the passion for spreading the Kingdom of God, they have contributed significantly to reaffirming the necessity and urgency of the evangelization ad Gentes, and in placing the Church's missionary nature at the centre of ecclesiology.
Missionary Ecclesiology
Today this vision is still valid, indeed, it has experienced a fruitful theological and pastoral reflection and, at the same time, presents itself with renewed urgency because the number of those who do not know Christ has expanded: "The number of those awaiting Christ is still immense", said the Blessed John Paul II in his Encyclical Redemptoris Missio about the permanent validity of the missionary mandate and therefore, added: "We cannot be content when we consider the millions of our brothers and sisters, who like us have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, but who live in ignorance of the love of God " (Num. 86). I, too, in announcing the Year of Faith, wrote that Christ "today as in the past, sends us through the highways of the world to proclaim his Gospel to all the peoples of the earth" (Apost. Let 7); proclamation, which, even the Servant of God Paul VI in his apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi clearly expressed, "it is not an optional contribution for the Church: it is the duty incumbent on her by the command of the Lord Jesus, so that people can believe and be saved. This message is indeed necessary. It is unique. It cannot be replaced" (Num. 5). We then need to return to the same apostolic zeal of the early Christian communities, which, though small and defenseless, were able, through their witness and proclamation, to spread the Gospel throughout the then known world.
No wonder, therefore, that the II Vatican Council and the subsequent Magisterium of the Church insist in a very special way on the missionary mandate that Christ had entrusted to his disciples and that has to be the commitment of all the People of God, Bishops, priests, deacons, men and women religious, lay people. The care of proclaiming the Gospel in every corner of the world belongs to the Bishops first of all, directly responsible for the evangelization in the world, both as members of the College of Bishops and as pastors of particular Churches. In fact, they "have been consecrated not only for a particular diocese, but for the salvation of the entire world" (John Paul II, Enc Lett. Redemptoris missio, 63), "heralds of the faith, who lead new disciples to Christ" (Ad Gentes, 20) and make "the mission spirit and zeal of the People of God present and as it were visible, so that the whole diocese becomes missionary" (ibid., 38).
The priority to evangelize
The mandate of preaching the Gospel, therefore, does not finish for a Pastor, in his attention towards the portion of the People of God entrusted to his pastoral care, or by sending a Fidei donum priest, man or woman religious or lay man or woman; it must involve all the activities of the particular Church, all her sectors, in short, her whole being and working..: all the components of the large mosaic of the church must sentyirsi strongly questioned the mandate of the Lord to preach the Gospel, so that Christ can be preached everywhere . We Pastors, men and women religious and all the faithful in Christ, we must put ourselves in the footsteps of the Apostle Paul, who the Council clearly indicated it and the subsequent Magisterium reaffirmed it with force. This requires regular adjustments of lifestyles, pastoral planning and diocesan organizationto this fundamental dimension of being Church, especially in our continuous changing world. And that goes for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, as well as for ecclesial Movements: all the components of the large mosaic of the Church must strongly feel questioned by the mandate of the Lord to preach the Gospel, so that Christ can be preached everywhere. We Pastors, men and women religious and all the faithful in Christ, should follow in the footsteps of the apostle Paul, who "a prisoner of Christ for the Gentiles" (Eph 3, 1), worked, suffered and struggled to bring the Gospel among the Gentiles, he did not save energy, time and means to make known the Message of Christ.
Even today, the mission ad Gentes must be the constant horizon and the paradigm of every ecclesial activity, because the identity of the Church herself is constituted by faith in the Mystery of God, who revealed himself in Christ to bring us salvation, and by the mission of witnessing and proclaiming Him to the world until He comes. Like St. Paul, we should to be attentive towards those who are far, to those who do not yet know Christ and have not yet experienced the paternity of God, in the awareness that "the missionary cooperation includes new forms-not only economic assistance, but also direct participation to evangelization" (John Paul II Redemptoris missio, 82).
The celebration of the Year of Faith and the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization also aim to relaunch missionary cooperation.
Faith and proclamation
The passion to preach Christ urges us to also read history so as to scrutinize the problems, aspirations and the hopes of mankind, that Christ has to heal, purify, filling it with his presence. His Message is not timeless, but is drawn into the heart of the history of the people and and is able to meet the aspirations of each man/woman. For this reason the Church must be aware of "the immense horizons of the Church's mission and the complexity of today’s situation call for new ways of effectively communicating the Word of God" (Benedict XVII, Apost Exort postsin Verbum Domini 97). This obliges us, first of all, to a more conscious and vigorous adherence of faith to the Gospel "especially at a time of profound change such as humanity is currently experiencing" (Apost Lett. Porta Fidei 8).
One of the obstacles for evangelization, in fact, is the crisis of faith, not only in the western world, but for most of humanity, who, however is hungry and thirsty for God, and must be invited and brought to the bread and the living water, like the Samaritan at Jacob’s well in the encounter with Christ. As St. John the Evangelist says, the story of this woman is of particular significance (cfr John 4,1-30): the Samaritan woman met Christ, who asks her for some water, but then talks about a new water, able to extinguish the thirst for ever. At the beginning the woman does not understand, she remains at a material level, but she is slowly led by the Lord to undergo a path of faith which leads her to recognize him as a Messiah. Here St Augustine says: “after having received in the the Lord Christ, what else could [this woman] have done if not abandon amphora and run to the village and announce the presence of the Messiah (homily15, 30). It is necessary to renew the enthusiasm of communicating the faith to promote a new evangelization of the communities and Countries of ancient Christian tradition, which have lost the reference to God so that they may rediscover the joy of believing. The concern to evangelize must not remain on the margins of ecclesial activity and of the personal life of a Christian, but strongly characterized in the awareness of being receivers and and, at the same time, missionaries of the Gospel. The core of the mission is always the same: the Kerigma of Christ dead and risen for the salvation of the world, the kerigma of God's absolute and total love for every man and woman, manifested in sending the eternal and only Son, the Lord Jesus, who did not despise on accepting the poverty of our humanity, whom he loved and redeemed by offering himself on the cross from sin and death.
Faith in God in this project of love fulfilled in Christ is a gift and mystery which must be welcomed in the heart and life and for this we must thank the Lord. If it is a gift from God to be shared; it is a talent which must bear fruit; it is a light that should not be hidden, but must alighten the whole house. It is the most important gift we have and we cannot keep for ourselves.
Proclamation becomes charity
Woe to me if I do not preach, said the Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 9:16). This word resounds with force for every Christian and for every Christian community in all Continents. Even for the young Churches in the mission territories even recently created, the missionary conscience has become a connatural dimension, even if they themselves still need missionaries. Many priests, men and women religious, from every corner of the world, many lay people and even entire families leave their countries and their local communities and go to other churches to witness and proclaim the Name of Christ, in which only Humanity finds salvation. It is aprofound expression of communion, sharing and charity among the Churches, so that every man and women may listen or re-listen to the saving proclamation and to get closer to the sacraments, source of true life.
And together with this immense sign of faith in the form of given charity, I therefore feel and have the duty to remember and thank the Pontifical Mission Societies, through their activities, the proclamation becomes helping others, justice for the poorest, schools in remote villages, hospitals in isolated places, emancipation from poverty, rehabilitation of those who are marginalized, support for the development of peoples, overcoming ethnic divisions, respect for life.
Dear brothers and sisters, I invoke on the mission of evangelization ad Gentes, and in particular on its workers, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, so that the grace of God makes it procede more decisively in the history of the world. I pray with Blessed Newman: "O Lord accompany Thy missionaries in the Lands to be evangelized, put the right words on their lips, make their efforts fruitful". The Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church and star of Evangelization, accompany the missionaries of the Gospel.
From the Vatican, January 6, 2012, Solemnity of the Epiphany
Benedictus PP. XVI
S Y N O D O F B I S H O P S
XIII ORDINARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY
THE NEW EVANGELIZATIONFOR THE
TRANSMISSION OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH
INSTRUMENTUM LABORIS
VATICAN CITY2012
PREFACE“Increase our faith!” (Lk 17:5) is theApostles’ prayer to the Lord Jesus, when they realize that faith, which is agift from God, is the only way of having a personal relationship with him andfulfilling their vocation as disciples. Their plea arose from an awareness thattheir limitations kept them from forgiving others. Faith is also needed inperforming signs which illustrate the presence of the Kingdom of Godin the world. Jesus used the fig tree, withered to its roots, to encourage hisdisciples. “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to thismountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea’ and does not doubt in his heart,but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you havereceived it, and it will be yours” (Mk 11:22-24). St. Mark the Evangelist alsoemphasizes the importance of faith in accomplishing great works. “Truly, I sayto you, if you have faith and never doubt, you will not only do what has beendone to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up andcast into the sea,’ it will be done” (Mt 21:21).
????p?sto?) (Mt 8:26). They were to entrustthemselves to God and to Providence,and not worry about material things. “But if God so clothes the grass of thefield, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he notmuch more clothe you, O men of little faith?” (Mt 6:30; cf. Lk 12:28). Asimilar situation takes place before the multiplication of the loaves. Facedwith the realization that the disciples had forgotten to take bread in crossingto the other side of the lake, the Lord Jesus says: “O men of little faith, whydo you discuss among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yetperceive? Do you not remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and howmany baskets you gathered?” (Mt 16:8-9)._v) (Mt 17:20). On the Sea of Tiberias,before calming the storm, Jesus reproves his disciples: “Why are you afraid, Omen of little faith?” (_µ_???op?st?av _v _ t_On variousoccasions, the Lord Jesus admonishes “the Twelve” for their lack of faith. Tothe question of why they were unable to cast out a demon, the Master responds:“Because of your little faith” (??
Matthew’s Gospel gives special attention to theaccount of Jesus’ walking on the water and reaching the Apostles in the boat.After calming the Apostles’ fear, he accepts the challenge of St. Peter: “Lord,if it is you, bid me come to you on the water” (Mt 14:28). At first, St. Peterwalks towards Jesus on the water without any difficulty. “But when he saw thewind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Jesusimmediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, ‘O man oflittle faith, why did you doubt?’” (Mt 14:30-31). Afterwards, Jesus and St.Peter together get into the boat and the wind ceases. The disciples, witnessesto this great happening, prostrate themselves before the Lord and make a fullprofession of faith: “Truly you are the Son of God!” (Mt 14:33).p?sto?; cf. Mt17:17; 13,58). At the same time, many particular Churches, after initiallydisplaying a great enthusiasm, are now showing signs of weariness andapprehension in the face of very complex situations in today’s world. Like St.Peter, they grow fearful of opposing forces and temptations of various kinds aswell as challenges that surpass their human capabilities. But, just assalvation came to St. Peter from Christ alone, so too the faithful, when theybecome personally involved as members of an ecclesial community, can experienceChrist’s saving grace. Only the Lord Jesus can extend his hand and indicate thesure path in the journey of faith._In our times, St. Peter’s experience canbe reflected in many of the faithful as well as entire Christian communities,especially in traditionally Christian countries. In fact, because of a lack offaith, various particular Churches are witnessing a decline in sacramental andChristian practice among the faithful to the point that some members can evenbe called “non-believers” (
These brief reflections on faith in the Gospelscan help illustrate the topic of the XIII Ordinary General Assembly of theSynod of Bishops: “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the ChristianFaith”. The importance given to the faith is further emphasized by the decisionof the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI to celebrate a Year of Faith, beginningon 11 October 2012, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the opening ofthe Second Vatican Council and the twentieth anniversary of the publication ofThe Catechism of the Catholic Church. Both observances will take place duringthe celebration of the synod. Once again, the Lord’s words to St. Peter theApostle, the rock on which he built his Church, have particular meaning (cf. Mt16:19): “But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when youhave turned again, strengthen your brethren" (Lk 22:32). “The door offaith” (Acts 14:27) will again be open to all of us.
The goal of evangelization today is, as always,the transmission of the Christian faith. This task primarily concernscommunities of Jesus’ disciples which are organized into particular Churches,diocesan and eparchial, whose worshippers gather regularly for liturgicalcelebrations, hear the Word of God, celebrate the sacraments — especially theEucharist — and look to pass on the treasure of faith to the members of theirfamilies, communities and parishes. They accomplish this task by proclaimingand bearing witness to the Christian life through the catechumenate, catechesisand works of charity. Evangelization in general is the everyday work of theChurch. With the assistance of the Holy Spirit, this so-called ordinaryevangelizing activity can be endowed with renewed vigour. New methods and newforms of expression are needed to convey to the people of today the perennialtruth of Jesus Christ, forever new and the source of all newness. Only a soundand robust faith, witnessed in a poignant manner in the lives of the martyrs,can give impetus to many short-term or long-range pastoral projects, breathenew life into existing structures and spur a pastoral creativity to meet the needsof people today and the expectations of present-day society.This reneweddynamism in the Christian community will lead to renewed missionary activity(missio ad gentes), now more urgent than ever, given the large number of peoplewho do not know Jesus Christ, in not only far-off countries but also thosealready evangelized.
By allowing themselves to be animated by theHoly Spirit, Christians will then be more attuned to their brothers and sisterswho, despite being baptized, have drifted from the Church and Christianpractice. The new evangelization is primarily directed to these people so thatthey can rediscover the beauty of their Christian faith and the joy of apersonal relationship with the Lord Jesus in the Church and the community ofthe faithful.
This Instrumentum laboris treats theafore-mentioned subjects and will serve as the agenda for the upcoming synodalassembly. The document is a summary of the responses to the questions in theLineamenta, which were submitted by the synods of bishops from the EasternCatholic Churches sui iuris, the episcopal conferences, the departments of theRoman Curia and the Union of Superiors General as well as other institutionsand communities of the faithful, who wished to participate in the Church'sreflection on the synod topic. Assisted by the Ordinary Council and thevaluable contribution of experts, the General Secretariat of the Synod ofBishops prepared this document which describes many promising aspects ofevangelization reflected in the Church on all five continents. At the sametime, it proposes various topics for consideration so that the Church maycontinue to perform adequately her work of evangelization, while taking intoaccount the many challenges and difficulties of the present moment. Encouragedby the Lord’s words, “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believealso in me.” (Jn 14:1) and clearly guided by the Holy Father, Pope BenedictXVI, the synod fathers are preparing themselves to reflect on these matters inan atmosphere of prayer, listening and affective and effective communion. Theywill not undertake this work alone; they will be accompanied by thosecontinuing to pray for the synod. Looking to the communion of the ChurchTriumphant, the members of the XIII Ordinary General Assembly trust in theintercession of the saints, in particular the Virgin Mary, who is blessedbecause “she believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken toher from the Lord” (Lk 1:45). TheAll-Good and Merciful God is constantly extending his hand to humanity and theChurch and is always prepared to do justice for his elect, who are invited tograsp his hand and, in faith, seek his assistance. This situation should not bepresupposed, as indicated by the forceful words of Jesus: “When the Son of mancomes, will he find faith on earth?" (Lk 18:8). Therefore, at the presenttime, the Church and all Christians need to repeat the following prayer overand over again: “I believe, help my unbelief!” (Mk 9:24).
To ensure that this synodal assembly meets theseexpectations and the needs of the Church in our time, we invoke the grace ofthe Holy Spirit, whom God “has poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ ourSaviour" (Titus 3:6), and again call out to the Lord Jesus, "Increaseour faith!" (Lk 17:5).
_ Nikola ETEROVIXTitular Archbishop of Cibale
General Secretary
Vatican City, 27 May 2012
The Solemnity of Pentecost
INTRODUCTION
1. As announced by Pope Benedict XVI at theclosing of the Special Assembly for the Middle Eastof the Synod Bishops, the XIII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod ofBishops will be held from 7 to 28 October 2012 to treat the topic: “The NewEvangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith”. To facilitate thepreparation of this event, the Lineamenta was prepared, including questions tobe answered by the bishops' conferences, synods of bishops of the EasternCatholic Churches sui iuris, the departments of the Roman Curia and the Unionof Superiors General. Observations were also submitted to the General Secretariatby individual bishops, priests, members of the institutes of consecrated life,lay associations and ecclesial movements. The great number of people whoparticipated in the preparation process confirmed the timeliness of the HolyFather’s choice of topic in the minds of Christians and the entire Churchtoday. All these observations and comments are collected and summarized in thisInstrumentum laboris.
THE POINT OF REFERENCE2. The convocation of thenext synodal assembly comes at a particularly significant moment for theCatholic Church. In fact, the time of its celebration will coincide with thefiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, thetwentieth anniversary of the publication of The Catechism of the CatholicChurch and the inauguration of The Year of Faith, proclaimed by Pope BenedictXVI. The Synod will therefore provide a good opportunity to focus on thesubject of conversion and the necessity of holiness, emphasized by all theseanniversaries. The Synod will also be the place to grasp and repropose topeople the invitation to rediscover the faith. This invitation was initiallymade at the Second Vatican Council and restated in The Year of the Faithproclaimed by Pope Paul VI, and again addressed to us in our time by PopeBenedict XVI. All this will serve as the framework for the synod’s work oftreating the topic of the new evangelization.
3. During the years spanning the previouslymentioned occurrences, other essential documentation deserves consideration notonly at this time of preparation but also during the Synod itself. Besides adirect and explicit reference to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council,no discussion on evangelization can take place today, without considering whatwas expressed on the subject by Pope Paul VI in his Apostolic ExhortationEvangelii nuntiandi, and Pope John Paul II in both his Encyclical LetterRedemptoris missio, and Apostolic Letter Novo millennium ineunte. All thesetexts have been cited in a number of responses as a point of reference andcomparison.
EXPECTATIONS FROM THE SYNOD
4. Many responses stressed the urgency for allof us to consider how the Church today is responding to her fundamental call toevangelize and to assess her resources in meeting today’s challenges and avoidany danger of a dispersion of energy or fragmented efforts. Many particularChurches (dioceses, eparchies, Churches sui juris) and various episcopalconferences and synods of the Eastern Churches have for the past several yearsevaluated their programmes in proclaiming and witnessing to the faith. Theresponses provided an impressive list of initiatives undertaken by variousecclesial realities. Over the last ten years, a number of particular Churcheshave documented and planned pastoral projects on evangelization and itsrenewal. Programmes on the diocesan, national and continental levels have beendesigned to raise awareness and offer support. Training centres were alsocreated for Christians called to engage in these projects.5. Given the considerablenumber of initiatives and their reported positive and negative aspects — sincenot all the initiatives undertaken have produced the desired results — theconvocation of the Synod is seen as a timely opportunity for the entireCatholic Church to listen, discern and, above all, give a unified response towhat we are called to do. Hopefully, the upcoming synodal assembly will be anevent to energize Christian communities and, at the same time, provide concreteanswers to the many questions facing the Church today and the resourcesavailable in her evangelizing activity. The Synod is expected to be not only asource of encouragement but also the place to compare experiences and shareobservations on situations and approaches for action.
THE TOPIC OF THE SYNODAL ASSEMBLY
6. In convoking the XIII Ordinary General Assembly of theSynod of Bishops, Pope Benedict XVI wished to remind Christian communities ofthe primary task facing the Church at the start of the new millennium.Following up on the initiative of his predecessor, Blessed Pope John Paul II,who saw in the Jubilee of the Year 2000, celebrated thirty-five years after theSecond Vatican Council, as an occasion to undertake the Church’s evangelizingmission with renewed enthusiasm, Pope Benedict XVI gives further emphasis tothis mission and stresses its new character. The evangelizing mission receivedfrom the Apostles, — to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing themand forming them as witnesses (cf. Mt 28:19-20) and the mission which the Churchhas carried out and to which she has remained true over the centuries — istoday facing social and cultural changes that are profoundly affecting aperson’s perception of self and the world, and consequently, a person’s way ofbelieving in God.
7. All these changes are contributing to awidespread disorientation which leads to forms of distrust of all that has beenpassed down about the meaning of life and to an unwillingness to adhere in atotal, unconditional manner to what has been revealed as the profound truth ofour being. This detachment from the faith is increasingly being witnessed insocieties and cultures which for centuries appeared instilled with the Gospel.Increasingly considered an intimate and individual matter, faith has become apresupposition, even for many Christians, who continue to be justly concernedabout the social, cultural and political implications in preaching the Gospel,but have not been sufficiently trained to keep alive their faith and theircommunity, a faith which, like an invisible flame with its charity, nourishesand gives life to all the other actions of life. This situation, running therisk of weakening the faith, and consequently, the ability to bear witness tothe Gospel, has unfortunately become a reality in most of the countries where,for centuries, the Christian faith has contributed to the upbuilding of cultureand society.
8. From the beginning of his pontificate, PopeBenedict XVI has insisted that this situation needs to be addressed. At thattime he said: “The Church as a whole and all her Pastors, like Christ, must setout to lead people out of the desert, towards the place of life, towardsfriendship with the Son of God, towards the One who gives us life, and life inabundance.” The Church feels the responsibility to devise new tools and newexpressions to ensure that the word of faith, which has begotten the true lifeof God in us, be heard more and be better understood, even in the new desertsof this world.9. ] renews the Church, revitalizes faith and the Christianidentity, and offers fresh enthusiasm and new incentive. Faith is strengthenedwhen it is given to others!”¼The convocation of the Synod on the newevangelization and the transmission of the Faith is part of a determined effortto give new fervour to the faith and to the testimony of Christians and theircommunities. The decision to focus the synod's deliberations on this topic is,in fact, one element in a unified plan, the most recent occurrences of whichhave been the establishment of a dicastery for the promotion of the newevangelization as well as the proclamation of The Year of Faith. Consequently,the celebration of the Synod is expected to enliven and energize the Church inundertaking a new evangelization, which will lead to a rediscovery of the joyof believing and a rekindling of enthusiasm in communicating the faith. Thequestion is not simply devising something new or undertaking unprecedentedinitiatives in spreading the Gospel, but living the faith in the spirit of itbeing a divine proclamation: “Mission [
FROM THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL TO THE NEWEVANGELIZATION
10. The idea of renewing the Church'sevangelizing activity, expressed most recently in the previously mentioneddecisions of Pope Benedict XVI, has a long history. This same idea inspired theteaching and apostolic ministry of Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II. In fact,the origin of the idea can be traced to the Second Vatican Council and itsdesire to respond to a sense of disorientation experienced by Christians facingpowerful changes and divisions which the world was experiencing at that time.The Church’s response was not characterized by pessimism or resignation, butthe regenerating power of the universal call to salvation, desired by God foreach individual.
11. In this way, evangelization became one ofthe central topics of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. In Christ, theLight of the Nations, all humanity regains its original and true identity,which sin has obscured, and the Church, whose countenance reflects this Light,has the task of continuing and making present and real, everywhere in today’sworld, the evangelizing mission of Jesus Christ. From this perspective,evangelization is one of the main demands made by the Council which called forrenewal and zeal in this mission. Bishops and priests as ordained ministers,have the strict duty to evangelize. However, this fundamental mission of theChurch is also the duty of all baptized Christians. The Decree Ad Gentesclearly points out that evangelization is the prime content of the Church’smission and shows how evangelization builds up the composition of particularChurches, and generally speaking, all Christian communities. Seen in this way,evangelization is not simply one activity among many, but, in the dynamic ofthe Church, evangelization is the energy which permits the Church to realizeher goal,namely, to respond to the universal call to holiness.
12. In the wake of the Council, Pope Paul VIperceptively observed that the duty of evangelization needed to be proposedagain with greater force and urgency, because of the de-Christianization ofmany ordinary people who, despite being baptized, live a life not in keepingwith their Christian faith or express some kind of faith but have an imperfectknowledge of its basic tenets. An increasing number of people are sensing aneed to know Jesus Christ in a different way from what they were taught aschildren. Faithful to conciliar teaching, Pope Paul VI added that the Church'sevangelizing activity “must constantly seek the proper means and language forpresenting, or representing, to them God's revelation and faith in JesusChrist.”
13. Later, Pope John Paul II made the duty toevangelize one of the key points in his vast magisterium, summarizing in theconcept of the new evangelization what he systematically developed in manydiscourses, namely, that this is the task facing the Church today, especiallyin countries with a Christian tradition. This programme directly affects theChurch’s relation to the outside world, but presupposes, first of all, anongoing internal renewal, a continuous passing, so to speak, from beingevangelized to evangelizing. The Pope explains: “Whole countries and nationswhere religion and the Christian life were formerly flourishing and capable offostering a viable and working community of faith, are now put to a hard test,and in some cases, are even undergoing a radical transformation, as a result ofa constant spreading of religious indifference, secularism and atheism. Thisparticularly concerns countries and nations of the so-called First World, inwhich economic well-being and consumerism, even if coexistent with a tragicsituation of poverty and misery, inspires and sustains a life lived ‘as if Goddid not exist’ [...] In other regions or nations many vital traditions of pietyand popular forms of Christian religion are still conserved; but today thismoral and spiritual patrimony runs the risk of being dispersed under the impactof a multiplicity of processes, including secularization and the spread ofsects. Only a re-evangelization can ensure the growth of a clear and deepfaith, and serve to make these traditions a force for authentic freedom.Without doubt, a mending of the Christian fabric of society is urgently neededin all parts of the world. But for this to come about, what is needed is tofirst remake the Christian fabric of the ecclesial community itself present inthese countries and nations.”
14. The Second VaticanCouncil and the new evangelization are also recurring themes in the teaching ofPope Benedict XVI. In 2005, in his Christmas greetings to the members of theRoman Curia — coinciding with the fortieth anniversary of the close of theSecond Vatican Council — he said, a “hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture”,must be counteracted by a “‘hermeneutic of reform’, of renewal in thecontinuity of the one subject-Church which the Lord has given to us. She is asubject which increases in time and develops, yet always remaining the same,the one subject of the journeying People of God.” In proclaiming The Year ofthe Faith, the Holy Father hoped that such an event “would provide a goodopportunity to help people understand that the texts bequeathed by the CouncilFathers, in the words of Blessed John Paul II, ‘have lost nothing of theirvalue or brilliance’.” Furthermore, he stated: “I would also like to emphasizestrongly what I had occasion to say concerning the Council a few months aftermy election as Successor of St. Peter: ‘if we interpret and implement it guidedby a right hermeneutic, it can be and can become increasingly powerful for theever necessary renewal of the Church’.” Therefore, as some responses to theLineamenta point out, the previously mentioned words of Pope Benedict XVI, inkeeping with his predecessors, can serve as a reliable guide in addressing thesubject of the transmission of the faith in the new evangelization, in a Churchcognisant of the challenges of today's world, but firmly anchored in her livingTradition, of which the Second Vatican Council is a part.
THE FORMAT OF THE INSTRUMENTUM LABORIS15.Synodal discussion is expected to result in a developed and heightenedtreatment of the work that has taken place in the Church in recent decades. Theconsiderable number of initiatives and documents already produced onevangelization and its renewal indicates that many particular Churches were notso much awaiting word on what to do, as seeking a place to hear about all thathas been done so far. More than one response reported that simply theannouncement of the topic and that work had begun on the Lineamenta causedChristian communities to feel stronger and more committed to the urgentcharacter today of the imperative of the new evangelization, and, as a furtherbenefit, to enjoy a sense of communion which allowed them to approach everydaychallenges with a different spirit.
16. Many responses do not overlook the problemthe Church is facing in the challenge of the new evangelization, namely, thatthe changes previously discussed not only affect the world and culture, butalso herself in the first person, that is, her communities, her activities andher conception of herself. This situation, therefore, calls for a process ofdiscernment, which can also serve as a way of responding to the currentsituation with greater courage and responsibility. In keeping with this idea,the Instrumentum laboris was drafted in four chapters which are useful inproviding the basic content and means for fostering this reflection anddiscernment.
17. The first chapter is dedicated to arediscovery of the heart of evangelization, namely, the experience of Christianfaith: the encounter with Jesus Christ, God the Father’s Gospel to humanity,which transforms us, gathers us together and introduces us, through the gift ofthe Spirit, to a new life, already experienced by us in the present, preciselyin our feeling gathered as the Church. At the same time, this new life is thecause of our joy which compels us, as witnesses and joyful heralds of the giftreceived, to travel the streets of the world, awaiting the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God. The second chapter seeks to focusattention on discerning the changes which affect how we live our faith andwhich influence our Christian communities. The reasons for spreading the ideaof the new evangelization are then evaluated as well as the different ways themany particular Churches can feel involved. The third chapter treats the basicplaces, means, persons and activities in the transmission of the Christian faith— the liturgy, catechesis and works of charity — and how, in the process oftransmission, the faith needs to be professed, celebrated, lived and prayed.Finally, in similar fashion, the fourth and final chapter discusses areas ofpastoral activity, specifically those dedicated to the proclamation of theGospel and the transmission of faith. The classic areas are then discussed,with greater development given to the most recent ones which have arisen inresponse to the impact and concerns arising from a reflection on the newevangelization in Christian communities and the manner in which they live theirfaith.
CHAPTER I JESUS CHRIST, THE GOOD NEWS OF GOD TOHUMANITY
“The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand;
repent, and believe in the Gospel.” (Mk 1:15)
18. The Christian faith is not simply teachings,wise sayings, a code of morality or a tradition. The Christian faith is a trueencounter and relationship with Jesus Christ. Transmitting the faith means tocreate in every place and time the conditions which lead to this encounterbetween the person and Jesus Christ. The goal of all evangelization is tocreate the possibility for this encounter, which is, at one and the same time,intimate, personal, public and communal. Pope Benedict XVI stated: “BeingChristian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but theencounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and adecisive direction. [...] Since God has first loved us (cf. 1 Jn 4:10), love isnow no longer a mere ‘command’; it is the response to the gift of love withwhich God draws near to us.” In the Christian faith, the encounter with Christand the relationship with him takes place “in accordance to the Scriptures” (1Cor 15:3, 4). The Church is formed precisely through the grace of thisrelationship.
19. This encounter with Jesus, through hisSpirit, is the Father’s great gift to humanity. We are prepared for thisencounter through the action of grace in us. In such an encounter, we feel anattraction which leads to our transformation, causing us to see new dimensionsto who we are and making us partakers of divine life (cf. 2 Pt 1:4). After thisencounter, everything is different as a result of metanoia, that is, the stateof conversion strongly urged by Jesus himself (cf. Mk 1:15). In a personalencounter with Jesus Christ, faith takes the form of a relationship with himand in remembrance of him, especially in the Eucharist and the Word of God, andcreates in us the mind of Christ, through the Spirit, a mentality which makesus recognize our brothers and sisters, gathered by the Spirit in his Church,and, in turn, see ourselves as witnesses and heralds of this Gospel. Thisencounter equips us to do new things and witness to the transformation of ourlives in the works of conversion as announced by the prophets (cf. Jer 3:6 ff;Ez 36:24-36). 20. This firstchapter gives particular attention to this fundamental aspect ofevangelization, because the responses to the Lineamenta reported a need torestate the core of the Christian faith which is unknown by many Christians.Consequently, the theological foundation of the new evangelization should notbe overlooked, but forcefully and authentically stated, so as to give energyand a proper framework to the Church’s evangelizing activity. The newevangelization must initially be seen as an opportunity to gauge thefaithfulness of Christians to the mandate received from Jesus Christ. The newevangelization is also an auspicious occasion (cf. 2 Cor 6:2) to return, as an individualChristian and a community, to drink from the source of our faith, and so becomemore disposed to undertake the work of evangelization and testimony. Indeed,before becoming action, evangelization and testimony are two states-of-mindwhich, as fruits of a faith in a continual state of purification andconversion, result in our lives from an encounter with Jesus Christ, the GoodNews of God to humanity.
JESUS CHRIST, THE EVANGELIZER
21. “Jesus himself, the Good News of God, wasthe very first and the greatest evangelizer.” He revealed himself as being sentto proclaim the fulfilment of the Gospel of God, foretold in the history of Israel,primarily through the prophets, and promised in Sacred Scripture. St. Mark theEvangelist begins his account by connecting “the beginning of the Gospel ofJesus Christ” (Mk 1:1) to a corresponding verse from the Scriptures: “As it iswritten in the prophet Isaiah” (Mk 1:2). In the Gospel of St. Luke, Jesusreveals himself in the synagogue at Nazareth through the reading of Scripture,as one who is able to bring the Scripture to fulfilment by his very presence,“Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk 4:21). The Gospelaccording to St. Matthew has a true and proper series of quotes of fulfilled prophecies,intended to reflect the deeper reality of Jesus, based on what was spokenthrough the prophets (cf. Mt 1:22; 2:15,17, 23; 4:14; 8:17; 12:17; 13:35;21:4). At the time of his arrest, Jesus sums up all things in his Person: “Allthis has taken place, that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.”(Mt 26:56). In the Gospel of John, the disciples themselves attest to thisconnection. After their first encounter, St. Philip states: “We have found himof whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote.” (Jn 1:45). During hisministry, Jesus repeatedly refers to his relation to Sacred Scripture and thetestimony associated with it: “You search the Scriptures, thinking they have inthem eternal life: it is they that give testimony of me” (Jn 5:39); “If youbelieved Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me” (Jn 5:46).
22. The concurring testimony of the Evangelistsaffirms that the Gospel of Jesus is the radical summation, continuation andtotal fulfillment of the Scriptures. Precisely because of this continuity, thenewness of Jesus appears both clearly and understandably. Indeed, hisevangelizing activity continues a history which was begun earlier. His gesturesand words are to be read in light of the Scriptures. In the last apparition recountedby St. Luke, the Risen Lord summarizes this understanding by saying: “These arethe words which I spoke to you, that everything written about me in the law ofMoses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled”(Lk 24:44). His supremegift to his disciples will indeed “open their minds to understand theScriptures” (Lk 24:45). Considering the depth of the Jewish people’s relationto the Scriptures, Jesus reveals himself to be the new evangelizer who bringsnewness and fullness to the Law, Prophets and Wisdom of Israel.
23. For Jesus, the purpose of evangelization isdrawing people into his intimate relationship with the Father and the Spirit.This is the primary reason for his preaching and miracles: to proclaim asalvation which, even though manifested through concrete acts of healing, isnot meant to indicate a desire for social or cultural change but a profoundexperience, accessible to each person, of being loved by God and learning torecognize him in the face of a loving and merciful Father (cf. Lk 15). Therevelation contained in his words and actions are linked to the words of theprophets. In this regard, the account of the signs performed by Jesus in thepresence of the messengers of John the Baptist are emblematic, namely, signswhich reveal the identity of Jesus as properly aligned with the great propheticutterances. St. Luke the Evangelist recounts: “In that hour he cured many ofdiseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many that were blind he bestowedsight. And he answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you have seen and heard:the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deafhear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them’” (Lk7:21, 22). The words of Jesus show the full meaning of his actions in relationto the signs contained in countless biblical prophecies (cf. especially Is29:18; 35:5,6; 42:18; 26:19; 61:1). Theway Jesus treated people is to be considered an essential element of Jesus’method of evangelizing. He was able to welcome everyone, without distinction,and never exclude anyone: first, the poor, then the rich like Zacchaeus andJoseph of Arimathea; outsiders like the centurion and the Syro-Phoenicianwoman; the righteous, like Nathanael; and prostitutes and public sinners withwhom he also sat at table. Jesus knew how to plumb the depths of a person andelicit faith in the God who first loved us (cf. 1 Jn 4:10,19), whose lovealways precedes us and is not dependent on our own merits, because he is loveitself: “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8,16). In this manner, he sets down how theChurch is to evangelize, demonstrating for her the heart of the Christianfaith, namely, to believe in Love and in the face and voice of this Love,namely, Jesus Christ.
24. Jesus’ evangelizing actions leads a personquite naturally to a conversion-experience. Every person is called toconversion and to faith in God’s merciful love. The kingdom will grow in themanner in which each person learns to turn, in the intimacy of prayer, to Godas Father (cf. Lk 11:2; Mt 23:9) and, following the example of Jesus Christ, torecognize, in a totally free manner, that the goal of life is fulfilling God’swill (cf. Mt 7.21). Evangelization and the call to holiness and conversion areintricately bound together, a matter which needs to be proposed to people hereand now, if they are to experience the Kingdom of God in Jesus, and, in turn,become the children of God. The Synod is expected to consider to what extentevangelization and the call to holiness and conversion are present in ourcommunities today and how, through their interaction, they nourish the lives ofour communities and produce fruit.
THE CHURCH, EVANGELIZED AND EVANGELIZING
25. Those who truly accept the Gospel, preciselyas a gift and for the fruits it produces in them, come together in the name ofJesus so as to preserve and nourish the faith which is received and shared, andto continue and grow in this lived-experience. The Gospels recount (cf. Mk3,13-15) that after the disciples had been with Jesus, after they had livedwith him, after they had been introduced by him into a new life-experience andafter they had been partakers of his divine life, they were, in turn, sent outto continue this work of evangelization: “He called the Twelve together andgave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases. [...] Thenthey departed and went through the villages, preaching the Gospel and healingeverywhere” (Lk 9:1, 6).26. After Christ’s death and resurrection, themissionary mandate given to the disciples by the Lord (cf. Mk 16:15) makes anexplicit reference to proclaiming the Gospel to everyone, teaching them toobserve everything he commanded (cf. Mt 28:20). St. Paul presents himself as “called to be anApostle [...] set apart for the Gospel of God” (Rm 1:1). The Church's task isthus to bring about a traditio Evangelii, a proclamation and transmission ofthe Gospel, which is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith”(Rm 1:16) and which ultimately is identified with Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Cor1:24). We know now that when it comes to proclaiming the Gospel, we must thinkof a living, effective Word, which brings about what is stated (cf. Heb 4:12;Is 55:10) and is a Person: Jesus Christ, the definitive Word of God, who becameman.
As in the earthly life of Jesus, the Church’sevangelizing mission is properly the work of God and the Holy Spirit. The giftof the Spirit at Pentecost makes the Apostles witnesses and prophets,confirming them in all they shared with Jesus and learned from him (cf. Acts1:8; 2:17), instilling in them a serene courage which impels them to pass on toothers their experience of Jesus and the hope that inspires them. The Spiritgives them the ability to witness to Jesus with parresia (cf. Acts 2:29),extending their activity from Jerusalem to allJudea and Samariaand to the ends of the earth.
27. What the Church has lived from the verybeginning, she continues to live today. By re-proposing these truths, Pope PaulVI recalled their contemporary character: “The command to the Twelve to go outand proclaim the Good News is also valid for all Christians, though in adifferent way [...] The Church knows this. [...] Evangelizing is in fact thegrace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists inorder to evangelize, that is to say, in order to preach and teach, to be thechannel of the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners with God, and to perpetuateChrist's sacrifice in the Mass, which is the memorial of his death and gloriousresurrection.” The Church exists in the world to continue Jesus’ evangelizingmission, knowing well that in doing so she continues to share in divine life,because she is compelled by the Spirit to proclaim the Gospel in the world andto experience again within herself the presence of the Risen Christ, who bringsher into communion with God the Father. Every action performed by the Church isnever closed in upon itself but is always an act of evangelization, and, assuch, an action that manifests the triune face of our God. The Acts of theApostles records those actions most intimately involved in the Church’s life:prayer, listening to the Word and the Apostles' teaching, a “lived” fraternalcharity and the breaking of the bread (cf. Acts 2:42-46). All acquire theirfull meaning when they become an act of witness, a source of attraction andconversion, and a preaching and proclamation of the Gospel, by the whole Churchand each baptized person.
THE GOSPEL, A GIFT FOR EVERY PERSON
28. The Gospel of God's love for us, the call to take part inthe life of the Father, through Jesus, in the Holy Spirit, is a gift meant foreveryone. We proclaim Jesus himself, who calls everyone to conversion for the Kingdom of God. To emphasize this fact, Jesus drewespecially near to those on the margins of society, giving them special favour,when he proclaimed the Gospel. At the beginning of his ministry, he proclaimedthat he was sent to preach the good news to the poor (cf. Lk 4:18). To thosedespised and dejected, Jesus declares: “Blessed are you poor” (Lk 6:20) and, bystanding with them, enables these individuals already to experience a sense offreedom (cf. Lk 5:30; 15:2). He eats with them, treats them as brothers andsisters and as friends (cf. Lk 7:34) and helps them to feel loved by God, thusrevealing his great compassion for sinners and those in need.
29. The freedom and salvation brought by the Kingdom of God touch every human person bothphysically and spiritually. Two actions are attached to Jesus’ work ofevangelization: healing and forgiving. Multiple miracles of healing clearlydemonstrate his great compassion in the face of human misery. They alsoindicate that, in the Kingdom, there will no longer be sickness and sufferingand that, from the outset, his mission is aimed at freeing people from sicknessand suffering (cf. Rev 21:4). Jesus' miracles of healing are also a sign of thesalvation of the spirit, namely liberation from sin. In performing acts ofhealing, he invites people to faith, conversion and a desire for forgiveness(cf. Lk 5:24). Received in faith, healing leads to salvation (cf. Lk 18:42).Deliverance from demonic possession, the ultimate evil and symbol of sin andrebellion against God, is a sign that “the Kingdom of God has come upon you”(Mt 12:28) and that the Gospel, a gift of salvation meant for every person,initiates us into a process of transformation and participation in the life ofGod, who renews us in the present moment.
30. “I have no silver or gold but I give youwhat I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk” (Acts 3:6). LikeSt. Peter the Apostle, the Church also continues faithfully to proclaim theGospel for the good of each person. To the cripple who asks him for somethingon which to live, St. Peter responds by offering the gift of the Gospel whichheals him, thus opening the way to salvation. In this way, in the course oftime, in virtue of her work of evangelization, the Church gives flesh andvisibility to the prophecy in Revelation: “Behold I make all things new.” (Rev21:5), transforming humanity and history itself from within, so that the faithof Christ and the life of the Church might no longer be foreign to the societyin which both humanity and history exist, but can permeate and transform it.
31. Evangelization consists in proposing theGospel which transforms the human individual, his world and his personal story.The Church evangelizes when, in virtue of the power of the Gospel proclaimed(cf. Rm 1:16), she takes every human experience and gives it rebirth throughthe death and resurrection of Jesus (cf. Rm 6:4), immersing each one in thenewness of Baptism and life according to the Gospel and in the Son’srelationship to his Father, so as to feel the power of the Spirit. Thetransmission of the faith is the goal of evangelization which, according to thedivine plan, is to bring all people through Christ to the Father in the Spirit(cf. Eph 2:18). This experience of the newness of the Gospel transforms everyperson. Today, we can hold to this conviction with greater surety, becausehistory has left us extraordinary examples of courage, dedication, boldness,intuition and reason in the Church’s work of bringing the Gospel to everyperson, acts of holiness which are displayed in a variety of notable and significantways on every continent. Every particular Church can boast of persons ofoutstanding holiness, who have been able to give renewed power and energy tothe work of evangelization through their activities and, primarily, throughtheir witness. Their example of holiness also provides prophetic and clearindications in devising new ways to live out the task of evangelization. Theyhave repeatedly left us accounts in their writings, prayers, models and methodsof teaching, spiritual journeys, journeys of initiation into the faith, worksand educational institutions.32. While strongly referring to the power of theseexamples of holiness, some responses also mention the difficulties in makingthese experiences contemporary and transmissible. Sometimes, it seems thatthese historical works not only belong to a past age, but are almost confinedthere, because they lack the ability to communicate the evangelical characterof their witness in the present-day. The Synod is asked to discuss thesedifficulties and attempt to discover the underlying reasons why the activitiesand witness of various Church institutions lack credibility when they speak asbearers of the Gospel of God.
THE DUTY TO EVANGELIZE
33. Every person has the right to hear theGospel of God to humanity, which is Jesus Christ. Like the Samaritan woman atthe well, humanity today needs to hear the words of Jesus: “If you knew thegift of God” (Jn 4:10), because these words elicit the deep desire forsalvation which lies in everyone: “Lord, give me this water, that I may notthirst” (Jn 4:15). This right of every person to hear the Gospel is clearlystated by St. Paul.Tireless in his preaching, he looks upon his work of proclaiming the Gospel asa duty, because he understood its universal significance: “For if I preach theGospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me.Woe to me if I preach not the Gospel” (1 Cor 9:16). Every man and woman shouldbe able to say, like him, that “Christ loved us and gave himself up for us” (Eph5:2). Furthermore, every man and women should be able to feel drawn into anintimate and transforming relationship which the proclamation of the Gospelcreates between us and Christ: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ wholives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son ofGod, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20). To give others thepossibility of having a similar experience requires that someone be sent toproclaim it: “How are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? Andhow are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are theyto hear without a preacher?” (Rm 10:14 which repeats Is 52:1).
34. We can therefore understand how every one ofthe Church’s actions has an essential evangelizing character and must never beseparated from the duty to help others encounter Christ in faith, the primarygoal of evangelization. If as a Church, “we bring people only knowledge,ability or technical skill and tools, we bring them too little.” The originalreason for evangelization is the love of Christ which seeks to bring everyoneto eternal salvation. The one desire of genuine evangelizers is to give freelywhat they have freely received: “From the very origins of the Church thedisciples of Christ strove to convert men to faith in Christ as the Lord; not,however, by the use of coercion or of devices unworthy of the Gospel, but bythe power, above all, of the word of God.” 35.The mission of the Apostles and its continuation in the primitive Church remainthe basic model for evangelization at all times as a mission often marked bymartyrdom, which is witnessed not only at the beginning of the history ofChristianity but also in the last century, and even in our own times. Martyrdomgives credibility to those who bear witness; they do not seek power or gain,but give their very lives for Christ. They show the world the defenceless yetpowerful love for humanity, which is given to those who follow Christ to thepoint of totally surrendering their lives, as Jesus proclaimed: “If theypersecuted me, they will persecute you” (Jn 15:20).
However, erroneous beliefs unfortunately existwhich limit the duty to proclaim the Good News. In fact, “there is today agrowing confusion which leads many to leave the missionary command of the Lordunheard and ineffective (cf. Mt 28:19). Often it is maintained that any attemptto convince others on religious matters is a limitation of their freedom. Fromthis perspective, it would only be legitimate to present one’s own ideas and toinvite people to act according to their consciences, without aiming at theirconversion to Christ and to the Catholic faith. It is enough, so they say, tohelp people to become more human or more faithful to their own religion; it isenough to build communities which strive for justice, freedom, peace andsolidarity. Furthermore, some maintain that Christ should not be proclaimed tothose who do not know him, nor should joining the Church be promoted, since itwould also be possible to be saved without explicit knowledge of Christ andwithout formal incorporation in the Church.”
36. Although non-Christians can be saved throughthe grace which God bestows in ways known only to himself, the Church cannotoverlook the fact that each person seeks to know the true face of God and toenjoy today the friendship of Jesus Christ, God-with-us. Adhering fully toChrist, the Truth, and becoming a member of his Church does not diminish humanfreedom, but rather enhances it and leads it to fulfilment through a selflesslove and caring for the welfare of all people. What a priceless gift it is tolive in the universal embrace of God’s friends, which comes from communion withthe life-giving flesh and blood of his Son, to receive from him the certainty thatour sins are forgiven and to live in the love which is born of faith! TheChurch desires that everyone should partake of these riches, so that they mayhave the fullness of truth and the means of salvation “to obtain the gloriousliberty of the children of God” (Rm 8:21). The Church, who proclaims andtransmits the faith, imitates God himself who communicates with humanity bygiving his Son, who, in turn, pours out the Holy Spirit so that people can bereborn as children of God.
EVANGELIZATION AND CHURCH RENEWAL
37. The Church is an evangelizer, but she beginsby being evangelized herself. She is “the community of believers, the communityof hope lived and communicated, the community of brotherly love, and she needsto listen unceasingly to what she must believe, to her reasons for hoping, tothe new commandment of love. She is the People of God immersed in the world andoften tempted by idols, and she always needs to hear the proclamation of the‘mighty works of God’, which converted her to the Lord; she always needs to becalled together afresh by him and reunited. In brief, this means that she has aconstant need of being evangelized if she wishes to retain freshness, vigourand strength in order to proclaim the Gospel.” The Second Vatican Council has stronglytaken up the subject of the Church who is evangelized by constant conversionand renewal in order to evangelize the world with credibility. In this regard,the words of Pope Paul VI still have meaning today as he reaffirms the priorityof evangelization and reminds the faithful: “It would be useful if everyChristian and every evangelizer were to pray about the following thought: mencan gain salvation also in other ways, by God's mercy, even though we do notpreach the Gospel to them; but as for us, can we gain salvation if throughnegligence or fear or shame — what St. Paul called ‘blushing for the Gospel’—or as a result of false ideas we fail to preach it?” More than one response hasproposed that this subject be specifically treated during the synod’sdeliberations.38. Since her origin, the Church has had to deal with similardifficulties as well as the sinfulness of her members. The story of thedisciples of Emmaus (cf. Lk 24:13-35) is emblematic of the fact that knowledgeof Christ can fail. The two disciples from Emmaus speak of a dead man (cf. Lk24:21-24) and relate their disappointment and hopelessness. These disciplesdemonstrate the possibility for the Church in every age to be the bearer of amessage that does not give life, but stops short in the death of the Christ whois proclaimed, in the announcers themselves, and, consequently, in therecipients of the announcement also. St. Johnthe Evangelist’s account of the Apostles who were fishing (cf. Jn 21.1 to 14)describes a similar experience. Apart from Christ, the disciples’ efforts arefruitless. Just as for the disciples of Emmaus, only when the Risen Christmanifests himself to them does their trust and the joy of proclaiming return asthe fruits of the work of evangelization. Only in strongly attaching himself toChrist once again, is St. Peter, who had been called “fisher of men” (Lk 5:10),able to successfully cast the nets, trusting in the Lord’s words.
39. What is so painstakingly described in thebeginning of the Church has sometimes reoccurred in her history. On manyoccasions, a weakening of fervour in one’s relationship with Christ hasadversely affected the calibre of the life of faith and the experience ofparticipating in the Trinitarian life, which is bound to it. For this reason,we cannot forget that the proclamation of the Gospel is primarily a spiritualmatter. The need to transmit the faith, which is essentially an ecclesial,communal event and not singly or done alone, should not result from seekingeffective communication strategies or in choosing a certain group of recipients— for example, young people — but must look to who is entrusted with thisspiritual work. The Church must question herself in this matter. This allowsthe problem to be approached not in an extrinsic manner but from within,involving the entire life and being of the Church. Many particular Churchesrequest that the Synod determine whether the lack of effects in evangelizationtoday, as well as in catechesis in modern times, is primarily the result ofecclesial and spiritual factors. This concerns the Church’s ability to live asa real community, as a true brotherhood and as a Living Body and not simply ahuman establishment.
40. In knowing how to maintain the fundamentalspiritual character of evangelization, the Church can allow herself to beformed by the action of the Holy Spirit and be conformed to Christ Crucified,who reveals to the world the face of the love of God and communion with him. Inso doing, she can become more aware of her vocation as Ecclesia Mater bybegetting children for the Lord in transmitting the faith and teaching a lovewhich nurtures her children. At the same time, she fulfills her responsibilityto proclaim and bear witness to this Revelation of God and gather her people scatteredthroughout the world, thereby fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy which the ChurchFathers understood as addressed to her, “Enlarge the place of your tent, andlet the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; hold not back, lengthenyour cords and strengthen your stakes. For you will spread abroad to the rightand to the left, and your descendants will possess the nations and will peoplethe desolate cities” (Is 54:2, 3 ).
CHAPTER II
TIME FOR A NEW EVANGELIZATION
“Go into all the world and preach the Gospel tothe whole creation” (Mk 16:15)
41. The missionary mandate which the Churchreceived from the Risen Lord (cf. Mk 16:15) has assumed new forms and methodsover time, depending on the places and situations where it was realized andvarious moments in history. Even though proclaiming the Gospel in our day ismuch more complicated than in the past, the Church’s task is one and the sameas from the very beginning. Since the mission has not changed, it can berightly said that we can make our own, even today, the enthusiasm and couragewhich characterized the Apostles and early disciples. The Holy Spirit, whomoved them to throw open the doors of the Cenacle and sent them forth asevangelizers (cf. Acts 2: 1-4), is the same Spirit who guides the Church todayand prompts a renewed proclamation of hope to the people of our time.
42. The Second VaticanCouncil reminds us that “groups among which the Church dwells are oftenradically changed, for one reason or other, so that an entirely new set ofcircumstances may arise.” With far-reaching perception, the Council Fathers sawon the horizon the cultural change we readily witness today. This change, whichhas created an unexpected situation for believers, requires special attentionin proclaiming the Gospel, if we are to render an account of our faith in thepresent situation which, unlike in the past, has a variety of new and importantaspects.
43. The causes of the social changes which wehave witnessed in recent decades are complex, tracing their origins far back intime and radically affecting our perception of the world. The positive aspectsof these changes are visible to all and are seen as invaluable contributionswhich have permitted the development of human culture and increased knowledgein many fields. However, these changes have also caused many to take a criticallook at values and some fundamental aspects of daily life which deeply affectpeople's faith. In this regard, Pope Benedict XVI stated: “If on the one handhumanity has derived undeniable benefits from these changes, and the Church hasdrawn from them further incentives for bearing witness to the hope that iswithin her (cf. 1 Pt 3:15), on the other hand, there has been a troubling lossof the sense of the sacred, which has even called into question foundationsonce deemed unshakeable, such as faith in a provident creator God, therevelation of Jesus Christ as the one Saviour, and a common understanding ofbasic human experiences: i.e., birth, death, life in a family, and reference toa natural moral law. Even though some consider these things a kind ofliberation, there soon follows an awareness that an interior desert results,whenever the human being, wishing to be the sole architect of his nature anddestiny, finds himself deprived of that which is the very foundation of allthings.” 44. This criticalsituation in society — and also in the Christian life — demands a response. Atthis special moment in history, the Church needs to see how to muster greaterenergy in rendering an account for the hope we share (cf. 1 Pet 3:15). The term“new evangelization” calls for a new manner of proclaiming the Gospel,especially for those who live in the present-day situation which is affected bythe growing trend of secularization, taking place to a great extent incountries with a Christian tradition. With this in mind, the idea of a newevangelization has come to term in the Church and has been implemented in agreat variety of ways in an ongoing study up to now about its precise meaning.Initially, the new evangelization was primarily viewed as a necessity, then asa work of discernment and finally as an impetus for the Church in our times.
THE QUESTION OF A “NEW EVANGELIZATION”
45. What is the “new evangelization”? BlessedPope John Paul II, in his first discourse to the bishops of Latin America,sanctioned and defined the term which received great resonance in the Church:“The commemoration of this half of the millennium of evangelization willachieve its full meaning, if as bishops, with your priests and faithful, youaccept it as your commitment; a commitment, not of re-evangelization, butrather of a new evangelization; new in its ardour, methods and expression.”Some time later, at a different time, addressing the Church in Europe, the Pontiffmade a similar appeal, emphasizing “the urgent need for a ‘new evangelization’,in the awareness that ‘Europe today must not simply appeal to its formerChristian heritage: it needs to be able to decide about its future inconformity with the person and message of Jesus Christ’.”
46. In its initial stage, the new evangelizationresponds to a demand that the Church have the courage to rise to the occasionin order to take bold steps in revitalizing her spiritual and missionaryvocation. Christian communities, affected by the strong social and culturalchanges taking place, need once again to find the energy and means to groundthemselves solidly in the presence of the Risen Christ, who animates them fromwithin. They must allow themselves to be guided by his Spirit so that they cannewly experience the gift of communion with the Father which is theirs in JesusChrist, and, in turn, offer to others this same experience as the most preciousgift that can be possessed.
47. Responses to the Lineamenta were in accordwith the words of Pope John Paul II. In addressing the specific question —“what is the new evangelization?” — many overwhelmingly indicated that the newevangelization is precisely the Church’s ability to renew her communalexperience of faith and to proclaim it within the new situations which, inrecent decades, have arisen in cultures. The same phenomenon is taking place inboth the North and South and the East and West; in both countries with anage-old Christian tradition and countries which have been evangelized withinthe last few centuries. The coalescing of social and cultural factors —conventionally designated by the term “globalization” — has initiated a processwhich is weakening traditions and institutions and thereby rapidly eroding bothsocial and cultural ties as well as their ability to communicate values andprovide answers to perennial questions regarding life’s meaning and the truth.The result is a significant fragmentation of cultural unity and a culture’sinability to hold fast to the faith and live the values inspired by it.48. Theeffects of such a negative environment on experiencing the faith and on thevarious forms of ecclesial life are generally described in the same manner inall the responses, namely, a weakening of faith in Christian communities, adiminished regard for the authority of the magisterium, an individualisticapproach to belonging to the Church, a decline in religious practice and adisengagement in transmitting the faith to new generations. These effects, foundin almost every bishops’ conference response, indicate that the whole Churchcannot overlook this cultural climate.
49. In this regard, the new evangelization takesthe form of an appeal, a question which the Church raises about herself, sothat she might muster her spiritual energy and be determined in this newcultural setting to take a clear and active role by acknowledging whatever isgood in these new areas, while giving renewed vitality to her faith and herduty to evangelize. The adjective “new” refers to a cultural situation whichhas changed and the need for the Church, with renewed energy, determination,resourcefulness and newness, to look at the way she lives and transmits thefaith. The responses indicate that this appeal has been taken to heart in avariety of ways in many areas of the Church, but not without a certain concern.They seem to show that many Christian communities have not fully perceived thechallenge and the magnitude of the crisis generated by this culturalenvironment, even within the Church. In this regard, synodal discussion canassist in raising, in a timely, in-depth manner, an awareness of theseriousness of the challenges we are facing. Furthermore, the Synod can alsotake up the phenomenon of secularization, assessing both its positive andnegative influences on Christianity and the challenges it poses for theChristian faith.
50. Not all indications, however, are negative.Indeed, efforts taking place in many Churches towards renewal are a sign ofhope and a gift of the Holy Spirit. These Christian communities, most oftenreligious groups and ecclesial movements, and in some cases, theological andcultural institutions, demonstrate by their activities, the real possibility ofliving the Christian faith through the proclamation of the Gospel, even withinthis cultural setting. Among these experiences, the particular Churches note,with gratitude and concern, the many young people who contribute a certainnewness and enthusiasm to these groups. In acknowledging their many gifts,these same Churches are working to ensure that these gifts are extendedthroughout the Christian population, and attentively are following their dutyof nurturing this experience, from a relatively early age, and, at the sametime, highlighting both its strong points and its limitations.
THE SECTORS OF THE NEW EVANGELIZATION
51. The duty of the new evangelization compels the Church toexamine the way Christian communities both live and bear witness to the faithtoday. In doing so, the new evangelization now becomes discernment or theability to read and decipher the new sectors which have emerged in humanhistory in the last decade, so that, in turn, they might be turned into placesfor proclaiming the Gospel and experiencing the Church. Once again, themagisterium of Pope John Paul II has shown the way by first providing adescription of the sectors of the new evangelization, which were used incomposing the Lineamenta and were further discussed and substantiated in theresponses. These sectors include cultures, society, economics, civic life andreligion.
52. Given its importance, the cultural sectorwas seen as a priority. Broadly treated in the preceding paragraphs, thecultural sector was mentioned in many responses as the place where secularizingtrends are taking place at a rapid pace. Prevalent in a particular way in theWest, secularization is the result of certain social and philosophicalhappenings and movements, which have had a profound effect on its history andidentity. Secularization is wrongly perceived in our cultures today as a signof liberation and the capability of envisaging life in this world, and humanlife in general, without any reference to the transcendent. In recent years,secularization has not assumed the form of publically or directly speaking outagainst God, religion and Christianity, despite the fact that, in someinstances, it can oftentimes have an anti-Christian, anti-religious andanti-clerical tone, even in these times. Many responses indicate that therather subdued tone in secularization has allowed this cultural form to invadepeople's daily lives to the point that some have developed a mentality in whichGod is effectively absent, in whole or in part, and his very existencedependent on human consciousness.
53. This subdued tone, which givessecularization its charm and seductive character, has also enabled it to enterthe lives of Christians and Church communities, becoming not just an externalthreat to believers, but one inherent to everyday life. Traces of a secularunderstanding of life are seen in the habitual behavior of many Christians. The“death of God” proclaimed by many intellectuals in recent decades has given wayto an unproductive, hedonistic and consumer mentality, which leads to a highlysuperficial manner in facing life and responsibility. In this way, faith runsthe real risk of losing its fundamental elements. The influence ofsecularization in daily life makes it increasingly difficult to affirm theexistence of truth, which, realistically speaking, eliminates the question ofGod from a person’s examination of self. To respond to religious needs, personsrevert to individualistic forms of spirituality or forms of neo-paganism to thepoint of forcibly spreading a general climate of relativism.54. These dangers,however, must not overshadow the positive things which Christianity has learnedfrom secularization. The saeculum is where believers and non-believers interactand share in a common humanity. This human element is the natural point for faithto enter and, consequently, can become the privileged place for evangelization.In the fully human nature of Jesus of Nazareth dwells the fullness of the deity(cf. Col2:9). Purifying the human through the human nature of Jesus of Nazareth,Christians can create an encounter with people who exhibit a secularizedmentality but continue to question what is really and truly human. Encounteringthese people in search of truth can help Christians purify and develop theirfaith. The inner struggle of people in search of truth, though not yetpossessing the gift of faith, is a real incentive for us in our duty to liveand witness to the faith, so that the true face of God can be seen by everyperson. In this regard, the responses showed great interest in the initiativeof the “Courtyard of the Gentiles”.
55. The initial sector of culture is followed bythe social sector and the treatment of the phenomenon of the great migrationwhich is causing an increasing number of people to leave their country oforigin to live in urban settings, resulting in a meeting and mixing of culturesand contributing to the erosion of basic reference points to life, values andthe very bonds through which people build their identity and come to know themeaning of life. Joined to the spread of secularization, this process causes asituation of extreme cultural liquidity, which increasingly leaves less roomfor long-standing traditions, including religious ones. Linked to this sectoris the social phenomenon called “globalization”, a not-too-easily-understoodreality which requires an intense work of discernment by the Christian. Attimes, this phenomenon carries a negative connotation, when it is seen asinevitable and linked to the economy and production. However, it can also be viewedas a time of growth, in which humanity can learn to develop new forms ofsolidarity and new ways of sharing development for the good of all.
56. The responses to the Lineamenta refer to athird sector, associated with the subject of migration, which is becoming moreand more incisive in society: the economy. In great part a direct cause ofmigration, the economy is highlighted for the tensions and forms of violencerelated to it, and the inequality it causes within and among nations. Manyresponses, not simply those from developing countries, decried a clear anddecisive increase in the separation between the rich and the poor. Oninnumerable occasions, papal magisterium has denounced the growing imbalancebetween the North and South in the access to and distribution of resources, aswell as the damage done to creation. Today’s continuing economic crisis ischaracterized by the problem of the use of both human and natural resources.Particular Churches are invited to live the evangelical ideal of poverty andare expected to do still more in terms of awareness and concrete activity, evenif the media does not give sufficient coverage to them.
57. The fourth sector is civic life. From thetime of the Second Vatican Council to the present, the changes which haveoccurred in this sector can rightly be called momentous. The division of thewestern world into two blocks ended with the fall of the Communist ideology,leading to religious freedom and the possibility of reorganizing the Churchesof ancient origin. The emergence on the world stage of new economic, politicaland religious actors from the Islamic and Asian worlds has created an entirelynew and unknown situation, rich in potential, but fraught with dangers and newtemptations for dominion and power. Many responses have highlighted a varietyof urgent situations in this sector, namely, a commitment to peace; thedevelopment and liberation of peoples; better international regulation andinteraction of national governments; the search for possible areas oflistening, coexistence, dialogue and collaboration between different culturesand religions; the defence of human rights and peoples, especially minorities;the promotion of the most vulnerable; and the integrity of creation and acommitment to the future of our planet. Various particular Churches are engagedin dealing with these issues, which are being diligently pursued and fosteredin the daily life of our communities.58. The fifth sector is scientificresearch and technology. We live in an age that still marvels at the wonders ofthe continuing achievements which result from research in these fields. Eachday, we have the possibility of experiencing the benefits of these advances andare increasingly becoming dependent upon them. Inherent in the many positiveaspects is the danger of excessive expectations and manipulation. Today,science and technology run the risk of becoming the new idols of the present.In a digitalized and globalized world, science can easily become “our newreligion”. New forms of gnosis are arising which make technology a form ofwisdom where an almost magical approach to life leads to concepts of “knowing”and “meaning”, as witnessed in the rise of new cults, which exploit thereligious practices of healing, readily followed by people, and are structuredas religions promising prosperity and instant gratification.
THE NEW FRONTIER OF THE COMMUNICATIONS’ SECTOR
59. The Lineamenta responses also made note ofcommunications, the sixth sector, which provide great opportunities today and,at the same time, represent a major challenge for the Church. Initially,communications was a characteristic of the industrialized world only. However,in today’s globalized world, this sector also affects a vast number ofdeveloping countries. Every place on the globe, bar none, can be reached bycommunications, and is therefore subject to the influence of the electronic andmedia culture. These media are fast becoming the “forum” of civic life andsocial experience, which is sufficiently illustrated in the widespread use ofthe internet.
60. The responses refer to the generally-heldbelief that, today, the new digital technologies have given rise to an entirelynew social space where the connections created have the potential ofinfluencing society and culture. The media process, resulting from thesetechnologies, is having an impact on people’s lives and is changing realityitself by incisively entering into people’s experiences and widening humanpotential. Our perception of self, others and the world are influenced by them.Communication technologies and the space created by them must therefore beviewed positively, without prejudice, as a resource which requires a discerningeye and a wise and responsible employment.61. The Church is engaged in theseareas created by the media and has, from the very beginning, utilized thesemeans as a useful way to proclaim the Gospel. Today, in addition to the moretraditional means of communication, especially the printed word and radio,which, according to the responses, have moderately increased in recent years,new media are increasingly becoming a major factor in the Church’s ministry ofevangelization, making interaction possible at various levels: local, national,continental and global. The potential for using both old and new media isclear, as is the need to take advantage of this newly created social space andintroduce the vocabulary and forms of the Christian tradition. An attentive andshared discernment process is needed not only to better assess the possibilitiesof their use in proclaiming the Gospel, but also to understand properly therisks and dangers involved.
62. Indeed, the spread of the culture created bycommunications undoubtedly brings many benefits. Among them are: a greateraccess to information; more opportunities for knowledge and dialogue; new formsof solidarity; and the ability to foster an increasingly global culture whichleads to a shared heritage of values and the better development of thought andhuman activity. This potential, however, does not eliminate the dangersinherent in the excessive diffusion of such a culture. Their effects arealready being manifested in a deeply, self-centred attentiveness to individualneeds only, and an exaltation of emotion in relationships and social ties, thusleading to a diminution and loss of the objective value of deeply humanexperiences, such as meditation and silence. It equally is leading to an excessin holding to one’s individual thinking and a gradual reduction of ethics andcivic life to appearance only. These dangers might eventually result in aso-called culture which is short-lived, immediately gratifying and based onmere appearance or a society incapable of looking to either the past or thefuture. In such a situation, Christians must be bold in entering these “newareopaghi”, learning to evaluate them in light of the Gospel and finding theinstruments and methods to ensure that, even in these places, the educationalpatrimony and the wisdom guarded by Christian Tradition is heard today.
CHANGES IN THE RELIGIOUS SECTOR
63. By necessity, the changes treated up to thispoint influence the way people express their sense of religion. The Lineamentaresponses recommended adding religion as a seventh sector, thereby providingthe means to more throughly understand, in many different cultures, the returnof a religious sense and the need for various forms of spirituality, especiallyamong the young. Even though the present process of secularization is leadingto a weakened sense of the spiritual in many persons and an emptiness of heart,many regions of the world are showing signs of a significant religious revival.This phenomenon has an impact on the Catholic Church herself in providingresources and opportunities for evangelization which were not present a fewdecades ago.64. The responses to the Lineamenta gave particular attention tothis growing phenomenon, acknowledging both its complex character andundoubtedly positive aspects. In fact, the situation provides the opportunityto restore an element which is part of the human identity, namely religion,thereby going beyond the limitations and impoverishment of an idea of a personviewed only from a horizontal perspective. This phenomenon fosters religiousexperience and re-establishes its centrality in people’s minds, in history, andin the meaning of life itself and the search for truth.
65. Many responses, however, have voiced aconcern about the naive and emotional character of this return to a sense ofreligion. Instead of being a gradual and complex development in a person’ssearch for truth, the return to religion, in many cases, has not been a veryliberating experience. Consequently, the positive aspects of rediscovering Godand the sacred are viewed as impoverished and obscured by a fundamentalismwhich frequently manipulates religion to justify acts of violence and, inextreme but fortunately limited cases, even terrorism.
66. According to the responses, this is theframework for treating the pressing problem of the proliferation of newreligious groups which can be likened to sects. In this regard, they repeatedlycite the contention in the Lineamenta that these groups exercise an emotionaland psychological dominance and promote a religion promising prosperity andsuccess in life. At the same time, some responses state that the situationneeds to be carefully watched so that Christian communities will not allowthemselves to be influenced by these new forms of religious experience and givein to the temptation to imitate their aggressive, proselytizing methods,instead of following the Christian approach to proclaiming the Gospel. On theother hand, the responses insist that Christian communities need to approachproclaiming the Gospel and providing pastoral care in the faith in such a waythat the presence of these religious groups could serve as a means for theseChristian communities to become more zealous and prepared to work towardsgiving individuals a sense of meaning in their lives. 67. This situation gives even greatermeaning to the Church’s encounters and dialogue with the great religioustraditions which have grown over the decades and continue to intensify. Theseencounters are a promising opportunity to better perceive the complexity of thevocabulary and forms of the element of religion in humanity as seen in otherreligious experiences. Such encounters and dialogue also allow Catholics betterto understand the ways in which the Christian faith expresses the religiousnature of the human soul. At the same time, they enrich the religious heritageof humanity with the unique character of the Christian faith.
CHRISTIANS WITHIN THESE SECTORS
68. The responses understood the sectors forwhat they are: signs of actual change which were seen as the context for thedevelopment of our religious experiences. Precisely for this reason, thechanges in these sectors need to be taken up and purified, through a process ofdiscernment, in their encountering and experiencing the Christian faith.Examining these sectors permits a critical reading of the way of life, thethinking and the discourses which they espouse and can serve as aself-examination which Christians are called upon to do, to see if the mannerof life and the pastoral activity of Christian communities are, in fact, suitedto the task and avoiding inactivity by attentively considering the future. Manyparticular Churches expect the Synod to be an opportune time to continue thisdiscernment.
69. Various responses to the Lineamenta haveattempted to identify the reasons for the decline in Christian practice by manyof the Church’s faithful, a true “silent apostasy”, which would leave theChurch in a position of not being able to respond adequately and convincinglyto the challenges described in these sectors. In this regard, they recount aweakening in the faith of believers, a lack of personal involvement andexperience in the transmission of the faith and insufficient spiritual guidancefor the faithful in the process of their formative, intellectual andprofessional training. Many lament the excessive bureaucratic character ofecclesiastical structures, perceived as far removed from the average person andhis everyday concerns, which causes a reduction in the dynamism of ecclesialcommunities, the loss of enthusiasm at its roots and a decline in missionaryzeal. Some responses complained of the excessively formal character ofliturgical celebrations, an almost routine celebration of rituals and the lackof a deep spiritual experience, which turn people away instead of attractingthem. Despite the counter-witness of some of the Church’s members(unfaithfulness in one’s vocation, scandals, little sensitivity to the problemsof everyday people and the world today), we are not to underestimate the“mysterium iniquitatis” (2 Thess 2:7), the war which the Dragon waged on therest of the offspring of the Woman, on “those who keep the commandments of Godand bear testimony to Jesus” (Rev 12:17). An objective evaluation of thesituation must always consider the mystery of human freedom, a gift from God,which a person is free to use, even in a mistaken way, to rebel against God andto turn his back on the Church. The new evangelization should seek to orientateevery man and woman’s human freedom towards God, who is the source of truth,goodness and beauty. Renewal in faith should help people overcome thepreviously mentioned obstacles to an authentic Christian life which ispatterned according to the will of God, as expressed in the commandment to loveGod and neighbor (cf. Mk 12:33).
70. In addition to mentioning some negativeaspects, the responses to the Lineamenta also highlighted how the Christianexperience has undoubtedly benefited from the emergence of these sectors. Forexample, many responses speak of the positive effects of the continuingmigration process in the meeting and exchange of gifts among the particularChurches and in the ability to draw energy and vitality from the Christianfaith of immigrant communities. Through contact with non-Christians, Christiancommunities have been able to learn that mission is no longer a North-South orEast-West movement. Therefore, we need to go beyond the present geographicconfines; mission, today, extends to all five continents. We must recognizethat even in traditionally Christian countries, there are sectors and areasforeign to the faith, because in them people have never encountered the faithand not simply as a result of drifting from the Church. Going beyondcontinental borders means having the energy to raise the question of God inevery step of the process of encountering, interchanging and reconstructingsocial relations which are taking place everywhere. The Synod could be a placefor a fruitful exchange of these experiences.
71. The economic sector, with its changes, hasalso been seen as a favourable place in witnessing to our faith. Many responsesdescribed the efforts of many Christian communities on behalf of the poor, anactivity which can boast of ancient origins and a fruitfulness which is stillvery promising. In today’s serious, widespread economic crisis, many responseshave mentioned an increase in charitable activity by Christian communitiesthrough the establishment of additional institutions dedicated to supportingthe poor, and programmes within particular Churches to develop a greaterawareness of charitable work. Many responses wanted the works of charity to begiven greater prominence as an instrument of the new evangelization. Thededication and solidarity of many Christian communities towards the poor, thecharitable works in which they are engaged and the simplicity of theirlife-style in a world which places great emphasis on buying and having, are aparticularly beneficial means in proclaiming the Gospel and witnessing to ourfaith.72. The religious sector had particular resonance in the Church. Theresponses to the Lineamenta first mentioned ecumenical dialogue, repeatedlyemphasizing how these various changes have fostered the development of majorecumenical endeavours. Realistically speaking, they also recounted difficulttimes and tense moments which are being addressed with patience anddetermination. The new situations taking place within the various sectors,where we as Christians are called to live out our faith and proclaim theGospel, have revealed the necessity for a real unity among Christians, which isnot to be seen merely as cordial relations or cooperation in somejoint-project, but rather as the desire to let ourselves be transformed by theSpirit, so that we may increasingly be conformed to the image of Christ. Thisunity is essentially spiritual in nature and must be prayed for, even before itis actually realized. If this ecumenical aspect is to be a part of theconversion and renewal of the Church’s members, which is called for by the currentcrisis, efforts must continue to be made, in a convincing way, to see allChristians as united in showing the world the prophetic and transforming powerof the Gospel message. This is an imposing task which can only be met in acommunal effort, guided by the Spirit of the Risen Christ, who left us amandate in his prayer: “That they may all be one” (Jn 17:21).
73. Secondly, the religious sector concernsinterreligious dialogue, which, in a variety of ways, is a necessity todaythroughout the world. Interreligious dialogue has already had some positiveresults. The countries of an ancient Christian tradition see in the expandingpresence of the great religions, particularly Islam, an incentive to developnew forms of involvement, visibility and proposing the Christian faith.Generally speaking, interreligious dialogue and discussion with the greatreligions of the East can be an opportunity for our Christian communities todeepen their understanding of our faith, in virtue of the questions that such adiscussion raise in us, questions about the course of human history and God’spresence in it. Interreligious dialogue also provides an occasion to refine theinstruments of dialogue and the places of collaboration in developing peace inan increasingly human society.
74. The responses describe a very differentsituation in those places where the Church is in the minority. In those caseswhere Churches are free to profess their faith and live their religion,minority status is seen as an opportunity to give Christianity greatervisibility, to seek avenues of involvement in the world and to work to bringabout change. However, where persecution is part of the minority status,evangelization is more closely aligned to what Jesus experienced in his beingfaithful, even to the cross. Such a situation reveals the bond existing betweenevangelization and the cross. These Churches bear witness to this closeassociation as a gift to the entire Church, a fact which these Churches shouldnot overlook themselves. These Churches rightly serve as a reminder thatevangelization cannot be measured in quantitative terms of success.
75. The renewal to which we are called isgreatly assisted by the Eastern Catholic Churchesand those Christian communities which, either in the past or in the present,are hidden, marginalized, persecuted and experiencing intolerance of an ethnic,ideological or religious nature. Their faith-witness, perseverance, resiliency,enduring hope and the intuitive character of certain pastoral practices are agift to be shared with those Christian communities which, having had a gloriouspast, are now showing signs of weariness and a dispersion of energy. Churchesunaccustomed to practicing the faith in a minority situation can certainlybenefit from hearing experiences which can instill the necessary couragerequired in the work of a new evangelization. Even more spiritual benefits cancome from welcoming those who are forced to leave their homelands because ofpersecution and who bear in their spirit the untold richness of the signs ofmartyrdom which they have personally experienced.
MISSION AD GENTES, PASTORAL CARE AND A NEW EVANGELIZATION
76. Discernment for a new evangelization clearly acknowledgesthe profound change which is presently taking place in the Church’sevangelizing mission. Traditional, established concepts — formally denoted bythe terms “countries of ancient Christianity” and “mission lands” — are nolonger suitable. At present, these terms seem overly simplified and referringto outdated situations; they fail to provide useful models for Christiancommunities today. Pope John Paul II observed: “The boundaries between pastoralcare of the faithful, new evangelization and specific missionary activity arenot clearly definable, and it is unthinkable to create barriers between them orto put them into watertight compartments. [...] The Churches in traditionallyChristian countries, for example, involved as they are in the challenging taskof new evangelization, are coming to understand more clearly that they cannotbe missionaries to non-Christians in other countries and continents, unlessthey are seriously concerned about the non-Christians at home. Hence missionaryactivity ad intra is a credible sign and a stimulus for missionary activity adextra, and vice versa.”
77. Despite varying emphasis and factors relatedto cultures and history, the responses to the Lineamenta well understood thedifferent nature of the new evangelization. They see it not as simply replacingolder forms of pastoral activity (the first evangelization, pastoral care) withnewer forms, but rather as initiating a process of renewal in the Church'sfundamental mission. Questioning herself on how to evangelize today, the Churchdoes not exclude examining herself and the quality of evangelization in hercommunities. The new evangelization is the duty of everyone in the Church(individuals, communities, parishes, dioceses, bishops' conferences, movements,groups and other ecclesial realities as well as religious and consecratedpersons) to examine the Church’s life and pastoral activity by closelyconsidering, according to the Gospel, the calibre of one’s life of faith andthe ability to be actively involved in proclaiming the Gospel.
78. According to the various responses, thisexamination resulted in three basic requirements: 1) the ability to discern ora capacity to place oneself within the present circumstances, unwavering in theconviction that, within this context, the Gospel can still be proclaimed andthe Christian faith lived; 2) the ability to live forms of fundamental andauthentic adhesion to the Christian faith, whose simple character can alreadyserve as a witness to the transforming power of God in our history; and 3) aclear and visible bond with the Church, capable of making her missionary andapostolic character perceptible. These requirements are submitted to theconsideration of the Synod Assembly in the hope that, through itsdeliberations, the Church might receive assistance in following the path of conversioncalled for by the new evangelization.79. Many particular Churches, at the timethey received the text of the Lineamenta, were already engaged in examining andre-planning their pastoral programmes based on these requirements. Some usedthe term “missionary renewal” to describe their work; others “a pastoralprogramme of conversion”. All were in strong agreement that the heart of thenew evangelization is the Church’s renewed commitment to her missionarymandate, given by the Lord Jesus Christ, who willed her and sent her into theworld, so that she might be guided by the Holy Spirit in bearing witness to thesalvation she has received and in proclaiming the face of God the Father, whotook the initial step in this work of salvation.
PARISH TRANSFORMATION AND THE NEW EVANGELIZATION
80. Many responses describe a Church stronglyengaged in the work of transformation by being present among people and withinsociety. The younger Churches are working to enliven parishes which areoftentimes extensive, animating them internally through a programme, dependingon geographic and ecclesial contexts, called “Basic Christian Communities” or“Small Christian Communities”. Their stated purpose is to foster a Christianlife which is better capable of sustaining the faith of their members andilluminating, through their witness, various areas of society, particularly inlarge, sprawling cities. The older, more-established Churches are reviewingtheir parish programmes which are being administered with increased difficultyas a result of a decrease in the number of the clergy and a decline inChristian practice. They are seeking to avoid the danger that their work becomemerely bureaucratic and administrative and lead to undesired effects, namelythat particular Churches, already too busy with operational problems, might, inthe end, become exclusively concerned with themselves. In this regard, manyresponses refer to the idea of a “pastoral unity” as a means of combining aparish renewal programme with a cooperative endeavour among other parishes, soas to create a more community-minded particular Church.
81. The new evangelization is a call to theChurch to rediscover her missionary origins. According to many responses, thenew evangelization can devote work in this area to leading Christiancommunities to be less concentrated on themselves inwardly in the midst of thechanges already taking place and more engaged in proclaiming the faith toothers. In this regard, much is expected from parishes that are seen as anentryway, open to everyone in every place on the globe, to the Christian faithand an experience of the Church. In addition to their being the place forordinary pastoral life, liturgical celebrations, the dispensation of thesacraments, catechesis and the catechumenate, parishes have the responsibilityto become real centres for propagating and bearing witness to the Christianexperience and places for attentively listening to people and ascertainingtheir needs. Parishes are places where a person receives instruction onsearching for the truth, where faith is nourished and strengthened and wherethe Christian message and God’s plan for humanity and the world iscommunicated. They are the prime communities for experiencing the joy thatcomes from being not only gathered together by the Spirit but prepared to liveone’s proper vocation as a missionary.82. In this regard, the Church has manyresources at her service. The responses agree that the first resource is thegreat number of baptized lay people who are engaged in and decisively continuetheir voluntary service of building up the parish community. Many responsesrefer to the flowering of the vocation of the laity as one of the fruits of theSecond Vatican Council and list other resources, namely, communities ofconsecrated life; various ecclesial groups and movements which, through theirfervour, their energy and, above all, their faith, give a strong impetus torenewal in ecclesial settings; and the many devotional shrine-centres, which,in particular Churches, serve to call people to the faith.
83. In recounting these obvious hope-filledsigns, the responses to the Lineamenta indicate that the path taken is a slowbut effective work of reforming our manner of “being Church” among people andavoiding the pitfalls of sectarianism and a “civil religion”, all the whileretaining the form of a missionary Church. In other words, the Church must notlose her image of being a Church near to people and their families. Even wherethe Church is in the minority or the victim of discrimination, she must notlose her prerogative of remaining close to people in their everyday lives and,in that very place, announcing the life-giving message of the Gospel. Pope JohnPaul II stated that the new evangelization means to remake the Christian fabricof human society and the fabric of the Christian communities. It meansassisting the Church to continue to be present “in the midst of the homes ofher sons and daughters,” so as to animate their lives and direct them to theKingdom that is to come.
84. Separate consideration is given to thequestion of the lack of priests. All the responses voiced concern about theinsufficient number of priests, which negatively affects a calm, effectiveexercise of the manner of “being Church”. Some responses made a detailedanalysis of the problem, treating this crisis alongside that of marriage andChristian families. Many mentioned the need to envision a more integratedorganization of the local Church, involving lay people along with priests inthe animation of the community. These responses mentioned that synod discussioncould bring clarity to the matter and result in prospects for the future.Almost all the responses call for the whole Church to engage in a strongpastoral programme on behalf of priestly vocations, which begins in prayer andcalls upon all priests and clerical religious to live in such a way as to bearwitness to the attractiveness of their vocation and to seek ways of speaking toyoung people. The same applies to vocations to the consecrated life, especiallythose for women.In view of the new evangelization, some responses also stressedthe importance of an adequate formation programme not only in seminaries andnovitiates but also in academic institutions.
A DEFINITION AND ITS MEANING
85. The convocation of the Synod and thesubsequent establishment of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the NewEvangelization provide still another step in refining the meaning of the term“new evangelization”. Addressing the Pontifical Council for the NewEvangelization, Pope Benedict XVI specified its content: “Making my own theconcerns of my venerable Predecessors, I consider it opportune to offerappropriate responses so that the entire Church, allowing herself to beregenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit, may present herself to thecontemporary world with a missionary impulse in order to promote the newevangelization. Above all, this pertains to Churches of ancient origin. [...]And yet it is not difficult to see that what all the Churches living intraditionally Christian territories need is a renewed missionary impulse, anexpression of a new, generous openness to the gift of grace.” Meanwhile, in thewake of Redemptoris missio, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith furtherclarified the meaning of the concept of the new evangelization by proposing adefinition: “In its precise sense, evangelization is the missio ad gentesdirected to those who do not know Christ. In a wider sense, it is used todescribe ordinary pastoral work, while the phrase ‘new evangelization’designates pastoral outreach to those who no longer practice the Christianfaith.” This definition was later taken up in the Post-Synodal ApostolicExhortation Africae munus.
86. Consequently, these texts indicate thegeographic area for the new evangelization, though not exclusively, asprimarily the Christian West and identify the persons to whom it is directed,namely, the baptized in our communities who are experiencing a new existentialand cultural situation, which, in fact, has imperilled their faith and theirwitness. The new evangelization consists in viewing real-life situations, areasof living and pastoral activity in such a way as to allow these people to leavethe “interior desert”, an image used by Pope Benedict XVI to represent thecurrent human condition which is caught in a world that has virtuallyeliminated from view any question of God. The specific task of the newevangelization is having the courage to raise again the question of God in theseplaces and situations and to restore a high quality and motivation to the faithin many of our Churches of ancient origins.
87. This definition, however, serves as anexample and is not intended to be exclusive. In other words, the West is one ofmany places of the new evangelization and is not the only place for itsactivity. The definition allows us to understand the extensive work of the newevangelization, which cannot be reduced simply to updating certain pastoralpractices, but, instead, demands the development of a very serious, thoroughexamination and understanding of the root causes of the situation in theChristian West. The urgent natureof the new evangelization, therefore, is not limited to the above situationonly. Pope Benedict XVI stated: “In Africatoo, situations demanding a new presentation of the Gospel, ‘new in its ardour,methods and expression’, are not rare. [...] The new evangelization is anurgent task for Christians in Africa becausethey too need to reawaken their enthusiasm for being members of the Church.Guided by the Spirit of the risen Lord, they are called to live the Good Newsas individuals, in their families and in society, and to proclaim it with freshzeal to persons near and far, using the new methods that divine Providence has placed atour disposal for its spread.” These same words are to be applied by Christiansto particular situations in America,Asia, Europe and Oceania, continents where theChurch has long been active in promoting the new evangelization.
88. The new evangelization is also the namegiven to a spiritual reawakening and the reanimation of a process of conversionwhich the Church asks of herself, all her communities and all the baptized.Consequently, this reality is not the concern of well-defined regions only, butthe means to explain everywhere the teaching of the Apostles and put thoseteachings into practice in our day. Through the new evangelization, the Churchseeks to insert the very original and specific character of her teachings into today’sworld and everyday discussion. She wants to be the place where God can beexperienced even now, and where, under the guidance of the Spirit of the RisenChrist, we allow ourselves to be transformed by the gift of faith. The Gospelis always a new proclamation of salvation, accomplished by Jesus Christ, tomake every human life share in the mystery of God and his life of love, therebyopening human life to a future of hope, which is inspiring and trustworthy.Emphasizing the Church’s call to undertake a new evangelization at this momentin history means intensifying the Church’s missionary activity so as to respondfully to the Lord's mandate.
89. No area in the Church is outside theparameters of this programme; nor should anyone feel exempt. The Churches of along Christian tradition, above all, have to deal with the practical problemthat many have abandoned the faith. To a lesser extent, the same problem alsoexists in younger Churches, especially in large cities and some heavilyinfluenced areas of society and cultures. The great social and culturalchallenges presently being created by rapidly expanding urban centres,especially in developing countries, are certainly fertile ground for the newevangelization. Consequently, the new evangelization also concerns the youngerChurches. Their work of inculturation demands continual examination so that theGospel, which purifies and elevates culture, can be introduced into culturalsettings and, in a particular way, open them to its newness. Generally speaking,all Christian communities need a new evangelization simply by being engaged ina pastoral ministry which seems increasingly difficult to exercise and which isin danger of becoming a routine matter, and thus little able to communicate itsoriginal intent.
CHAPTER III
TRANSMITTING THE FAITH
“And they devoted themselves to the Apostles'teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
] And day by day, attending the temple togetherand¼[ breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous hearts andpraising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord
added to their number day by day those who werebeing saved” (Acts 2:42, 46-47).
90. As stated in the topic for the synod, the purpose of thenew evangelization is the transmission of the faith. The Second Vatican Councilrecalls the complex nature of this process which fully involves the Christianfaith and life of the Church in an experience of God's revelation: “In hisgracious goodness, God has seen to it that what he had revealed for thesalvation of all nations would abide perpetually in its full integrity and behanded on to all generations.” “Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture form onesacred deposit of the word of God, committed to the Church. Holding fast tothis deposit the entire holy people united with their shepherds remain alwayssteadfast in the teaching of the Apostles, in the common life, in the breakingof the bread and in prayers (cf. Acts 2:42), so that holding to, practicing andprofessing the heritage of the faith, it becomes on the part of the bishops andfaithful a single common effort.”
91. The Acts of the Apostles illustrates that aperson cannot convey what is not believed or lived. The Gospel cannot betransmitted in a life which is not modelled after the Gospel or a life whichdoes not find its meaning, truth and future based on the Gospel. Like theApostles, we, even today, have access to a life of communion with the Father,in Jesus Christ, through his Spirit who transforms us and equips us to not onlytransmit the faith which we live but also elicit a response in those whom theSpirit has already prepared with his presence and action (cf. Acts 16:14). Afruitful proclamation of the Word of the Gospel calls for profound communionamong God's children which is a distinguishing sign accompanying proclamation,as St. John theApostle recalls: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another;even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men willknow that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”(Jn 13:34,35).
92. Announcing and proclaiming is not the taskof any one person or a select few, but rather a gift given to every person whoanswers the call to faith. Transmitting the faith is not the work of oneindividual only, but instead, is the responsibility of every Christian and thewhole Church, who in this very activity continually rediscovers her identity asa People gathered together by the Spirit to live Christ’s presence among us anddiscover the true face of God, who is Father.The transmission of the faith is afundamental act of the Church, which leads Christian communities to articulate,in a strict sense, the basic works of the life of faith, namely, charity,witness, proclamation, celebration, listening and sharing. Evangelization mustbe perceived as the process by which the Church, moved by the Spirit, proclaimsand spreads the Gospel throughout the world. Compelled by love, evangelizationpermeates and transforms the whole temporal order, assuming and renewingcultures. Evangelization openly proclaims the Gospel and is a call toconversion. Through catechesis and the Sacraments of Initiation, evangelizationguides those who have turned to Jesus Christ, or those who have returned to theroad of discipleship, incorporating the former and reinstating the latter intothe Christian community. Evangelization constantly nourishes the gift ofcommunion among the faithful through the teaching of the faith, the celebrationof the sacraments and the works of charity. Evangelization is a constantstimulus to mission, which sends forth all Christ’s disciples to every part ofthe globe to proclaim the Gospel in word and deed. Through the discernmentwhich is necessary in the new evangelization, the Church is discovering thatthe process of transmitting the faith needs to be re-awakened in manycommunities.
THE PRIMACY OF FAITH
93. In proclaiming The Year of the Faith, PopeBenedict XVI recalled a similar initiative by Paul VI in 1967 and restated thereasoning which was given at that time, namely, to provide a solemn moment forthe whole Church to profess the one faith, a profession which was to be“individual and collective, free, conscious, inward and outward, humble andfrank.” Fully aware of the serious difficulties of the time, especiallyregarding professing the true tenets of the faith and its correctinterpretation, Pope Paul VI saw this initiative as a way of prompting aprofound interior and missionary renewal within the Church.
94. Pope Benedict XVI shares this perspective ininsisting that The Year of Faith is an occasion to ensure that the essentialelements of the faith, professed by all believers over the centuries, arere-stated and examined, always in a new manner, so as to bear witness to thefaith in a coherent way in an entirely different historical situation from thepast. The danger exists that the faith, which establishes a life of communionwith God and serves as a doorway into his Church, might not be properlyunderstood in its deepest sense, or not actually taken up and lived byChristians as a means of transforming lives through the great gift of divinesonship and fellowship in the Church.95. The responses to the Lineamenta referto such a danger and point out with regret that many communities lack aninstruction programme geared to the growth and development of a mature faith.Despite the efforts made in recent decades, several responses indicate thatthis work of formation is in its initial stages. The principal obstacles to thetransmission of the faith are the same everywhere and arise from within theChurch and the Christian life, namely, a faith which is lived in a private andpassive manner; a person’s not feeling the need to be instructed in the faith;and a separation of faith from life. The responses also mention obstacles fromoutside the Christian life, especially from culture, that make it difficult andperilous to live and transmit the faith: consumerism and hedonism, culturalnihilism; and a closure on transcendence which extinguishes any need forsalvation. The Synod could provide the occasion to reflect on the aboveassessment so as to assist Christian communities find the proper remedies forthese problems.
96. At the same time, the responses refer topromising signs of renewal in the faith and a return to giving due primacy tothe faith through awareness and formation programmes in particular Churches andthe good example of communities of the consecrated life and ecclesial groupsand movements.
An increase in the quality of life of theChristian community itself and the development of its members is one of theprimary benefits of this transformation. Considering one’s faith as aGod-experience and the centre of one’s life is seen by many particular Churchesas a goal of the celebration of the Synod on the new evangelization fortransforming people’s everyday lives.
THE CHURCH TRANSMITS THE FAITH WHICH SHE HERSELFLIVES
97. The best place to transmit the faith is a communitynourished and transformed by the liturgical life and prayer. An intrinsicrelationship exists between faith and the liturgy: lex orandi, lex credendi.“Without the liturgy and the sacraments, the profession of faith would lackefficacy, because it would lack the grace which supports Christian witness.”“The liturgy, ‘through which the work of our redemption is accomplished,’ mostof all in the divine sacrifice of the Eucharist, is the outstanding meanswhereby the faithful may express in their lives, and manifest to others, themystery of Christ and the real nature of the true Church.”
In this regard, the responses to the Lineamentarecount the many initiatives undertaken to help Christian communities live theprofound nature of the liturgy. The liturgy and a life of prayer transform aChristian community from a simple gathering of people into a community whichcelebrates and transmits the Trinitarian faith in God the Father, Son and HolySpirit.The two previous ordinary general assemblies, which treated theEucharist and the Word of God in the life of the Church, were seen to providegreat assistance in fruitfully continuing the reception and development ofliturgical reform initiated at the Second Vatican Council through theirhighlighting the centrality of the mystery of the Eucharist and the Word of Godin the life of the Church.
Within this framework, several responses mentionthe importance of lectio divina (personal and communal) which is seen as thenatural setting for evangelization. Prayer provides ample opportunity to listento the Word of God, thereby bringing the life of faith and prayer to itsinexhaustible source. God speaks, calls , questions, guides, enlightens andjudges. If “faith comes from what is heard” (Rm 10:17), listening to the Wordof God is for both the individual believer and the Church a simple but powerfulmeans of evangelization and renewal in the grace of God.
98. The responses refer to the success ofChristian communities in rediscovering the profound value of the liturgy, whichis, at one and the same time, divine worship, the proclamation of the Gospeland love in action.Many responses gave particular attention to the Sacrament ofReconciliation, which has almost disappeared from the lives of many Christians,and focussed on the very positive experiences when the Sacrament is celebratedat special moments, e.g., World Youth Day and pilgrimages to shrines. However,even these moments of celebration have been unable to positively affect theoverall practice of sacramental reconciliation.
99. The responses to the Lineamenta alsoreflected on the subject of prayer, stressing, on the one hand, some positiveelements, namely: a certain diffusion of the celebration of the Liturgy of theHours (by Christian communities and also persons individually); a rediscoveryof Eucharistic adoration as a source of personal prayer; an increase in thenumber of groups for listening and prayer on the Word of God; and thespontaneous formation of Marian, charismatic and devotional groups. On theother hand, some responses emphasized the complex character between thecelebration of the Christian faith and various forms of popular piety. Whilerecognizing some mutual benefits, they also noted the danger of syncretism anda degradation of the faith.
THE PEDAGOGY OF THE FAITH
100. Faithful to the Lord, from the verybeginning of her history, the Church has taken the truth in the biblicalaccounts and has experienced it in ritual, reunited it in a synthesis as a ruleof faith, which is The Symbol of Faith, translated it into a guide for livingand lives it in a filial relationship with God. This has been summed up by PopeBenedict XVI in his letter proclaiming The Year of Faith. While quoting fromthe Apostolic Constitution promulgating The Catechism of the Catholic Church, henotes that for the faith to be transmitted, it must be “professed, celebrated,lived and prayed.” Thus, startingfrom the fundamental elements taken from Sacred Scripture, ecclesial traditionhas created a pedagogy for transmitting the faith, which is developed accordingto the four major divisions of the Roman Catechism: the Creed, the sacraments,the commandments and the Lord's Prayer. On one side are the mysteries of faithin God, One-in-Three, as they are professed (The Symbol of the Faith) and celebrated(sacraments); and on the other, human life in conformity with that faith (afaith which becomes operative through love) which is realized in a Christianway of life (the Decalogue) and filial prayer (Our Father). Today, these fourgeneral headings serve as the general format for The Catechism of the CatholicChurch.
101. The Catechism of the Catholic Church wasgiven to the Church by Pope John Paul II for a dual purpose, namely, to setforth the basic tenets of the faith and, at the same time, to indicate thepedagogy for its transmission. Its goal is to stir faith to life in the heartof every believer, in its entirety, which is both proposing the truth andadhering to it. Faith is essentially a gift from God which promptsself-abandonment to the Lord Jesus. In this way, adhesion to the content offaith becomes a state of mind, a decision to follow Jesus and to conform one'slife to his, a conformity which permits us to enter into the profoundpedagogical structure of the faith. St. Paul well describes the experience, in the followingmanner: “For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesseswith his lips and so is saved” (Rm 10:10). “In fact, there exists a profoundunity between the act by which we believe and the content to which we give ourassent. [...] knowing the content to be believed is not sufficient unless theheart, [...] is opened by grace that allows the eyes to see below the surfaceand to understand that what has been proclaimed is the word of God.”
By attentively considering the format and deepmeaning of The Catechism of the Catholic Church, on the twentieth anniversaryof its publication, the synodal assembly can discover the great efforts theChurch has made in recent decades in catechetical renewal. The responses to theLineamenta describe the great strides in the process of assessing and planningwhich was done to improve catechesis and programmes of faith formation. Theseprogrammes include editing texts and initiatives for forming catechists to notonly use the new instruments available today but also come to a fullunderstanding of the multi-sided nature of their mission.102. Reports in thisarea are generally positive and refer to the serious efforts which are beingmade by various bodies in the Church (the synods of bishops of the EasternCatholic Churches sui iuris, the episcopal conferences, diocesan or eparchialcentres, parish communities, individual catechists, and theological andpastoral institutes) to realize and develop in all of her members a faith whichis better understood and shared. Furthermore, the responses demonstrate thatthe Church has at her disposal the necessary means to transmit the faith. Acritical assessment of these means and their use is facilitated by thepublication of The Catechism of the Catholic Church, which also provides the Eastern Catholic Churchesand episcopal conferences a point of reference in giving unity and clarity tothe Church's catechetical activity.
103. The responses also include an evaluation ofall the initiatives which have been undertaken for rendering an account of ourfaith today. Despite the efforts, however, many obstacles still remain in thetransmission of faith, especially the very rapid changes in cultures, whichhave become more incisive on the Christian faith, and the many fronts open tothe development of knowledge and technology. The responses insist thatcatechesis be looked upon more as a part of sacramental preparation in itsvarious stages and not simply ongoing instruction in the faith of Christians.
104. The secularization of culture has alsoshown that the various methods of catechesis show signs of vitality but are notalways allowed to reach full development in transmitting the faith. The synod'sdeliberations could therefore continue the task begun at the Synod onCatechesis, namely, to devise a way of transmitting the faith today which isbased on the fundamental law of catechesis, that is, the principle offaithfulness to God and the person, done out of love. The Synod could discusshow to devise a programme of catechesis which is both basic and complete andable to transmit fully the core elements of the faith, and, at the same time,knows how to speak to people today, in their cultures, while listening to theirquestions and inspiring their search for truth, goodness and beauty.
THE PERSONS INVOLVED IN THE TRANSMISSION OF THEFAITH
105. The transmission of the faith involves the whole Churchwhich is manifested in the particular Churches, eparchies and dioceses, wherethe proclamation, transmission and lived experience of the Gospel are realized.Moreover, these particular Churches, in addition to being agents in thetransmission of the faith, are also the fruit of this action of proclaiming theGospel and transmitting the faith, as we recall in the experience of theprimitive Christian community (cf. Acts 2:42-47). The Spirit gathers believersinto communities where they live their faith in a fervent manner, nourishthemselves by listening to the word of the Apostles and by celebrating theEucharist and spend their lives in proclaiming the Kingdom of God.The Second Vatican Council relied on these words to describe the basis ofidentity for every Christian community, when it stated that “this Church ofChrist is truly present in all legitimate local congregations of the faithfulwhich, united with their pastors, are themselves called Churches in the NewTestament. For in their locality, these are the new People called by God, inthe Holy Spirit and in much fullness (cf. 1 Thess 1:5). In them the faithfulare gathered together by the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, and the mysteryof the Lord’s Supper is celebrated, so that by the flesh and blood of theLord's body all the brethren might be joined together.”
106. This passage from the Council is beingconcretely fulfilled and can oftentimes describe the real-life situation of ourChurches through their transmitting the faith and proclaiming the Gospel ingeneral. The responses emphasized the fact that, in recent decades, the numberof Christians who have spontaneously and freely undertaken this task has beentruly noteworthy and has characterized the life of communities as a true giftof the Spirit. Pastoral activity in the transmission of the faith has permittedthe Church to enter different, local, social settings, and from within, displaythe richness and variety of her ministries, which bring life to everydayexistence. In this way, the Church has been able to understand, in a new way,the whole idea of the participation of the various persons in the Christiancommunity (priests, parents, religious, catechists), in union with the bishop,each exercising a proper task and responsibility.
107. As previously stated, the proclamation ofthe Gospel and the transmission of faith can become a positive impetus infacing the changes which are being closely monitored by parish communities. Theresponses ask that a central position in the new evangelization be given to theparish, community of communities, not simply as a place for religious servicesto be celebrated but as a gathering place for families, Bible groups andrenewed lay involvement, where a true sense of the Church is experiencedthrough a most authentically lived celebration of the sacraments and theirmeaning. The synod fathers should examine the vocation of the parish as a pointof reference and coordination for a wide range of Church realities and pastoralinitiatives.
108. In addition to the irreplaceable role ofthe Christian community as a whole, the task of transmitting the faith andteaching persons how to live the Christian life involves a variety ofChristians. The responses primarily make an appeal to catechists. Theyacknowledge the gift of faith received by many Christians who, freely andbeginning with their own faith, have made a unique and irreplaceablecontribution in the proclamation of the Gospel and the transmission of thefaith, especially in Churches which have been evangelized in the lastcenturies. According to some responses, the new evangelization calls for a greaterinvolvement of catechists and, likewise, a greater commitment by the Church ontheir behalf. Catechists are immediate witnesses and irreplaceableevangelizers, who represent the basic strength of Christian communities. TheChurch needs to reflect more deeply on their task and provide them with morestable living conditions and greater training and visibility in their service.With this in mind, the Synod Assembly, while taking into consideration theresults of the studies already undertaken in recent decades, can raise thepossibility of giving the catechist an instituted, stable ministry within theChurch. At this great moment of renewal in proclaiming and transmitting thefaith, a decision to that effect would be seen as a very strong support and resourcein the new evangelization called for in the Church. 109. Various responses highlight theimportant role and dedication of deacons and many women who are involved incatechesis. In other responses, these positive findings are followed by ones ofconcern. In recent years, due to a declining number of priests and their beingforced to minister to more than one Christian community, the practice ofdelegating to lay people their work of catechising is becoming increasinglywidespread. The responses want the Synod to help people better understand thepresent changes in how a priest is called upon to live out his priestlyidentity today. In this way, the Synod can give some direction to these changesand safeguard what is specifically and uniquely related to the ministry of thepriest in the field of evangelization and the transmission of faith. Generallyspeaking, synod discussion could assist Christian communities to give a renewedmissionary sense to the ministry of priests, deacons and catechists, who are presentlyworking among them.
THE FAMILY, THE MODEL-PLACE FOR EVANGELIZATION
110. In treating the persons involved in thetransmission of the faith, the responses devote considerable attention to thefamily. The Christian message on marriage and family is considered a great giftwhich makes the family the model-place for witnessing to faith, because of itsprophetic capacity in living the core values of the Christian experience. Thosevalues include: the dignity and complementary nature of man and woman, createdin the image of God (cf. Gn 1:27); openness to life; sharing and communion;dedication to the most vulnerable; and a focus on formation and trust in God asthe source of love, the basis for family unity. Many particular Churches callfor and are engaged in the pastoral care of the family, precisely in view ofits missionary calling and witnessing to the faith.
111. At the same time, the Church acknowledgesthe family’s responsibility in the formation and transmission of the Christianfaith from the very beginning of human life. The close bond between the Churchand the family arise from the assistance which the Church seeks to give to thefamily and that which she expects from the family. Oftentimes, families aresubjected to great stress due to the hectic pace of life, the uncertainty ofwork, increasing instability and fatigue in the education of children which isbecoming more difficult. Aware of these difficulties, the family needs thesupport which comes from feeling a part of a community and being accepted andlistened to. The family likewise needs to be bolstered not only by theproclamation of the Gospel but also by guidance in its work of education. Thecommonly shared goal is to give the family an increasingly active role in theprocess of the transmission of the faith.112. The responses relate thedifficulties and needs facing many families today, including Christianfamilies, namely, the need for support which is increasingly evident in themany situations of pain and failure in faith- formation, especially inchildren. Various responses speak of organizing groups of families (locally orbased on shared experiences and the ecclesial movements), inspired by theChristian faith, which have allowed many couples better to cope with thedifficulties they are encountering. In so doing, they also render a cleartestimony to the Christian faith.
113. According to many responses, these groupsof families are one of the fruits produced in Christian communities by theproclamation of the faith. In this regard, the responses express an optimismconcerning: the resilient nature of many Christian communities, even those inpassing, precarious situations; the faithfulness with which they communallycelebrate the faith; and the availability, however limited, of their resourcesto relieve the poor and to bear witness to the Gospel in a simple manner eachday.
CALLED TO EVANGELIZE
114. The responses look to the consecrated life as a gift tobe received with gratitude. In the transmission of the faith and the proclamationof the Gospel, they speak of the important contributions of the great religiousorders and the many forms of consecrated life — especially the mendicant ordersand apostolic and secular institutes — in their continuing prophetic andevangelizing charisms, despite internal difficulties and moments of renewal intheir way of life. From the vantage point of faith, their presence, even ifhidden from sight, is seen as a source of many spiritual blessings in themissionary mandate which the Church is presently called to fulfill. Many localChurches recognize the importance of this prophetic witness to the Gospel as adynamic source of energy in the life of faith of entire Christian communitiesand a great number of the baptized.
Many responses voiced their hope that theconsecrated life will continue to make an essential contribution to the newevangelization, especially in education, healthcare and pastoral activity,primarily among the poor and those most in need of spiritual and materialassistance.
While treating this subject of the newevangelization, the responses also wanted to acknowledge the invaluable supportcoming from the contemplative life, especially monasteries. History has proventhat the relation of monasticism and contemplation to evangelization is strongand the bearer of many fruits. The contemplative life is the core of theChurch’s existence which keeps alive the essence of the Gospel, the primacy ofthe faith and the celebration of the liturgy and gives a meaning to silence andall the other activities undertaken for the glory of God.115. Within the lastdecade, another gift of Divine Providence to the Church is the flowering ofgroups and movements, oftentimes in an spontaneous, spirit-filled manner,dedicated primarily to proclaiming the Gospel. In considering these groups andmovements, various responses recounted characteristics of a way of life whichare essential to communities and individual Christians, if they are to renderan account for their faith. These characteristics are related to the calibre ofthe so-called “new evangelizers”, namely: the ability to live out and givereasons for their choice of life and the values they espouse; a desire toprofess their faith in a public manner, without fear or false modesty; activelyseeking moments of lived communion through prayer and fraternal sharing; aninstinctive preference for the poor and the downtrodden; and a zeal in the workof forming succeeding generations.
116. The responses’ strong emphasis on charismsas an important resource in the new evangelization deserves further discussionat the Synod for a better understanding of the various aspects of the subject,not only ascertaining where these resources exist, but also asking how theiractivities can be integrated in the life of the missionary Church. The synodfathers are called upon to discuss the relationship between charism andinstitution, between charismatic gifts and hierarchical gifts , in the concretesituations of dioceses and their missionary endeavours. This could lead toeliminating the obstacles denounced in some responses which neglect the fullintegration of the charisms in support of the new evangelization. Variousresponses also request the treatment of the “coessentiality” of these gifts ofthe Spirit, in the life and mission of the Church, in light of the newevangelization. This reflection could then result in more incisive pastoralmeans which better value the resources provided by the various charisms.
117. In treating the emergence of these newexperiences and forms of evangelization, the responses also refer to the greatmovements, institutions and associations for evangelization, such as CatholicAction, which have arisen in the course of the history of Christianity. Theirworks clearly show the radical nature of the Gospel animating these types ofexperiences and their prophetic vocation to proclaim the Gospel. The admirableand joyous character of their life inspires vocations, a gift to the Church.Several responses relate that some older forms of consecrated life and thesenew movements have begun a mutual exchange of gifts.
GIVING AN ACCOUNT FOR ONE’S FAITH
118. Present-day situations demand that the taskof proclaiming and handing on the faith, incumbent on every Christian, berendered more visible and operative. Several responses state that the Church’smost compelling responsibility today is to re-awaken in all the baptized theirbaptismal identity so that each can be a true witness of the Gospel and renderan account for one’s faith. All the faithful, in virtue of their participationin the common priesthood and the prophetic office of Christ, have an importantrole in this task of the Church. The lay faithful, in particular, are calledupon to show how the Christian faith is a valid response to the pressingproblems of life in every age and culture, problems which necessarily affectevery person, even the agnostic and unbeliever. This will be possible only byovercoming the separation of the Gospel from life and reconstructing, in theeveryday activities of the home, work and society, the unity of a life whichfinds its inspiration in the Gospel and, in the same Gospel, the strength torealize it fully. 119. EveryChristian needs to feel the call to engage in this task, which comes from one’sbaptismal identity. Every Christian must seek to be guided by the Holy Spirit,who provides the strength and means to respond to it, each according to one’sproper vocation. These times, in which choosing the faith and following Christis not easy and is little understood by the world — if not outrightly resistedand opposed — make it more compelling for communities and individual Christiansto be courageous witnesses of the Gospel. The reasons underlying such actionscome from St. Peter the Apostle, when he asks us to give an account and respondto anyone who asks us the reason for the hope which is in us (cf. 1 Pt 3:15).The Spirit indicates for our Christian communities the path to be followed, ifthey are to bring about a new season of witnessing to our faith and new formsof response (apo-logia) to anyone who asks the logos, the reason for our faith.These circumstances provide an occasion to renew ourselves, to make the hopeand salvation given us by Jesus Christ more effectively present in the world inwhich we live. This demands learning a new manner of responding — “withgentleness and respect, with a clear conscience” (1 Pt 3:16). This task invitesus to live life with the gentle power which comes from our identity as childrenof God, from our union with Christ in the Spirit, and from the newness whichthis union has created in us, and with the determination of someone who knowsthat the goal of all living is an encounter with God the Father in his Kingdom.
120. This manner of response must be complete,involving not only a state of mind but personal deeds and public testimony aswell as the internal life of our communities and their missionary zeal. Thiswill not only add greater credibility to the Church’s work in education andselfless dedication to the poor but also strengthen the ability of everyChristian to engage in the conversation taking place in all areas of living andin the workplace, so as to communicate the gift of Christian hope. This mannerof response has to be characterized by zeal, trust and frankness (parresia) asseen in the preaching of the Apostles (cf. Acts 4:31; 9:27-28). The world mustwitness this manner of response, based on the logic of our faith, in not onlythe Church as a whole but the life of every Christian. This manner ofresponding personally involves each of us, as Pope Paul VI recalls: “side byside with the collective proclamation of the Gospel, the other form oftransmission, the person-to-person one, remains valid and important. [...] Itmust not happen that the pressing need to proclaim the Good News to themultitudes should cause us to forget this form of proclamation whereby anindividual's personal conscience is reached and touched by an entirely uniqueword that he receives from someone else.”
121. From this perspective, The Year of Faith’sinvitation to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the Only Saviourof the World, is a beneficial opportunity — not to be left unheeded — for eachbaptized person and entire Christian communities to be the branch which,bearing fruit, is pruned so that “it may bear more fruit” (Jn 15:2), and ableto enrich the world and people’s lives with the gifts of a new life formed bythe radical newness of the Resurrection. In freely submitting oneself to theHoly Spirit, a person’s thoughts, affections, mentality and conduct aregradually purified and transformed in a way which is never fully completed inthis earthly life. This “faith working through love” (Gal 5:6) now becomes thenew standard for understanding and action, changing every aspect of a person’slife (cf. Eph 4:20-29) and bearing new fruits.
THE FRUITS OF THE FAITH
122. The fruits of this transformation, made possible by thelife of faith and generated within the Church as a sign of the life-givingpower of the Gospel, are formed in response to the challenges of our time. Inthis regard, the responses refer to the following fruits: families which are atrue sign of love, sharing and a hope which is open to life; communitiesequipped with a true ecumenical spirit; the courage to support initiatives forsocial justice and solidarity; and the joy of giving one’s life to thepriesthood or the consecrated life. In the new evangelization, the Churchtransmits her faith in all these areas and manifests the Spirit who guides andtransforms history.
123. Just as faith is manifested in love; solove without faith would simply be philanthropy. For the Christian, faith andlove are essential to each other; one supports the other. Many responsesemphasized the witness-value of many Christians who devote their lives in loveto those who are lonely, marginalized or rejected, precisely because the faceof Christ is reflected in these people. Faith allows us to see the face of theRisen Lord in all those who ask for our love: “as you did it to one of theleast of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40). Faith enables us torecognize Christ in others. Christ’s own love compels us to offer him help,every time Christ makes himself our neighbour on the road of life.
124. Sustained by faith, we look upon our dutyto the world with a spirit of hope, awaiting “new heavens and a new earth inwhich righteousness dwells” (2 Pt 3:13). This same responsibility to evangelizecalls us, as Pope Paul VI stated, “to affect and, as it were upset, through thepower of the Gospel, humanity’s criteria of judgment, determining values,points of interest, lines of thought, sources of inspiration and models oflife, which are in contrast with the Word of God and the plan of salvation.”Many responses call for the re-motivation of all those who are baptized so thateach can respond with greater dedication to the specific task of evangelizing,through applying the social doctrine of the Church and living the faith in theworld by seeking the true good of everyone, by respecting and promoting thedignity of every person, even to the point — especially in the case of the layfaithful — of becoming actively involved in society and civic life.In the newevangelization, the love shown to those in spiritual and material need, whichis expressed in works of fellowship, solidarity and assistance, speaks louderthan words.
125. A renewed commitment to ecumenism isanother fruit resulting from the Church’s allowing herself to be transformed bythe Gospel of Jesus and his presence. The Second Vatican Council recounts thatthe divisions among Christians are a counter-witness: “Such division openlycontradicts the will of Christ, scandalizes the world, and damages the holycause of preaching the Gospel to every creature.” Overcoming these divisions isundeniably a part of a fully credible following of Christ. What unitesChristians is much stronger than what divides them. Consequently, we need toencourage each other in seeking to be faithful in witnessing to the Gospel andto learn to grow in unity. In this regard, many particular Churches mentionedthat ecumenism is definitely one of the fruits to be expected from the newevangelization, since both of these activities are intended to foster communionin the visible body of the Church, for the salvation of all.
126. Many responses expect that the newevangelization will also be directed towards people’s attitude towards thetruth. Various areas of contemporary culture display a certain intolerancetowards anything claimed to be the truth. Today, the modern idea is thatfreedom means absolute autonomy from truth, which finds relativism to be theonly way of thinking suitable for living in cultural and religious diversity.In this regard, many responses recommend that our communities and individualChristians — precisely in the name of the truth which sets us free (cf. Jn8:32) — know how to guide people to the truth, to peace and to the defence ofthe dignity of every person, and work against every form of violence and denialof rights. 127. This approach cansurely be tested in interreligious dialogue, which must necessarily treat thesubject of the truth, a quality inherent to any religious experience. Thesearch for God clearly involves, in a supreme way, the freedom of theindividual. This search, however, is truly free when it is open to the truthwhich does not impose itself by force but by the power of its own truth. TheSecond Vatican Council states: “Truth, however, is to be sought in a mannerproper to the dignity of the human person and his social nature. The inquiry isto be free, carried on with the aid of teaching or instruction, communicationand dialogue, in the course of which people explain to one another the truththey have discovered, or think they have discovered, in order thus to assistone another in the quest for truth. Moreover, as the truth is discovered, it isby a personal assent that people are to adhere to it.” The Synod could serve asan occasion to treat the topic of evangelization and the transmission of thefaith from the vantage point of the dual principle of truth-freedom.
128. Finally, discerning the fruits of the newevangelization will also involve the courage to denounce the infidelities andscandals in Christian communities which appear as a sign and consequence of aspiritual decline in the task of proclamation. Courage is necessary toacknowledge faults, while continuing to witness to Jesus Christ and the ongoingneed to be saved. According to the St. Paul, in considering our weaknesses, we can come tosee the power of Christ which saves us (cf. 2 Cor 12:9, Rm 7:14ff). Thepractice of penance as conversion leads to purification and reparation of theconsequences of our mistakes, trusting that the hope which has been given us“does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our heartsthrough the Holy Spirit who has been given to us”(Rm 5:5). Such an approach isa result of the transmission of the faith and proclamation of the Gospel, whichnever fails to renew Christians and their communities, in the first place, asthey witness to the Christian faith in the world.
CHAPTER IV
REVIVIFYING PASTORAL ACTIVITY
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observeall that I have commanded you (Mt 28:19, 20)
129. The command to make disciples of allnations and baptize them gave origin, at different times in the history of theChurch and pastoral practice, to the will to transmit the faith and thenecessity of proclaiming the Gospel in human terms, which are grounded inculture and present within them. This principle is clearly expressed by theSecond Vatican Council: “From the beginning of her history, she [the Church] haslearned to express the message of Christ with the help of the ideas andterminology of various philosophers, and has tried to clarify it with theirwisdom, too. Her purpose has been to adapt the Gospel to the grasp of all aswell as to the needs of the learned, insofar as such was appropriate. Indeedthis accommodated preaching of the revealed word ought to remain the law of allevangelization. [...] With the help of the Holy Spirit, it is the task of theentire People of God, especially pastors and theologians, to hear, distinguishand interpret the many voices of our age, and to judge them in the light of thedivine word, so that revealed truth can always be more deeply penetrated,better understood and set forth to greater advantage.”
130. An increasingly clear understanding of theforms of transmission of the faith, together with the emerging social andcultural changes which are posing challenges to Christianity today, haveprompted the Church to begin a general process of reflection and reassessmentof her pastoral programmes, particularly those devoted to initiation into thefaith, instruction and the proclamation of the message of Christianity. Infact, “since the Church has a visible and social structure as a sign of herunity in Christ, she can and ought to be enriched by the development of humansocial life, not that there is any lack in the constitution given her byChrist, but that she can understand it more penetratingly, express it better,and adjust it more successfully to our times.” Quoting the words of Paul VI inEvangelii nuntiandi, Pope Benedict XVI states that “‘evangelization would notbe complete if it did not take account of the unceasing interplay of the Gospeland of man's concrete life, both personal and social.’ [...] Testimony toChrist's charity, through works of justice, peace and development, is part andparcel of evangelization, because Jesus Christ, who loves us, is concerned withthe whole person. These important teachings form the basis for the missionaryaspect of the Church's social doctrine, which is an essential element ofevangelization. The Church's social doctrine proclaims and bears witness tofaith. It is an instrument and an indispensable setting for formation infaith.” These are issues to be explored in the new evangelization, which is“especially concerned with the Church’s service to reconciliation, justice andpeace.”
CHRISTIAN INITIATION, AN EVANGELIZING PROCESS
131. The Lineamenta stated that the way theChurch will know how to oversee the ongoing renewal of her baptismal practiceswill depend on the features Christianity will have in the world in the future,especially in the West, and the ability of the Christian faith to speak totoday's culture. The responses speak of a Church very much involved in thisexamination, which has arrived at certainty on some issues but on others stilldisplays signs of a work yet to be completed and a plan not throughly treated.
132. The first certainty deals with thecustomary form of entrance into the Christian life, namely, infant baptismwhich normally takes place at a reasonably short time after birth. Mostresponses based their findings on existing situations and others on a consciouschoice to study the matter. The younger Churches view the practice of infantbaptism as an indication of the high level of inculturation of Christianity intheir lands. Others, on the contrary, voice a deep concern at the choice bysome baptized parents to postpone the baptism of their child for variousreasons, the most frequent of which concerns the free choice of the child oncehe reaches adulthood.133. A second certainty is the rather common practicetoday of adults and adolescents requesting Baptism. Even though the number ofthose in this category is significantly fewer than that for infant Baptism, thesituation is seen as a gift enabling Christian communities to understand thedeep meaning of Baptism. The course of preparation, the pre-baptismalscrutinies and the celebration of the Sacrament are moments which nourish thefaith of both the catechumen and the community.
134. Moreover, it seems certain that thestructure of the catechumenate, with reference Ordo Initiationis ChristianaeAdultorum, is an apt means for renewing the manner in which children areinitiated into the faith. In recent decades, all particular Churches haveworked to give this process of initiation and instruction a character whichbetter displays its witness and ecclesial aspects. A greater consciousness inthe celebration of the Sacrament of Baptism is expected to lead to a betterparticipation of the baptized later in their Christian life. Efforts were madeto give greater form to the process of Christian initiation, seeking to linkthe sacraments (Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist) and more actively engage parentsand godparents. In fact, many particular Churches have instituted a certainkind of “post-baptismal catechumenate” to renew practices of adherence to thefaith and overcome the separation of liturgy and life, so that the Church mightreally be a mother who raises her children in the faith. 135. Many responses see the newevangelization as an appeal to consolidate past efforts and reforms introducedto strengthen the faith of catechumens and their families, above all, as wellas the community which supports and guides them. Pastoral programmes forBaptism are one of the priorities of the new evangelization.
136. The responses speak of two pointsconcerning the process of Christian initiation: the great variety ofexperiences and the harmony in this diversity. Generally speaking, admission toFirst Communion takes place in elementary school, preceded by a course ofpreparation, which can also have experiences of mystagogy and guidance in lateryears. Greater variety is seen in pastoral practice concerning the Sacrament ofConfirmation which is administered at very different times in life. Differencesin practice are even seen from diocese to diocese.
Drawing on the experience of the Synod on theEucharist, namely, that the various practices are more pastoral than dogmatic,those involved do not express any desire for reform in this matter. On thecontrary, they insist that the current situation displays a richness which isuseful to maintain.In this regard, the differences in practice between the Eastern Catholic Churchesand the Latin Church are not considered so important as to warrant discussion.
137. The Synod is expected to treat the abovematter thoroughly. The synod fathers are asked not only to provide a certainorientation to this variety of practices so as to avoid a dispersion ofenergies, but to do what was requested by the Synod on the Eucharist, namely,to examine “the effectiveness of current approaches to Christian initiation, sothat the faithful can be helped both to mature through the formation receivedin our communities and to give their lives an authentically Eucharisticorientation, so that they can offer a reason for the hope within them in a waysuited to our times (cf. 1 Pt 3:15).” From a theological point of view, we mustbetter understand the sequence of the Sacraments of Christian Initiation, whichculminates in the Eucharist, and reflect on models to be translated into deeplymeaningful pastoral practices.
THE DEMANDS OF INITIAL PROCLAMATION
138. On several occasions, the responsesexpressed the need to help local Christian communities, beginning withparishes, to adopt a more missionary presence within society. The recurringappeal is that our communities, in proclaiming the Gospel, might better knowhow to attract people’s attention today and interpret their questioning andsearch for happiness. In a society which has done away with many references toand talk about God, our institutions need to adopt a bold and even “apologetic”approach and seek ways of publically affirming their faith, fearlessly and witha clear sense of pastoral urgency.139. This situation provides the occasion toinitially proclaim the Gospel. The Lineamenta referred to initial proclamationas a means of making an explicit proposal, even better than other forms ofproclamation, of the basic contents of the faith. The initial proclamation ofthe Gospel is primarily directed to those who still do not know Jesus Christ,to unbelievers and those who, in fact, live in religious indifference. Thisproclamation is a call to conversion and must be integrated into other forms ofproclamation and initiation into the faith. While these latter forms are gearedto guiding and developing a faith which is already present, the goal of initialproclamation is a conversion which then remains a constant part of the life ofa Christian.
140. The distinction between these differentforms of proclamation is not always easy to make nor need it be adhered to in astrict sense. Instead, this distinction simply points to two aspects of asingle pastoral action. Initial proclamation compels Christian communities tobe attentive to the faith of persons both within and outside the community. Itstask is to reanimate the faith or enkindle it so as to keep the community andeach baptized person constantly involved and faithful in proclaiming and givingpublic testimony to the faith they both profess.141. Initial proclamationtherefore requires a form of action, places, initiatives and events whichpermit the Christian faith to be proclaimed within society itself. In thisregard, the responses indicate that general forms of initial proclamation arenot lacking. Diverse episcopal conferences have organized national ecclesialevents. Along the same line, many responses praise international events, likeWorld Youth Day, as real forms of initial proclamation on a global scale. Eventhe Pope's apostolic journeys are considered in the same perspective as well asthe ceremonies of beatification or canonization of a son or daughter of aparticular Church.
142. In contrast, many responses voice a concernon the scarcity of initial proclamation taking place everyday in neighbourhoodsand the workplace. Therefore, many share the idea that work needs to be done toraise the awareness of the parish community to this urgent missionary activity.On the basis of the responses, the Synod can provide further information forcomparison and reflection. Several responses mention that initial proclamationcan already be inserted into the customary pastoral practices in the day-to-daylife of Christian communities, such as preaching, the celebration of theSacrament of Reconciliation and popular piety with its many devotions.
143. As regards preaching, the Sunday homily,above all, as well as the many extraordinary forms of preaching (parishmissions, novenas and homilies at funerals, baptisms, weddings and festivals)are excellent occasions for initial proclamation. For this reason, the previousordinary general assembly asked that homilies be carefully prepared and dueattention be given to the core elements of the message to be transmitted, theiressential Christological character and the use of a language which will inspirelisteners and stir the assembly to conversion. 144. The Sacrament of Reconciliationhas its fundamental meaning in providing an actual experience of the mercifulface of God the Father, which brings about conversion and growth in both theindividual penitent and the community which celebrates this Sacrament.Implementing what is in the ritual, in a simple and habitual manner, will besufficient to ensure that this Sacrament fosters evangelization and instills asense of sin. In other words, its celebration should begin with theproclamation of a biblical passage which can assist in the act of examiningone’s conscience and discerning how far one is from following the Gospel andthe will of God. In this way, what was recounted in the Acts of the Apostleswould be repeated today, with the proclamation of the Word leading torepentance for the forgiveness of sins (cf. Acts 2:14- 47).
145. Finally, popular piety with its devotion tothe saints and Mary, in particular, as well as sacred places (shrines) withtheir opportunities for penance and spirituality, is increasingly being seen asa very timely and original means of initial proclamation. Pilgrimages anddevotions can also provide the occasion to introduce a person to a realfaith-experience and to respond to the great existential questions which touchupon conversion in one’s life. A shared experience of faith opens a person to aworld and life of new horizons. Working to well-preserve the richness ofChristian prayer in these places of conversion is undoubtedly a challenge forthe new evangelization.
With regard to devotion to Mary, the new evangelizationmust simply enact the teaching of the Second Vatican Council: “This most HolySynod deliberately teaches this Catholic doctrine and at the same timeadmonishes all the sons and daughters of the Church that the cult, especiallythe liturgical cult, of the Blessed Virgin, be generously fostered, and thepractices and exercises of piety, recommended by the magisterium of the Churchtoward her in the course of centuries. [...] Let the faithful remember moreoverthat true devotion consists neither in sterile nor transitory affection, nor ina certain vain credulity, but proceeds from true faith, by which we are led toknow the excellence of the Mother of God, and we are moved to a filial lovetoward our mother and to the imitation of her virtues.” 146. The responses list otherpractices which deserve to be considered during synod discussion as a means forthe initial proclamation of the Gospel. Firstly, reference is made to popularmissions, organized in the past on a regular basis in parishes, as a means ofspiritually awakening the local Christian population. Several responses raisethe subject of reviving the practice, giving it a new, contemporary form andintegrating popular missions in the community’s practices of listening to andproclaiming the Word of God, a widespread occurrence in Christian communitiestoday. Likewise, all pastoral activity in preparing couples for the Sacramentof Matrimony is also considered a golden opportunity for the initialproclamation of the Gospel. These programmes are not considered as simply apreparation for this special Sacrament but can increasingly become true andproper ways to reacquire and grow in the Christian faith. Finally, theresponses also ask that the initial proclamation of the Gospel include the careand attention given by the Christian community to those in moments of sufferingand illness.
TRANSMITTING THE FAITH, EDUCATING THE PERSON
147. The proposed link between education and initiation intothe faith, mentioned in the Lineamenta, greatly resonated in the Church. Ifevangelization is to be true to itself, it cannot take place apart fromeducation; it is directly related to it. The Second Vatican Council teachesthat the encounter with Christ is the true light of the mystery of humanexistence. In this regard, the Church possesses a tradition of educationalresources, studies, research, institutions and people — consecrated andnon-consecrated persons, belonging to religious orders, congregations andinstitutes — who provide a significant presence in schools and education.
148. Taking into consideration the greatdifferences, due to geography, in societies and the history of Catholicism ineach nation, all agree that the Church has expended great energy in the fieldof education, a work which continues today. Catholic schools and universitiesare present in practically every particular Church. In this regard, theresponses provide detailed information on the work undertaken in education andthe fruits which this work has produced in the past as well as what is takingplace today. The past and present development of some nations is a directresult of the Church’s efforts in education.149. Today, the work of educationis taking place in a cultural context where every kind of educational activityis becoming more difficult and critical to the point that the Pope Benedict XVIhas spoken of an “educational emergency.” With this expression, the Holy Fatherintends to allude to the special urgency to pass on to future generations thebasic values of life and moral conduct. Consequently, many places areincreasingly demanding a genuine form of education as well as truly qualifiedteachers. Such requests are commonly raised by parents who are concerned aboutthe future of their children, by teachers who are sadly experiencing thedeteriorating situation in schools and by society itself which sees the veryfoundations of harmonious living threatened.
150. Similarly, the Church's duty in educatingpeople in the faith, discipleship and witnessing to the Gospel can be seen as acontributing factor in permitting society to emerge from the weight of thiscrisis in education. When speaking of education, the responses describe aChurch who has much to contribute and who has a concept of education she hasmanaged to spread throughout the world, namely, that the person and hisformation are primary and that she desires to provide a genuine education thatis open to the truth, including the encounter with God and a faith-experience.
151. Furthermore, some responses praise the valueand emphasis of the educational endeavours of the Church as a way of providingan anthropological and metaphysical basis to today’s challenges to education.The basis of the “educational emergency” at present may in fact be a result ofthe imposition of an anthropology marked by individualism and a dual relativismwhich reduces reality to something to be manipulated and limits Christianrevelation to merely an historical process devoid of its supernatural content. 152. Pope Benedict XVI describes theseroots in the following manner: “One essential root I think consists in a falseconcept of man's autonomy: man should develop on his own, without interferencefrom others, who could assist his self-development but should not enter intothis development. [...] I see the other root of the educational emergency inscepticism and relativism or, in simpler, clearer words, the exclusion of thetwo sources that orient the human journey. The first source would be natureaccording to Revelation.[...] It is fundamental to recover a true concept ofNature as the Creation of God that speaks to us; the Creator, through the bookof Creation speaks to us and shows us the true values. And thus findingRevelation: recognizing that the book of Creation, in which God gives us thefundamental orientation, is deciphered in Revelation.”
FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE
153. The same bond between faith and educationalso exists between faith and knowledge. The Lineamenta described thisrelationship by using Pope Benedict XVI’s expression of the “ecology of thehuman person”. While pointing out the consequences of a crisis which couldthreaten the fabric of society as a whole, Pope Benedict XVI described apossible way out of a similar danger by developing a human ecology, which,understood in its proper sense, is a way to understand the world and thedevelopment of science that takes into account all the needs of a person,including openness to the truth and the original relationship with God beforethe Fall.
154. The Christian faith assists intelligence tounderstand the profound balance governing the various aspects of existence andhistory. This work of faith is not done in a generic sense or from the outside,but by sharing with reason a thirst for both knowing and seeking and thendirects reason towards the good of humanity and the cosmos. The Christian faithprovides assistance in understanding the intense content of fundamental humanexperiences. Many responses referred to this age-old task of Catholicism — thatof critical appraisal and orientation — by listing institutions, researchcentres and universities, resulting from the intuition and charism of certainpeople and the concern for education in some particular Churches, which havemade this critical consciousness one of their main objectives.155. However,some responses voice concern that the public forum of research and thedevelopment of knowledge in various cultures is not easily entered. In fact,some note that Christian reason must make an effort to find those with whom toengage in conversation in the authoritative and decisive areas of worldresearch, especially in the areas of technology and economic development.Consequently, the Church should see this situation as a challenge and a focalarea for the new evangelization.
156. In continuity with the Church’s Traditionand in the wake of Blessed Pope John Paul II's Encyclical Letter Fides etratio, Pope Benedict XVI has often stressed the complementarity of faith andreason. Faith widens the horizons of reason and reason preserves faith from thedanger of drifting aimlessly or manipulating religion. Always attentive to theintellectual content of education exemplified in her many universities andinstitutes of higher learning, the Church is involved in campus ministry tofoster a dialogue with learned people in the various fields of knowledge.Christian people of learning are entrusted with the particular task of bearingwitness, in their activities and especially in their lives, to the fact thatreason and faith are the two wings with which a person approaches God, and thatChristian faith and the sciences, properly understood, can mutually enrich eachother for the good of humanity. The only limit to scientific progress is inpreserving the dignity of the human person created in God’s image, who mustalways be actively involved in scientific research and technology and never bea mere object of study.
157. Some responses refer to the subjects of artand beauty as places for the transmission of the faith and, therefore, are tobe addressed in this chapter dedicated to the relationship between faith andknowledge. Many possible reasons are given to support this request, especiallythose coming from the Eastern Catholic Churches who have a strong tradition inthis area. They have been able to maintain a very close relation between faithand beauty. In these traditions, the relation between faith and beauty is notsimply a matter of aesthetics, but is rather seen as a fundamental resource inbearing witness to the faith and developing a knowledge which is truly a“holistic” service to a person’s every human need.The knowledge coming frombeauty, as in the liturgy, is able to take on a visible reality in itsoriginally-intended role as a manifestation of the universal communion to whichhumanity and every person is called by God. Therefore, human knowledge needsagain to be wedded to divine knowledge, in other words, human knowledge is toadopt the same outlook which God the Father has towards creation and, throughthe Holy Spirit and the Son, to see God the Father in creation.
This fundamental role of beauty urgently needsto be restored in Christianity. In this regard, the new evangelization has animportant role to play. The Church recognizes that human beings cannot existwithout beauty. For Christians, beauty is found within the Paschal Mystery, inthe transparency of the reality of Christ.
THE BASIS FOR AN EVANGELIZING PASTORAL PROGRAMME
158. The Lineamenta concluded the chapterdevoted to analysing pastoral practice by adopting the basic insights of PaulVI, namely, if the Church is to evangelize, she needs to not only renew herprogrammes, but also increase the calibre of her testimony. The work ofevangelization is not so much an organized plan or strategy, as it is,fundamentally, a spiritual matter. “Modern man listens more willingly towitnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is becausethey are witnesses. [...] It is therefore primarily by her conduct and by herlife that the Church will evangelize the world, in other words, by her livingwitness of fidelity to the Lord Jesus, by her witness of poverty anddetachment, and by her witness of freedom in the face of the powers of thisworld, in short, the witness of sanctity.” Many particular Churches have recognizedthemselves in this passage and have understood the necessity of havingwitnesses who can evangelize primarily through their lives and example. Theyare certain that, in the final analysis, the key element in the work of the newevangelization is for every Christian to answer the call to holiness. Onlythose who have been evangelized themselves, and are being evangelized, canevangelize. In other words, only those who are capable of being spirituallyrenewed by encountering Jesus Christ and living a life of communion with him.Christian witness is an interaction of words and deeds and is the fundamentalelement in every act of evangelization, because it creates the relation betweenproclamation and freedom: “We become witnesses when, through our actions, wordsand way of being, Another makes himself present. Witness could be described asthe means by which the truth of God's love comes to men and women in history,inviting them to accept freely this radical newness. Through witness, God layshimself open, one might say, to the risk of human freedom.”
THE CENTRALITY OF VOCATIONS
159. The next synodal assembly is expected toclearly state the centrality of the question of a personal vocational callingin the Church today and the hope that the treatment of the topic of the newevangelization will lead to a greater consciousness among all the baptized oftheir missionary and evangelizing responsibility. If witnesses are to becredible in the various sectors of the new evangelization, they must know howto speak in terms which are understandable today and, in this way, proclaimwithin these sectors, the reasons for the hope which gives them life. Theentire process of preparation and the response to the synod’s work is expectedto re-motivate Christians and increase their enthusiasm and dedication in thework in which they are already engaged in proclaiming and transmitting thefaith. At the same time, it is to be a moment of support and encouragement forfamilies and the role they play. More specifically, the Synod Assembly shouldgive particular attention to the priestly ministry and the consecrated life inthe hope that one of the fruits of the Synod in the Church might be newvocations to the priesthood and a renewal of her commitment to a clear and decisiveprogramme on behalf of pastoral vocations. 160.In this regard, many responses indicated that one of the most obvious signs ofweakening in the Christian experience might be the decline in vocations, whichconcerns both the decreasing number of vocations of special consecration in theministerial priesthood and consecrated life and the abandonment by some oftheir vocations. The same is true in the widespread unfaithfulness of those whomake a particular commitment in life, for example, marriage. The responsesexpect the Synod to discuss this matter, which is closely related to the newevangelization, not so much to confirm that the crisis exists and not only tore-enforce pastoral programmes on behalf of vocations, which has already beendone, but rather, in a deeper sense, to foster a mentality in which life itselfis looked upon as a vocation.
161. The transmission of faith needs to considerhelping people conceive within themselves a vital relationship with the God whocalls them. In this regard, Pope Benedict XVI stated: “In stressing faith’sintrinsic summons to an ever deeper relationship with Christ, the word of Godin our midst, the Synod also emphasized that this word calls each one of uspersonally, revealing that life itself is a vocation from God. In other words,the more we grow in our personal relationship with the Lord Jesus, the more werealize that he is calling us to holiness in and through the definitive choicesby which we respond to his love in our lives, taking up tasks and ministrieswhich help to build up the Church. This is why the Synod frequently encouragedall Christians to grow in their relationship with the word of God, not onlybecause of their Baptism, but also in accordance with their call to variousstates in life.” One of the signs of the effectiveness of the newevangelization will be a rediscovery of life itself as a vocation and anincrease in the personal call to a radical following of Jesus Christ.
CONCLUSION
“You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit
has come upon you” (Acts 1:8)
162. With his coming among us, Jesus Christcommunicated to us the divine life which transforms the face of the earth,making all things new (cf. Rev 21:5). All of us are involved in his revelationnot simply as the recipients of salvation but also as his heralds andwitnesses. Through the outpouring of the Spirit of the Risen Christ our livescan be an effective means of spreading the Gospel throughout the world, therebyreliving the experience of the primitive Christian community, which saw thespread of the Word through preaching and testimony (cf. Acts 6:7). 163. Chronologically, the firstevangelization began on the day of Pentecost when the Apostles, who weregathered together in prayer with the Mother of Christ, received the Holy Spirit(cf. Acts 1:14, 2:1-3). Mary, who in the words of the Archangelis “full of grace” (Lk 1:28), is present during apostolic evangelization and atevery moment when the successors of the Apostles are moved to proclaim theGospel.
164. The new evangelization does not mean a “newGospel”, because “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today and forever”(Heb 13:8). The new evangelization means an adequate response to the signs ofthe times, to the needs of individuals and people of today and to the newsectors with their cultures through which we express our identity and themeaning of our lives. Consequently, the new evangelization means fostering aculture deeply grounded in the Gospel and discovering the “new man” (Eph 4:24),which is within us as a result of the Spirit who has been given us by JesusChrist and the Father. May the celebration of the next Ordinary GeneralAssembly of the Synod of Bishops be for the Church like a new Upper Room, wherethe successors of the Apostles, gathered in prayer with the Mother of Christ,who has been invoked as the “Star of the New Evangelization”, prepare the pathof the new evangelization.
165. We again take up the words of Pope JohnPaul II, who tirelessly worked for the new evangelization. The new evangelizationmeans to “rekindle in ourselves the impetus of the beginnings and allowourselves to be filled with the ardour of the apostolic preaching whichfollowed Pentecost. We must revive in ourselves the burning conviction of Paul,who cried out: ‘Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel’ (1 Cor 9:16) Thispassion will not fail to stir in the Church a new sense of mission, whichcannot be left to a group of ‘specialists’ but must involve the responsibilityof all the members of the People of God. Those who have come into genuinecontact with Christ cannot keep him for themselves, they must proclaim him. Anew apostolic outreach is needed, which will be lived as the everydaycommitment of Christian communities and groups.”
JESUS CHRIST, THE GOSPEL ENGENDERING HOPE166. Inthese times, people are yearning for a principle in life that inspires hope, ahope which will permit them to look to the future with eyes filled with faithand not the tears of despair. As a Church, we have this principle and source ofhope — Jesus Christ, who was crucified and is risen, living among us throughhis Spirit, who allows us to experience God. Nevertheless, we oftentimes seemto be unable to make this hope concrete, or “make it our own”, or make it alife-giving word for ourselves and the people we encounter today, or make itthe basis for life in the Church and our pastoral activity.
In this regard, we have a clear watchword forthe present and future of pastoral activity: the new evangelization, that is, anew proclamation of the message of Jesus which brings joy and liberation. Thiswatchword nourishes the hope for which we yearn, namely, the Church, born toevangelize, discovers in contemplation the deep source of energy forproclaiming the Gospel.
“We had courage in our God to declare to you theGospel of God in the face of great opposition” (1 Thess 2:2). The newevangelization compels us to witness to the faith which oftentimes is likeengaging in a battle or a conflict. The new evangelization increasinglystrengthens our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, since only he is thesurety for the future and the guarantor of a true and lasting love.
THE JOY OF EVANGELIZING
167. The new evangelization means giving the reason for ourfaith, communicating the Logos of hope to a world which seeks salvation. Peopleneed hope so they can really live the present moment. For this reason, theChurch is essentially missionary and offers a Revelation of the face of God inJesus Christ, who assumed a human face and loved us to the end. The words ofeternal life, which have been given to us in our encountering Jesus Christ, aredestined for everyone and each individual. Every person in our time, whether heis aware of it or not, needs to hear this proclamation.
168. The absence of this awareness is the causeof loneliness and despair. Among the obstacles to a new evangelization is thelack of joy and hope which these situations create and spread among peopletoday. Oftentimes, this lack of joy and hope is so strong as to wear thin thevery fabric of our Christian communities. The new evangelization is proposed inthese places as a remedy to bring joy and courage to life and become animperative invigorating our faith, as called for by Pope Benedict XVI: “Intenton gathering the signs of the times in the present of history, faith commitsevery one of us to become a living sign of the presence of the Risen Lord inthe world. What the world is in particular need of today is the crediblewitness of people enlightened in mind and heart by the word of the Lord, andcapable of opening the hearts and minds of many to the desire for God and fortrue life, life without end.”
169. Therefore, we approach the newevangelization with enthusiasm. We learn the delightful and comforting joy ofevangelizing, even when it seems the proclamation of the Gospel might be asowing in tears (cf. Ps. 126:6). May the world, which seeks answers to thegreat questions of the meaning of life and truth, experience, with renewedunexpectedness, the joy of meeting witnesses of the Gospel who, through thesimple and credible character of their lives, demonstrate the transformingpower of the Christian faith. In this regard, Pope Paul VI said: “May it[evangelization] be the great joy of our consecrated lives. And may the worldof our time, which is searching, sometimes with anguish, sometimes with hope,be enabled to receive the Good News not from evangelizers who are dejected,discouraged, impatient or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whose livesglow with fervour, who have first received the joy of Christ, and who arewilling to risk their lives so that the kingdom may be proclaimed and theChurch established in the midst of the world.” “Do not be afraid!”: these wordsof the Lord (cf. Mt 14:27) and the Angel (cf. Mt 28:5) sustain the faith ofthose who proclaim the faith and are their source of strength and enthusiasm.May their words also sustain and nurture everyone on their journey towards anencounter with God. May the words, “Do not be afraid!”, be the words of the newevangelization, by which the Church, inspired by the Holy Spirit, proclaims “tothe ends of the earth”(Acts 1:8) Jesus Christ, the Gospel of God, so that everyonemight have faith.
MAY DAY MESSAGE – 2012
Pastoral Care of the Migrants in India
Introduction
The History of the universe is a story of migration. From the time of creation all types of living beings, birds, animals and sea creatures, have been migrating from one place to another for various reasons, such as in search of food, in search of habitation and in search of better weather conditions. The migration of human beings is also as old as the creation itself. Open the book Genesis, you will find “And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod, to the east of Eden” (Gen 4: 16). Then we have the Patriarch Abraham moving from place to place. “The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your kinsfolk and your father’s house for the land which I will show you” (Gen 12:1). Abram went away as the Lord had commanded him, and Lot went with him (Gen 12:4). Now there was a famine in the land and Abram went down to Egypt where he lived as a stranger” (Gen 12:10) “Abram went up from Egypt to the Negeb, he and his wife and all that belonged to him and Lot with him (Gen 13:1). “Abram moved his tent and came to dwell by the terebinths of Mamre which are at Hebron” (Gen 13:18). Migration continues through Isaac, Jacob and Joseph and his brothers. The Book of Exodus narrates the migration story of Moses and Israelites from Egypt through wilderness to Mount Sinai and to the Promised Land.
The New Testament contains numerous references to traveling and journeys, such as those carried out by Mary and Joseph before the birth of Jesus, their flight to Egypt, return to Nazareth, journey to the Temple of Jerusalem; and the continuous traveling of Christ during his public life and the journeys of the Apostles. The evangelists present the life of Christ a continuous journey. He went through towns and villages proclaiming the Gospel and healing “every disease and sickness” (Mt 9:35).
Migration
Human Migration is one of the most indispensable social phenomena. Moving from place to place is characterized human behaviour since the beginning of history. Mobility and wandering are therefore expressions of human nature and of its cultural development. Therefore migration can be described as “people on the move.” Migration gives meanings of relocation, immigration, passage, exodus, movement, journey, voyage, trek and resettlement. In short it means movement of people from one place to another to lead a better life. Normally migration takes place through the movement of people from rural or least developed areas to the urban centers or relatively more developed areas, based on the criteria, such as nature, distance, time, age, sex, ethnicity, etc. Migration has been classified as national, international, rural-urban, short-distance, long-distance, seasonal and permanent.
Reasons for Migration in India
Migration of human beings could be voluntary, for personal reasons or involuntary, being forced due to certain external factors. Migration in India is largely on account of unemployment. People, young and old, move from villages to cities, from smaller town to bigger cities, and even from cities to cities, in search of jobs, shelter, better living conditions, for improved health facilities and for better education and job opportunities. Migration becomes compulsion for survival for those affected by civil war, political and communal conflicts; for victims of natural calamities such as floods, famine, earthquake; for those forcefully evacuated on account of developmental projects of the Governments. The number of displaced persons (IDP) was estimated to be 500,000 in 2009, according to World Bank Report published in 2010. Sometimes one is compelled to migrate in order to safeguard his/her human dignity and human rights. People of under developed areas, hills and mountains, faced with demographic pressure, leave their villages and settle down in advanced regions of the country. As the population increases there is a natural decrease in availability of food and space. So people are compelled to move out. Uneven distribution of resources as well as socio-economic situation of different States of India results in wide spread intra-State and inter-State migration
In India, as per the census 2001, there were 314.54 million migrants within the country. In some regions of India, three out of four were migrants. (Migration Report 2009). Migrants are not required to register themselves in India either at the place of origin or at the place of destination. As there is no registration of migrants in India, Census and National Sample Survey (NSS) are the two main sources of migration data in India. Census provides data on migrants based on place of birth (POB) and place of last residence (POLR). If the place of birth or place of last residence is different from the place of enumeration, a person is defined as a migrant. On the other hand, if the place of birth and place enumeration is the same, the person is a non-migrant. Migrants defined on the basis of POB or POLR are called the lifetime migrants because the time of their move is not known.
Positive aspects of Migration
The driving forces for human mobility are unavoidably marked by basic human behaviour and instincts including, the search to protect one’s life and lives of loved ones, the desire for a better future for oneself and the endeavor to improve prospects for future generations and for the community one belongs to. It contributes a great deal to the growth of economy of the country of origin as well as the country of destination and to the development of both countries. Moving away from home has allowed millions to get good education, find steady employment, support their families and enjoy greater economic opportunities than might have been available at home. For many millions of migrants, the migration process has given new life and greater success.
Challenges faced by the Migrants
The migrants in India face enormous challenges when they land up in an unknown city or town. As they do not find any shelter, they live under the open sky, in the open fields or near the railway tracks. Here they meet with hostility of the neighbors. They find it difficult to communicate as they do not know the language of the place. They find it hard to get a job and even daily wages. Seeing their helplessness, the contractors, employers, take advantage of the situation. Helpless migrants, especially young girls, are bought and sold by the locals, ill treated and abused. As the migrants do not have any identity in their own country, they are denied ration card, voter’s card, driving licenses, electricity, phone connections etc. The migrants in India are scattered and unorganized which means they do not have any permanent job, no bargaining power, no fixed salary, no future security, no medical benefits, no fixed working hours, no vacation, no weekly holiday. These people on the move easily become victims of human trafficking, sexual exploitation, get infected with T.B., STD, HIV/AIDS and many other diseases. The human dignity and human rights are denied to them. Hence often they become antisocial, and get involved in criminal actions.
The children of the migrants are the worse sufferers. Often they are separated from the parents. If they are with their parents they meet with hostility wherever they go. They do not get proper education, they remain illiterate, they do not get health facilities, and they are mal nourished and live in squalor.
The massive migration causes over population in Indian cities resulting in numerous social, economic problems, administrative difficulties, shortage of food and health facilities, traffic congestion and many other related issues.
Legal Protection
In order to protect the rights and safeguard the interests of migrant workers, the inter state Migrant Workmen Act 1979 was enacted. The Act is intended to regulate the employment of inter-state migrant workmen and to provide their conditions of service. It applies to every establishments and the contractor, who employ five or more inter-state migrant workers. The Act has provision for issue of Pass –Book to every inter-state migrant worker with full details, payment of displacement allowance equivalent to 50% of monthly wage or Rs.75 whichever is higher, payment of journey allowance including payment of wage during the period of journey, suitable residential accommodation, medical facilities and protective clothing, payment of wages, equal pay for equal work irrespective of sex etc. The main responsibility for enforcement of the provision of the Act lies with the Central and State Government/Union Territories in the establishment falling in the Central and State Sphere respectively. But, the worrying factor is about its implementation? Unfortunately the genuine concern for the problems of workers on the part of government officials who are entrusted with the responsibility of safeguarding the rights of workers especially migrant workers is lacking. The disadvantage of this Act is that, it only deals with migrant workers not concerned about their family as such.
Suggestions
Our concerns for migrant workers are to make provision for the rights of workers in the work place which includes improvement in wage, decent working conditions, ensure the social security and welfare measures in respective of worker’s family also. It is important to adopt the way of improvement in collective strength and collective bargaining power including the organizational skills, make secure permanency of decent job and income the methods to check out of the exploitation and harassment etc.
The problem of migration ought to be checked through a multi dimensional course of action through rural development, provision of improved infrastructure facilities, equitable dispersal of resources to remove regional disparities, employment generation, land reforms, increased literacy, financial assistance, social security schemes, effective law enforcement and proper documentation of citizens , e.g. ‘Aadhar’ card.
Initiatives of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI)
In order to strengthen the involvement and activities of the Church in the Labour Movements and Labour Welfare activities a federation is established under the aegis of CBCI Labour Commission. Workers India Federation, (WIF) after due deliberation, has visualized a major initiative for the welfare of unorganized migrant workers in the urban and semi urban areas. We have been actively involved in assisting unorganized migrants through different programs organized for them at different levels such as,
• Mapping and keeping touch with unorganized migrant workers by forming SHGs, Unions and Forums of workers.
• Facilitating workers social security by registering them into social security schemes named ‘MSY’ for pension(Swavalamban) , medical (Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna )and education scholarship for their children .
• Providing facilities for registration of migrants through parishes and church institution networks, one can also register by logging intowww.cbcilabour.info.
• Legal assistance at the time of crisis and facilitate the returnees to sustain their life with proper reintegration into society.
While we endeavor to curb unhealthy migration by providing awareness about the local employment opportunities to the rural poor (eg. through National Rural Employment Guarantee Act - NREGA programme), there is a need to continue to cater to the needs of the vulnerable sections of the migrant groups in the cities, work sites and slums. This prompted us to start Workers’ Facilitation Centers (WFC) in these areas in order to help those migrants who require financial, healthcare, children’s education and legal assistance. Of late at the 30th CBCI General body meeting, Bangalore 2012, the Catholic Church in India has recommitted herself to work for the liberation of the weaker sections like tribals, women and dalits, in particular, She wants to reach out more to unorganized groups like fish workers , farmers, migrants, domestic workers, victims of trafficking (Para 8.6)
Conclusion
The Church needs to take pastoral care of long distant truck/lorry/ bus/rail drivers. Each year, an increasing number of women and children fall victims to trafficking for the purpose of sexual or other exploitation. The problem of street children is global and is escalating. It is aggravated by many causes such as poverty, family disintegration, abuse, abandonment, neglect and social unrest. Students, who go to developed countries/Indian states to pursue their studies with great enthusiasm, often find themselves in precarious conditions. Away from home, they find it difficult to narrate their hardships to the strangers. In all these circumstances the Church needs to come out with great dedication and commitment to provide pastoral care.
The Holy Father Benedict XVI, in his Message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees in 2009, wrote that the mission of the Church and of every baptized person today, is to make Jesus known to every person. It is “a mission that, with attentive pastoral solicitude, is also directed to the variegated universe of migrants – students far from home, immigrants, refugees, displaced people, evacuees – including for example, the victims of modern forms of slavery and human trafficking.”
The Constitution of Vatican II Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes) says, “There is a growing awareness of the exalted dignity proper to the human person, since he stands above all things, and his rights and duties are universal and inviolable. Therefore, there must be made available to all men everything necessary for leading a life truly human, such as food, clothing and shelter; the right to choose a state of life freely and to found a family, the right to education, to employment, to a good reputation, to respect, to appropriate information, to protection of privacy, and rightful freedom, even in matters of religion” (G.S. 26).
Keeping these exhortations of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI and of the Vatican Council II, we must take note of the presence of Jesus, based on the well known Biblical passage of the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus: “Jesus came up and walked by their side” (Lk 24:15). The pastoral care of the migrants is indeed “a walk together.”
Bishop-in-Charge Members
Most Rev. Oswald Lewis Most Rev. Jose Porunnedom
Most Rev. M. Devadas Ambrose
Education Message published by Fr. Jose Vattakuzhy, Secretary and WIF director,
CBCI Office for Labour, CBCI Centre Ashok Place, New Delhi 110001
Tel (O) : +91: 011-23362907, Websites : www.cbcilabour.info, www.jobtech.in,
E-mails : cbcilabour2000@yahoo.co.in,cbcilabour@gmail.com
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*Workers India Federation (WIF)-An organization for coordination of CBCI Labour Commission’s Labour Movements and Unions. * Workers’ Facilitation Centers (WFC).-Workers’ Animation Centers * Mazdoor Sureksha Yojana (MSY)- Social Security Programs * www.jobtech ,in-Oline Employment Exchange
Healing Ministry Week 2012: February 6-12
Theme: Transforming lives!
Theme: The special grace of the Sacraments of healing
“Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well” (Lk 17:19)
* Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI for the 20th World Day of the Sick
* Bible Text, Reflections and Prayers for Healing Ministry Week, 2012
Introduction
We continue the tradition of celebrating the Healing Ministry week ecumenically. The Christian Medical Association of India (CMAI), National Council of Churches of India (NCCI) and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) have selected this year’s Healing Week Theme: “Transforming Lives!”
Healing includes transformation/restoration of our relationship with God and with others. Through health care, we seek to improve people’s health; help them discover God in the midst of suffering and hopelessness; transform their lives and the realities they face. The theme for 2012 Transforming Lives, help focus our attention on, and align our work to, this important aspect. These Bible studies enhance our understanding of what transformation means and how we can be instruments of transformation, how transformation can be simple yet profound.
This booklet is meant for the Catholic Network.
How to Celebrate the Healing Ministry Week?
i. In Healthcare Institutions
Arrangements could be made for everyone in the hospital to join the prayers, but with due discretion and full respect for those sick people of other faiths and those with no religious persuasion. Inform the patient’s relatives of the gathering. Printed materials, with inspirational texts and prayers could be distributed. One or more of the patients, if willing and able to do so, may remain alongside the celebrant during readings and prayer; and a few symbolic gestures may also be planned.
Organize awareness programs and meaningful celebrations for the staff engaged in healthcare.
ii. Community/Parish level
In collaboration with committed volunteers, organize events such as: Paraliturgical Celebrations, Community celebration of the Blessings and Anointing of the Sick, ecumenical bible service, inter-religious prayer service for the sick, health awareness seminar, medical camps, cultural events, charitable events, etc
Your Response
We will be interested to know how you celebrated the Health and Healing Week and the World Day of the Sick. Please write to us. We welcome your suggestions to continue to have meaningful programs in the future.
CBCI Office for Health Care
CBCI Centre , 1, Ashok Place, Gole Dakkhana, New Delhi-110 001
Tel. 011-23340772 / 23340774, Email: info@cbcihealth.org
Acknowledgements
•Dr Vijay Aruldas, Rev. Job Jayaraj and all others of CMAI team, who contributed to this venture
•Ms. Celestine Mendonca, Ms. Rose Mary, of CBCI and Mr. George K. Paul, design consultant
•Members of Catholic Health Care network, especially CHAI, SDFI, CNGI, and CBCI-CARD
We gratefully acknowledge them for their valuable contributions.
Fr Dr Mathew Abraham C.Ss.R
Secretary, Office for Health Care
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India
FOR THE 2012 WORLD DAY OF THE SICK
20th World Day of the Sick: February 11, 2012
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Theme: The special grace of the Sacraments of healing
“Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well” (Lk 17:19)
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
On the occasion of the World Day of the Sick, which we will celebrate on 11 February 2012, the Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, I wish to renew my spiritual closeness to all sick people who are in places of care or are looked after in their families, expressing to each one of them the solicitude and the affection of the whole Church. In the generous and loving welcoming of every human life, above all of weak and sick life, a Christian expresses an important aspect of his or her Gospel witness, following the example of Christ, who bent down before the material and spiritual sufferings of man in order to heal them.
1. This year, which involves the immediate preparations for the Solemn World Day of the Sick that will be celebrated in Germany on 11 February 2013 and will focus on the emblematic Gospel figure of the Good Samaritan (cf. Lk 10:29-37), I would like to place emphasis upon the “sacraments of healing”, that is to say upon the sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation and that of the Anointing of the Sick, which have their natural completion in Eucharistic Communion.
The encounter of Jesus with the ten lepers, narrated by the Gospel of Saint Luke (cf. Lk 17:11-19), and in particular the words that the Lord addresses to one of them, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you” (v. 19), help us to become aware of the importance of faith for those who, burdened by suffering and illness, draw near to the Lord. In their encounter with him they can truly experience that he who believes is never alone! God, indeed, in his Son, does not abandon us to our anguish and sufferings, but is close to us, helps us to bear them, and wishes to heal us in the depths of our hearts (cf. Mk 2:1-12).
The faith of the lone leper who, on seeing that he was healed, full of amazement and joy, and unlike the others, immediately went back to Jesus to express his gratitude, enables us to perceive that reacquired health is a sign of something more precious than mere physical healing, it is a sign of the salvation that God gives us through Christ; it finds expression in the words of Jesus: your faith has saved you. He who in suffering and illness prays to the Lord is certain that God’s love will never abandon him, and also that the love of the Church, the extension in time of the Lord’s saving work, will never fail. Physical healing, an outward expression of the deepest salvation, thus reveals the importance that man – in his entirety of soul and body – has for the Lord. Each sacrament, for that matter, expresses and actuates the closeness of God himself, who, in an absolutely freely-given way, “touches us through material things … that he takes up into his service, making them instruments of the encounter between us and himself” (Homily, Chrism Mass, 1 April 2010). “The unity between creation and redemption is made visible. The sacraments are an expression of the physicality of our faith, which embraces the whole person, body and soul” (Homily, Chrism Mass, 21 April 2011).
The principal task of the Church is certainly proclaiming the Kingdom of God, “But this very proclamation must be a process of healing: ‘bind up the broken-hearted’ (Is 61:1)” (ibid.), according to the charge entrusted by Jesus to his disciples (cf. Lk 9:1-2; Mt 10:1,5-14; Mk 6:7-13). The tandem of physical health and renewal after lacerations of the soul thus helps us to understand better the “sacraments of healing”.
2. The sacrament of Penance has often been at the centre of the reflection of the Church’s Pastors, specifically because of its great importance in the journey of Christian life, given that “The whole power of the sacrament of Penance consists in restoring us to God’s grace, and joining with him in an intimate friendship” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1468). The Church, in continuing to proclaim Jesus’ message of forgiveness and reconciliation, never ceases to invite the whole of humanity to convert and to believe in the Gospel. She makes her own the call of the Apostle Paul: “So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor 5:20). Jesus, during his life, proclaimed and made present the mercy of the Father. He came not to condemn but to forgive and to save, to give hope in the deepest darkness of suffering and sin, and to give eternal life; thus in the sacrament of Penance, in the “medicine of confession”, the experience of sin does not degenerate into despair but encounters the Love that forgives and transforms (cf. John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, 31).
God, “rich in mercy” (Eph 2:4), like the father in the Gospel parable (cf. Lk 15:11-32), does not close his heart to any of his children, but waits for them, looks for them, reaches them where their rejection of communion imprisons them in isolation and division, and calls them to gather around his table, in the joy of the feast of forgiveness and reconciliation. A time of suffering, in which one could be tempted to abandon oneself to discouragement and hopelessness, can thus be transformed into a time of grace so as to return to oneself, and like the prodigal son of the parable, to think anew about one’s life, recognizing its errors and failures, longing for the embrace of the Father, and following the pathway to his home. He, in his great love, always and everywhere watches over our lives and awaits us so as to offer to every child that returns to him the gift of full reconciliation and joy.
3. From a reading of the Gospels it emerges clearly that Jesus always showed special concern for sick people. He not only sent out his disciples to tend their wounds (cf. Mt 10:8; Lk 9:2; 10:9) but also instituted for them a specific sacrament: the Anointing of the Sick. The Letter of James attests to the presence of this sacramental act already in the first Christian community (cf. 5:14-16): by the Anointing of the Sick, accompanied by the prayer of the elders, the whole of the Church commends the sick to the suffering and glorified Lord so that he may alleviate their sufferings and save them; indeed she exhorts them to unite themselves spiritually to the passion and death of Christ so as to contribute thereby to the good of the People of God.
This sacrament leads us to contemplate the double mystery of the Mount of Olives, where Jesus found himself dramatically confronted by the path indicated to him by the Father, that of his Passion, the supreme act of love; and he accepted it. In that hour of tribulation, he is the mediator, “bearing in himself, taking upon himself the sufferings and passion of the world, transforming it into a cry to God, bringing it before the eyes and into the hands of God and thus truly bringing it to the moment of redemption” (Lectio Divina, Meeting with the Parish Priests of Rome, 18 February 2010). But “the Garden of Olives is also the place from which he ascended to the Father, and is therefore the place of redemption … This double mystery of the Mount of Olives is also always ‘at work’ within the Church’s sacramental oil … the sign of God’s goodness reaching out to touch us” (Homily, Chrism Mass, 1 April 2010). In the Anointing of the Sick, the sacramental matter of the oil is offered to us, so to speak, “as God’s medicine … which now assures us of his goodness, offering us strength and consolation, yet at the same time points beyond the moment of the illness towards the definitive healing, the resurrection (cf. Jas 5:14)” (ibid.).
This sacrament deserves greater consideration today both in theological reflection and in pastoral ministry among the sick. Through a proper appreciation of the content of the liturgical prayers that are adapted to the various human situations connected with illness, and not only when a person is at the end of his or her life (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1514), the Anointing of the Sick should not be held to be almost “a minor sacrament” when compared to the others. Attention to and pastoral care for sick people, while, on the one hand, a sign of God’s tenderness towards those who are suffering, on the other brings spiritual advantage to priests and the whole Christian community as well, in the awareness that what is done to the least, is done to Jesus himself (cf. Mt 25:40).
4. As regards the “sacraments of healing”, Saint Augustine affirms: “God heals all your infirmities. Do not be afraid, therefore, all your infirmities will be healed … You must only allow him to cure you and you must not reject his hands” (Exposition on Psalm 102, 5; PL 36, 1319-1320). These are precious instruments of God’s grace which help a sick person to conform himself or herself ever more fully to the mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ. Together with these two sacraments, I would also like to emphasize the importance of the Eucharist. Received at a time of illness, it contributes in a singular way to working this transformation, associating the person who partakes of the Body and Blood of Christ to the offering that he made of himself to the Father for the salvation of all. The whole ecclesial community, and parish communities in particular, should pay attention to guaranteeing the possibility of frequently receiving Holy Communion, to those people who, for reasons of health or age, cannot go to a place of worship. In this way, these brothers and sisters are offered the possibility of strengthening their relationship with Christ, crucified and risen, participating, through their lives offered up for love of Christ, in the very mission of the Church. From this point of view, it is important that priests who offer their discreet work in hospitals, in nursing homes and in the homes of sick people, feel they are truly “’ministers of the sick’, signs and instruments of Christ's compassion who must reach out to every person marked by suffering” (Message for the XVIII World Day of the Sick, 22 November 2009).
Becoming conformed to the Paschal Mystery of Christ, which can also be achieved through the practice of spiritual Communion, takes on a very particular meaning when the Eucharist is administered and received as Viaticum. At that stage in life, these words of the Lord are even more telling: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day” (Jn 6:54). The Eucharist, especially as Viaticum, is – according to the definition of Saint Ignatius of Antioch – “medicine of immortality, the antidote for death” (Letter to the Ephesians, 20: PG 5, 661); the sacrament of the passage from death to life, from this world to the Father, who awaits everyone in the celestial Jerusalem.
5. The theme of this Message for the Twentieth World Day of the Sick, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you”, also looks forward to the forthcoming Year of Faith which will begin on 11 October 2012, a propitious and valuable occasion to rediscover the strength and beauty of faith, to examine its contents, and to bear witness to it in daily life (cf. Apostolic Letter Porta Fidei, 11 October 2011). I wish to encourage sick people and the suffering always to find a safe anchor in faith, nourished by listening to the Word of God, by personal prayer and by the sacraments, while I invite pastors to be increasingly ready to celebrate them for the sick. Following the example of the Good Shepherd and as guides of the flocks entrusted to them, priests should be full of joy, attentive to the weakest, the simple and sinners, expressing the infinite mercy of God with reassuring words of hope (cf. Saint Augustine, Letter 95, 1: PL 33, 351-352).
To all those who work in the field of health, and to the families who see in their relatives the suffering face of the Lord Jesus, I renew my thanks and that of the Church, because, in their professional expertise and in silence, often without even mentioning the name of Christ, they manifest him in a concrete way (cf. Homily, Chrism Mass, 21 April 2011).
To Mary, Mother of Mercy and Health of the Sick, we raise our trusting gaze and our prayer; may her maternal compassion, manifested as she stood beside her dying Son on the Cross, accompany and sustain the faith and the hope of every sick and suffering person on the journey of healing for the wounds of body and spirit!
I assure you all of a remembrance in my prayers, and I bestow upon each one of you a special Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, 20 November 2011, Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King.
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
© Copyright 2011 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/sick/index_en.htm
BIBLE TEXT, REFLECTIONS AND PRAYERS
For Healing Ministry Week, 2012
Day 1: WHAT IS TRANSFORMATION?
Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Reading: Romans 12:2
Reflection:
Change, though a part of transformation is not truly transformation. Human tendency is to conform, i.e., to resist transformation. Real transformation is the transformation of the inner-self or the mind of a person. The mind is the seat of all feelings, thinking and character. A renewed or transformed mind will even get manifested in the body. For those who believe, the will of God is the parameter of transformation and good human relationships are its outcome. Transformation can be considered as the outcome of true worship, i.e., offering a living sacrifice, which is holy and acceptable to God. A person becomes holy when he or she is set apart for God. Once the real worship takes place, real transformation will happen as a result of it.
Question for discussion:
1.What are the factors that hinder me from a genuine transformation?
Prayer:
God, lead me toward transformation and not mere changes, in my day-today life. Amen.
Day 2: TRANSFORMING TODAY’S VALUES IN HEALTH CARE
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Reading: Matthew 25:31-46
Reflection:
God created us in His own image and likeness. God is love. ‘Caring’ is one of the expressions of love. Health care is a good opportunity to care for others. With growing materialism, money is considered as the highest value, even more valuable than human beings. The attraction of monetary rewards and personal profit seem to be capturing many who are into health care. A patient often becomes a case, whose suffering provides us with job opportunities and monetary benefits. The all pervasive ‘cut system’ for laboratory tests and imaging is making ethical standards drop to an all-time low.
How can this trend be changed? It will be possible if we go back to the original purpose of this noble profession by following God and His commands. When we reflect on Jesus’ healing ministry and his commitment to people, we get a glimpse of the truth about how health care should be. As disciples of Jesus, we must set high ethical standards in the practice of health care, introduce a culture of love and care in every aspect of the healing ministry and thus stand out as a ‘prophetic sign’ in the midst of health care being taken over by profit making industries.
Questions for discussion:
1.What are the ills in the health care industry?
2.How can we remain as a prophetic sign in the midst of the above mentioned tendency?
Prayer:
God of compassion and love, help us to express the need to show your compassion and love to others, both in our words and works. Amen.
Day 3: MISSION HOSPITALS AS CHANNELS OF TRANSFORMATION
I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit
Reading: John 15:5-8; 1:1, 2, 14
Reflection:
The Gospels are full of stories of people whose lives were radically transformed by coming in contact with Jesus. Jesus transforms lives even today. Mission hospitals are called to be expressions of the Word who became Flesh – visible, palpable signs of the Kingdom of God. People come to us in pain and brokenness, suffering and fearful. God calls us to assist Him in sharing their pain; reduce their suffering wherever possible; and to help them return home as healthier and better people. For example, a child with Malaria leaves the fever and pain behind and goes back to school. This is the Gospel in action.
All hospitals do medical work. But for mission hospitals, it is not just a scientific interaction or a commercial exercise. We are called to be God’s hands, His feet, His love, so that people coming to us for care may experience His love through us and get transformed. This is our worship, our vocation, our calling. However, it is Jesus who transforms, not us. For this to happen, our mission hospitals need to be plugged into Him, like the branches of a vine. The Word must become Flesh and dwell in our hospitals, if people are to behold His glory. Then our mission hospitals will truly become channels of transformation in the lives of people – both within our staff and students and in the community around us.
Question for discussion:
1.Gandhiji said, “You have to become the change you want to see.” What can this mean for us, our churches and institutions?
Prayer: O Lord, we pray that we may allow you to transform us, so that our churches, schools and hospitals may truly be channels of your love and transformation in our country. Amen.
Day 4: TRANSFORMING SOCIAL BARRIERS TO HEALTH CARE
Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.
Reading: Mark 2:1-12
Reflection:
The paralyzed man represents people who are suffering and who are forced to live a dependent existence due to physical, mental or social disabilities. The barriers faced by the paralyzed man and his helpers are not very different from the barriers people, especially the poor, face in today’s society. These can be barriers of Availability, Accessibility and Affordability. The response of the four friends of the paralyzed man provides a model for overcoming social barriers. They show concern for their friend who was unable to help himself. They connect their knowledge about the healing power of Jesus being available in their midst to the need of their friend. They take a personal initiative to carry their friend to where healing could occur. Faced with the obstacle of the big crowd, they think creatively, taking personal risk.
Jesus saw their faith. The faith of the paralytic man is not mentioned. Our faith in God and efforts to bring the suffering to the source of healing could bring holistic deliverance from physical debility and could also bring transformation. The four friends are the image of a transformed community who demonstrate love, care, compassion and initiative in responding to the needs of the sick person in their midst. This is the calling that Christ gave his Church. When Christ’s followers become true neighbours to people in need and engage in service through loving relationships in the community, then the Church can contribute greatly in overcoming social barriers to health care.
Questions for discussion:
1.What are the social barriers that people, especially the poor, around you face in accessing health care?
2.What can you, individually and collectively do for people in overcoming those barriers?
3.How do you react to an unconventional / daring suggestion in solving a problem?
Prayer:
Lord we confess that we have been largely apathetic to the needs of others and blocked the way of those in desperate need of your healing power and forgiveness. Forgive us and help us be like the four friends of the paralyzed man. Help us make our church a daring community ready to take risks for helping people in need.
Day 5: TRANSFORMATION AND EMPOWERMENT
“Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam”. So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
Reading: John 9:7
Reflection: Aman was once an alcoholic and lost his job on that count. He was also an excellent sportsman. Shortly after he lost his job, and as he was contemplating suicide, he ran into a bunch of teenagers loitering on the streets, directionless and purposeless. Teetering on the edge of suicide, he wondered if the boys would respond to a sports initiative that he could start. Using an empty playground as a base, he began an experiment of engaging the boys in fruitful games and sports that transformed him and has since then changed and empowered the lives of countless teenagers.
Only transformed people can transform and empower others. When the blind man who lived a passively dependant existence on the alms and sufferance of others, was healed by Jesus, he not only gained his sight, but also gained insight. He is transformed and empowered. A man who spent his life on the sidewalks of life gets a new identity and debates with the powerful people of the society. He declares that Jesus is a prophet and still later worships Him as God. Thus transformation is also empowerment.
Question for discussion:
1.How do we become agents of transformation and empowerment, especially in our work place?
Prayer:
Transformation is an act of Grace. Open our eyes Lord, to see grace at work in our midst.
Day 6: TRANSFORMING OURSELVES FOR HEALING MINISTRY
Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”
Reading: Luke 8:43-48
Reflection:
Jesus, by making public the woman’s healing, helps to remove the social stigma associated with her condition. Jesus’ public acknowledgement of the woman’s faith would have empowered her to overcome all past and future insults about her condition. As ambassadors of the healing mission of Jesus, we can do much more than give medicines and cure. We can also empower people, by the simple act of treating them with dignity and respect. However, to be able to follow Jesus’ example, we must ourselves be transformed in the ways that we think, act and treat each other; in the ways we try to understand, address and remove the social barriers that people experience.
Questions for discussion:
1.What steps can I take to begin this inner transformation?
2.What is the first thing that I will do differently, as a symbol of this transformation?
Prayer:
Dear Lord, help us be conscious of where we are lacking, so that we can seek to be transformed. Help us not to be hesitant when we are called to be different.
Published by
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Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India
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Silence and Word: Path of Evangelization
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
As we draw near to World Communications Day 2012, I would like to share with you some reflections concerning an aspect of the human process of communication which, despite its importance, is often overlooked and which, at the present time, it would seem especially necessary to recall. It concerns the relationship between silence and word: two aspects of communication which need to be kept in balance, to alternate and to be integrated with one another if authentic dialogue and deep closeness between people are to be achieved. When word and silence become mutually exclusive, communication breaks down, either because it gives rise to confusion or because, on the contrary, it creates an atmosphere of coldness; when they complement one another, however, communication acquires value and meaning.
Silence is an integral element of communication; in its absence, words rich in content cannot exist. In silence, we are better able to listen to and understand ourselves; ideas come to birth and acquire depth; we understand with greater clarity what it is we want to say and what we expect from others; and we choose how to express ourselves. By remaining silent we allow the other person to speak, to express him or herself; and we avoid being tied simply to our own words and ideas without them being adequately tested. In this way, space is created for mutual listening, and deeper human relationships become possible. It is often in silence, for example, that we observe the most authentic communication taking place between people who are in love: gestures, facial expressions and body language are signs by which they reveal themselves to each other. Joy, anxiety, and suffering can all be communicated in silence – indeed it provides them with a particularly powerful mode of expression. Silence, then, gives rise to even more active communication, requiring sensitivity and a capacity to listen that often makes manifest the true measure and nature of the relationships involved. When messages and information are plentiful, silence becomes essential if we are to distinguish what is important from what is insignificant or secondary. Deeper reflection helps us to discover the links between events that at first sight seem unconnected, to make evaluations, to analyze messages; this makes it possible to share thoughtful and relevant opinions, giving rise to an authentic body of shared knowledge. For this to happen, it is necessary to develop an appropriate environment, a kind of ‘eco-system’ that maintains a just equilibrium between silence, words, images and sounds.
The process of communication nowadays is largely fuelled by questions in search of answers. Search engines and social networks have become the starting point of communication for many people who are seeking advice, ideas, information and answers. In our time, the internet is becoming ever more a forum for questions and answers – indeed, people today are frequently bombarded with answers to questions they have never asked and to needs of which they were unaware. If we are to recognize and focus upon the truly important questions, then silence is a precious commodity that enables us to exercise proper discernment in the face of the surcharge of stimuli and data that we receive. Amid the complexity and diversity of the world of communications, however, many people find themselves confronted with the ultimate questions of human existence: Who am I? What can I know? What ought I to do? What may I hope? It is important to affirm those who ask these questions, and to open up the possibility of a profound dialogue, by means of words and interchange, but also through the call to silent reflection, something that is often more eloquent than a hasty answer and permits seekers to reach into the depths of their being and open themselves to the path towards knowledge that God has inscribed in human hearts.
Ultimately, this constant flow of questions demonstrates the restlessness of human beings, ceaselessly searching for truths, of greater or lesser import, that can offer meaning and hope to their lives. Men and women cannot rest content with a superficial and unquestioning exchange of skeptical opinions and experiences of life – all of us are in search of truth and we share this profound yearning today more than ever: "When people exchange information, they are already sharing themselves, their view of the world, their hopes, their ideals" (*Message for the 2011 World Day of Communications*).
Attention should be paid to the various types of websites, applications and social networks which can help people today to find time for reflection and authentic questioning, as well as making space for silence and occasions for prayer, meditation or sharing of the word of God. In concise phrases, often no longer than a verse from the Bible, profound thoughts can be communicated, as long as those taking part in the conversation do not neglect to cultivate their own inner lives. It is hardly surprising that different religious traditions consider solitude and silence as privileged states which help people to rediscover themselves and that Truth which gives meaning to all things. The God of biblical revelation speaks also without words: "As the Cross of Christ demonstrates, God also speaks by his silence. The silence of God, the experience of the distance of the almighty Father, is a decisive stage in the earthly journey of the Son of God, the incarnate Word …. God’s silence prolongs his earlier words. In these moments of darkness, he speaks through the mystery of his silence" (*Verbum Domini, *21). The eloquence of God’s love, lived to the point of the supreme gift, speaks in the silence of the Cross. After Christ’s death there is a great silence over the earth, and on Holy Saturday, when "the King sleeps and God slept in the flesh and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages" (cf. *Office of Readings, Holy Saturday*), God’s voice resounds, filled with love for humanity.
If God speaks to us even in silence, we in turn discover in silence the possibility of speaking with God and about God. "We need that silence which becomes contemplation, which introduces us into God’s silence and brings us to the point where the Word, the redeeming Word, is born" *(Homily, *Eucharistic Celebration with Members of the International Theological Commission, 6 October 2006). In speaking of God’s grandeur, our language will always prove inadequate and must make space for silent contemplation. Out of such contemplation springs forth, with all its inner power, the urgent sense of mission, the compelling obligation "to communicate that which we have seen and heard" so that all may be in communion with God (*1 Jn* 1:3). Silent contemplation immerses us in the source of that Love who directs us towards our neighbours so that we may feel their suffering and offer them the light of Christ, his message of life and his saving gift of the fullness of love.
In silent contemplation, then, the eternal Word, through whom the world was created, becomes ever more powerfully present and we become aware of the plan of salvation that God is accomplishing throughout our history by word and deed. As the Second Vatican Council reminds us, divine revelation is fulfilled by "deeds and words having an inner unity: the deeds wrought by God in the history of salvation manifest and confirm the teaching and realities signified by the words, while the words proclaim the deeds and clarify the mystery contained in them" (*Dei Verbum, *2). This plan of salvation culminates in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the mediator and the fullness of all revelation. He has made known to us the true face of God the Father and by his Cross and Resurrection has brought us from the slavery of sin and death to the freedom of the children of God. The fundamental question of the meaning of human existence finds in the mystery of Christ an answer capable of bringing peace to the restless human heart. The Church’s mission springs from this mystery; and it is this mystery which impels Christians to become heralds of hope and salvation, witnesses of that love which promotes human dignity and builds justice and peace.
Word and silence: learning to communicate is learning to listen and contemplate as well as speak. This is especially important for those engaged in the task of evangelization: both silence and word are essential elements, integral to the Church’s work of communication for the sake of a renewed proclamation of Christ in today’s world. To Mary, whose silence "listens to the Word and causes it to blossom" (*Private Prayer at the Holy House*, Loreto, 1 September 2007), I entrust all the work of evangelization which the Church undertakes through the means of social communication.
From the Vatican, 24 January 2012, Feast of Saint Francis de Sales
BENEDICTUS PP XVI
“Stand up and go; your faith has saved you”
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
On the occasion of the World Day of the Sick, which we will celebrate on 11 February 2012, the Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, I wish to renew my spiritual closeness to all sick people who are in places of care or are looked after in their families, expressing to each one of them the solicitude and the affection of the whole Church. In the generous and loving welcoming of every human life, above all of weak and sick life, a Christian expresses an important aspect of his or her Gospel witness, following the example of Christ, who bent down before the material and spiritual sufferings of man in order to heal them.
1. This year, which involves the immediate preparations for the Solemn World Day of the Sick that will be celebrated in Germany on 11 February 2013 and will focus on the emblematic Gospel figure of the Good Samaritan (cf. Lk 10:29-37), I would like to place emphasis upon the “sacraments of healing”, that is to say upon the sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation and that of the Anointing of the Sick, which have their natural completion in Eucharistic Communion.
The encounter of Jesus with the ten lepers, narrated by the Gospel of Saint Luke (cf. Lk 17:11-19), and in particular the words that the Lord addresses to one of them, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you” (v. 19), help us to become aware of the importance of faith for those who, burdened by suffering and illness, draw near to the Lord. In their encounter with him they can truly experience that he who believes is never alone! God, indeed, in his Son, does not abandon us to our anguish and sufferings, but is close to us, helps us to bear them, and wishes to heal us in the depths of our hearts (cf. Mk 2:1-12).
The faith of the lone leper who, on seeing that he was healed, full of amazement and joy, and unlike the others, immediately went back to Jesus to express his gratitude, enables us to perceive that reacquired health is a sign of something more precious than mere physical healing, it is a sign of the salvation that God gives us through Christ; it finds expression in the words of Jesus: your faith has saved you. He who in suffering and illness prays to the Lord is certain that God’s love will never abandon him, and also that the love of the Church, the extension in time of the Lord’s saving work, will never fail.
Physical healing, an outward expression of the deepest salvation, thus reveals the importance that man – in his entirety of soul and body – has for the Lord. Each sacrament, for that matter, expresses and actuates the closeness of God himself, who, in an absolutely freely-given way, “touches us through material things … that he takes up into his service, making them instruments of the encounter between us and himself” (Homily, Chrism Mass, 1 April 2010). “The unity between creation and redemption is made visible. The sacraments are an expression of the physicality of our faith, which embraces the whole person, body and soul” (Homily, Chrism Mass, 21 April 2011).
The principal task of the Church is certainly proclaiming the Kingdom of God, “But this very proclamation must be a process of healing: ‘bind up the broken-hearted’ (Is 61:1)” (ibid.), according to the charge entrusted by Jesus to his disciples (cf. Lk 9:1-2; Mt 10:1,5-14; Mk 6:7-13). The tandem of physical health and renewal after lacerations of the soul thus helps us to understand better the “sacraments of healing”.
2. The sacrament of Penance has often been at the centre of the reflection of the Church’s Pastors, specifically because of its great importance in the journey of Christian life, given that “The whole power of the sacrament of Penance consists in restoring us to God’s grace, and joining with him in an intimate friendship” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1468). The Church, in continuing to proclaim Jesus’ message of forgiveness and reconciliation, never ceases to invite the whole of humanity to convert and to believe in the Gospel. She makes her own the call of the Apostle Paul: “So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor 5:20). Jesus, during his life, proclaimed and made present the mercy of the Father. He came not to condemn but to forgive and to save, to give hope in the deepest darkness of suffering and sin, and to give eternal life; thus in the sacrament of Penance, in the “medicine of confession”, the experience of sin does not degenerate into despair but encounters the Love that forgives and transforms (cf. John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, 31).
God, “rich in mercy” (Eph 2:4), like the father in the Gospel parable (cf. Lk 15:11-32), does not close his heart to any of his children, but waits for them, looks for them, reaches them where their rejection of communion imprisons them in isolation and division, and calls them to gather around his table, in the joy of the feast of forgiveness and reconciliation. A time of suffering, in which one could be tempted to abandon oneself to discouragement and hopelessness, can thus be transformed into a time of grace so as to return to oneself, and like the prodigal son of the parable, to think anew about one’s life, recognizing its errors and failures, longing for the embrace of the Father, and following the pathway to his home. He, in his great love, always and everywhere watches over our lives and awaits us so as to offer to every child that returns to him the gift of full reconciliation and joy.
3. From a reading of the Gospels it emerges clearly that Jesus always showed special concern for sick people. He not only sent out his disciples to tend their wounds (cf. Mt 10:8; Lk 9:2; 10:9) but also instituted for them a specific sacrament: the Anointing of the Sick. The Letter of James attests to the presence of this sacramental act already in the first Christian community (cf. 5:14-16): by the Anointing of the Sick, accompanied by the prayer of the elders, the whole of the Church commends the sick to the suffering and glorified Lord so that he may alleviate their sufferings and save them; indeed she exhorts them to unite themselves spiritually to the passion and death of Christ so as to contribute thereby to the good of the People of God.
This sacrament leads us to contemplate the double mystery of the Mount of Olives, where Jesus found himself dramatically confronted by the path indicated to him by the Father, that of his Passion, the supreme act of love; and he accepted it. In that hour of tribulation, he is the mediator, “bearing in himself, taking upon himself the sufferings and passion of the world, transforming it into a cry to God, bringing it before the eyes and into the hands of God and thus truly bringing it to the moment of redemption” (Lectio Divina, Meeting with the Parish Priests of Rome, 18 February 2010). But “the Garden of Olives is also the place from which he ascended to the Father, and is therefore the place of redemption … This double mystery of the Mount of Olives is also always ‘at work’ within the Church’s sacramental oil … the sign of God’s goodness reaching out to touch us” (Homily, Chrism Mass, 1 April 2010). In the Anointing of the Sick, the sacramental matter of the oil is offered to us, so to speak, “as God’s medicine … which now assures us of his goodness, offering us strength and consolation, yet at the same time points beyond the moment of the illness towards the definitive healing, the resurrection (cf. Jas 5:14)” (ibid.).
This sacrament deserves greater consideration today both in theological reflection and in pastoral ministry among the sick. Through a proper appreciation of the content of the liturgical prayers that are adapted to the various human situations connected with illness, and not only when a person is at the end of his or her life (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1514), the Anointing of the Sick should not be held to be almost “a minor sacrament” when compared to the others. Attention to and pastoral care for sick people, while, on the one hand, a sign of God’s tenderness towards those who are suffering, on the other brings spiritual advantage to priests and the whole Christian community as well, in the awareness that what is done to the least, is done to Jesus himself (cf. Mt 25:40).
4. As regards the “sacraments of healing”, Saint Augustine affirms: “God heals all your infirmities. Do not be afraid, therefore, all your infirmities will be healed … You must only allow him to cure you and you must not reject his hands” (Exposition on Psalm 102, 5; PL 36, 1319-1320). These are precious instruments of God’s grace which help a sick person to conform himself or herself ever more fully to the mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ. Together with these two sacraments, I would also like to emphasize the importance of the Eucharist. Received at a time of illness, it contributes in a singular way to working this transformation, associating the person who partakes of the Body and Blood of Christ to the offering that he made of himself to the Father for the salvation of all. The whole ecclesial community, and parish communities in particular, should pay attention to guaranteeing the possibility of frequently receiving Holy Communion, to those people who, for reasons of health or age, cannot go to a place of worship. In this way, these brothers and sisters are offered the possibility of strengthening their relationship with Christ, crucified and risen, participating, through their lives offered up for love of Christ, in the very mission of the Church. From this point of view, it is important that priests who offer their discreet work in hospitals, in nursing homes and in the homes of sick people, feel they are truly “’ministers of the sick’, signs and instruments of Christ's compassion who must reach out to every person marked by suffering” (Message for the XVIII World Day of the Sick, 22 November 2009).
Becoming conformed to the Paschal Mystery of Christ, which can also be achieved through the practice of spiritual Communion, takes on a very particular meaning when the Eucharist is administered and received as Viaticum. At that stage in life, these words of the Lord are even more telling: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day” (Jn 6:54). The Eucharist, especially as Viaticum, is – according to the definition of Saint Ignatius of Antioch – “medicine of immortality, the antidote for death” (Letter to the Ephesians, 20: PG 5, 661); the sacrament of the passage from death to life, from this world to the Father, who awaits everyone in the celestial Jerusalem.
5. The theme of this Message for the Twentieth World Day of the Sick, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you”, also looks forward to the forthcoming Year of Faith which will begin on 11 October 2012, a propitious and valuable occasion to rediscover the strength and beauty of faith, to examine its contents, and to bear witness to it in daily life (cf. Apostolic Letter Porta Fidei, 11 October 2011). I wish to encourage sick people and the suffering always to find a safe anchor in faith, nourished by listening to the Word of God, by personal prayer and by the sacraments, while I invite pastors to be increasingly ready to celebrate them for the sick. Following the example of the Good Shepherd and as guides of the flocks entrusted to them, priests should be full of joy, attentive to the weakest, the simple and sinners, expressing the infinite mercy of God with reassuring words of hope (cf. Saint Augustine, Letter 95, 1: PL 33, 351-352).
To all those who work in the field of health, and to the families who see in their relatives the suffering face of the Lord Jesus, I renew my thanks and that of the Church, because, in their professional expertise and in silence, often without even mentioning the name of Christ, they manifest him in a concrete way (cf. Homily, Chrism Mass, 21 April 2011).
To Mary, Mother of Mercy and Health of the Sick, we raise our trusting gaze and our prayer; may her maternal compassion, manifested as she stood beside her dying Son on the Cross, accompany and sustain the faith and the hope of every sick and suffering person on the journey of healing for the wounds of body and spirit!
I assure you all of a remembrance in my prayers, and I bestow upon each one of you a special Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, 20 November 2011,
Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King.
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
Message of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for the Celebration of World Peace Day January 1, 2012
EDUCATING YOUNG PEOPLE IN JUSTICE AND PEACE
1. The beginning of a new year, God’s gift to humanity, prompts me to extend to all, with great confidence and affection, my heartfelt good wishes that this time now before us may be marked concretely by justice and peace.
With what attitude should we look to the New Year? We find a very beautiful image in Psalm 130. The Psalmist says that people of faith wait for the Lord “more than those who watch for the morning” (v. 6); they wait for him with firm hope because they know that he will bring light, mercy, salvation. This waiting was born of the experience of the Chosen People, who realized that God taught them to look at the world in its truth and not to be overwhelmed by tribulation. I invite you to look to 2012 with this attitude of confident trust. It is true that the year now ending has been marked by a rising sense of frustration at the crisis looming over society, the world of labour and the economy, a crisis whose roots are primarily cultural and anthropological. It seems as if a shadow has fallen over our time, preventing us from clearly seeing the light of day.
In this shadow, however, human hearts continue to wait for the dawn of which the Psalmist speaks. Because this expectation is particularly powerful and evident in young people, my thoughts turn to them and to the contribution which they can and must make to society. I would like therefore to devote this message for the XLV World Day of Peace to the theme of education: “Educating Young People in Justice and Peace”, in the conviction that the young, with their enthusiasm and idealism, can offer new hope to the world.
My Message is also addressed to parents, families and all those involved in the area of education and formation, as well as to leaders in the various spheres of religious, social, political, economic and cultural life and in the media. Attentiveness to young people and their concerns, the ability to listen to them and appreciate them, is not merely something expedient; it represents a primary duty for society as a whole, for the sake of building a future of justice and peace.
It is a matter of communicating to young people an appreciation for the positive value of life and of awakening in them a desire to spend their lives in the service of the Good. This is a task which engages each of us personally.
The concerns expressed in recent times by many young people around the world demonstrate that they desire to look to the future with solid hope. At the present time, they are experiencing apprehension about many things: they want to receive an education which prepares them more fully to deal with the real world, they see how difficult it is to form a family and to find stable employment; they wonder if they can really contribute to political, cultural and economic life in order to build a society with a more human and fraternal face.
It is important that this unease and its underlying idealism receive due attention at every level of society. The Church looks to young people with hope and confidence; she encourages them to seek truth, to defend the common good, to be open to the world around them and willing to see “new things” (Is 42:9; 48:6).
Educators
2. Education is the most interesting and difficult adventure in life. Educating – from the Latin educere – means leading young people to move beyond themselves and introducing them to reality, towards a fullness that leads to growth. This process is fostered by the encounter of two freedoms, that of adults and that of the young. It calls for responsibility on the part of the learners, who must be open to being led to the knowledge of reality, and on the part of educators, who must be ready to give of themselves. For this reason, today more than ever we need authentic witnesses, and not simply people who parcel out rules and facts; we need witnesses capable of seeing farther than others because their life is so much broader. A witness is someone who first lives the life that he proposes to others.
Where does true education in peace and justice take place? First of all, in the family, since parents are the first educators. The family is the primary cell of society; “it is in the family that children learn the human and Christian values which enable them to have a constructive and peaceful coexistence. It is in the family that they learn solidarity between the generations, respect for rules, forgiveness and how to welcome others.” (1) The family is the first school in which we are trained in justice and peace.
We are living in a world where families, and life itself, are constantly threatened and not infrequently fragmented. Working conditions which are often incompatible with family responsibilities, worries about the future, the frenetic pace of life, the need to move frequently to ensure an adequate livelihood, to say nothing of mere survival – all this makes it hard to ensure that children receive one of the most precious of treasures: the presence of their parents. This presence makes it possible to share more deeply in the journey of life and thus to pass on experiences and convictions gained with the passing of the years, experiences and convictions which can only be communicated by spending time together. I would urge parents not to grow disheartened! May they encourage children by the example of their lives to put their hope before all else in God, the one source of authentic justice and peace.
I would also like to address a word to those in charge of educational institutions: with a great sense of responsibility may they ensure that the dignity of each person is always respected and appreciated. Let them be concerned that every young person be able to discover his or her own vocation and helped to develop his or her God-given gifts. May they reassure families that their children can receive an education that does not conflict with their consciences and their religious principles.
Every educational setting can be a place of openness to the transcendent and to others; a place of dialogue, cohesiveness and attentive listening, where young people feel appreciated for their personal abilities and inner riches, and can learn to esteem their brothers and sisters. May young people be taught to savour the joy which comes from the daily exercise of charity and compassion towards others and from taking an active part in the building of a more humane and fraternal society.
I ask political leaders to offer concrete assistance to families and educational institutions in the exercise of their right and duty to educate. Adequate support should never be lacking to parents in their task. Let them ensure that no one is ever denied access to education and that families are able freely to choose the educational structures they consider most suitable for their children. Let them be committed to reuniting families separated by the need to earn a living. Let them give young people a transparent image of politics as a genuine service to the good of all.
I cannot fail also to appeal to the world of the media to offer its own contribution to education. In today’s society the mass media have a particular role: they not only inform but also form the minds of their audiences, and so they can make a significant contribution to the education of young people. It is important never to forget that the connection between education and communication is extremely close: education takes place through communication, which influences, for better or worse, the formation of the person.
Young people too need to have the courage to live by the same high standards that they set for others. Theirs is a great responsibility: may they find the strength to make good and wise use of their freedom. They too are responsible for their education, including their education in justice and peace!
Educating in truth and freedom
3. Saint Augustine once asked: “Quid enim fortius desiderat anima quam veritatem? – What does man desire more deeply than truth?”(2) The human face of a society depends very much on the contribution of education to keep this irrepressible question alive. Education, indeed, is concerned with the integral formation of the person, including the moral and spiritual dimension, focused upon man’s final end and the good of the society to which he belongs. Therefore, in order to educate in truth, it is necessary first and foremost to know who the human person is, to know human nature. Contemplating the world around him, the Psalmist reflects: “When I see the heavens, the work of your hands, the moon and the stars which you arranged, what is man that you should keep him in mind, mortal man that you care for him?” (Ps 8:4-5). This is the fundamental question that must be asked: who is man? Man is a being who bears within his heart a thirst for the infinite, a thirst for truth – a truth which is not partial but capable of explaining life’s meaning – since he was created in the image and likeness of God. The grateful recognition that life is an inestimable gift, then, leads to the discovery of one’s own profound dignity and the inviolability of every single person. Hence the first step in education is learning to recognize the Creator’s image in man, and consequently learning to have a profound respect for every human being and helping others to live a life consonant with this supreme dignity. We must never forget that “authentic human development concerns the whole of the person in every single dimension”(3), including the transcendent dimension, and that the person cannot be sacrificed for the sake of attaining a particular good, whether this be economic or social, individual or collective.
Only in relation to God does man come to understand also the meaning of human freedom. It is the task of education to form people in authentic freedom. This is not the absence of constraint or the supremacy of free will, it is not the absolutism of the self. When man believes himself to be absolute, to depend on nothing and no one, to be able to do anything he wants, he ends up contradicting the truth of his own being and forfeiting his freedom. On the contrary, man is a relational being, who lives in relationship with others and especially with God. Authentic freedom can never be attained independently of God.
Freedom is a precious value, but a fragile one; it can be misunderstood and misused. “Today, a particularly insidious obstacle to the task of educating is the massive presence in our society and culture of that relativism which, recognizing nothing as definitive, leaves as the ultimate criterion only the self with its desires. And under the semblance of freedom it becomes a prison for each one, for it separates people from one another, locking each person into his or her own self. With such a relativistic horizon, therefore, real education is not possible without the light of the truth; sooner or later, every person is in fact condemned to doubting the goodness of his or her own life and the relationships of which it consists, the validity of his or her commitment to build with others something in common”(4).
In order to exercise his freedom, then, man must move beyond the relativistic horizon and come to know the truth about himself and the truth about good and evil. Deep within his conscience, man discovers a law that he did not lay upon himself, but which he must obey. Its voice calls him to love and to do what is good, to avoid evil and to take responsibility for the good he does and the evil he commits (5). Thus, the exercise of freedom is intimately linked to the natural moral law, which is universal in character, expresses the dignity of every person and forms the basis of fundamental human rights and duties: consequently, in the final analysis, it forms the basis for just and peaceful coexistence.
The right use of freedom, then, is central to the promotion of justice and peace, which require respect for oneself and others, including those whose way of being and living differs greatly from one’s own. This attitude engenders the elements without which peace and justice remain merely words without content: mutual trust, the capacity to hold constructive dialogue, the possibility of forgiveness, which one constantly wishes to receive but finds hard to bestow, mutual charity, compassion towards the weakest, as well as readiness to make sacrifices.
Educating in justice
4. In this world of ours, in which, despite the profession of good intentions, the value of the person, of human dignity and human rights is seriously threatened by the widespread tendency to have recourse exclusively to the criteria of utility, profit and material possessions, it is important not to detach the concept of justice from its transcendent roots. Justice, indeed, is not simply a human convention, since what is just is ultimately determined not by positive law, but by the profound identity of the human being. It is the integral vision of man that saves us from falling into a contractual conception of justice and enables us to locate justice within the horizon of solidarity and love (6).
We cannot ignore the fact that some currents of modern culture, built upon rationalist and individualist economic principles, have cut off the concept of justice from its transcendent roots, detaching it from charity and solidarity: “The ‘earthly city’ is promoted not merely by relationships of rights and duties, but to an even greater and more fundamental extent by relationships of gratuitousness, mercy and communion. Charity always manifests God’s love in human relationships as well, it gives theological and salvific value to all commitment for justice in the world” (7).
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Mt 5:6). They shall be satisfied because they hunger and thirst for right relations with God, with themselves, with their brothers and sisters, and with the whole of creation.
Educating in peace
5. “Peace is not merely the absence of war, and it is not limited to maintaining a balance of powers between adversaries. Peace cannot be attained on earth without safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication among men, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice of fraternity” (8). We Christians believe that Christ is our true peace: in him, by his Cross, God has reconciled the world to himself and has broken down the walls of division that separated us from one another (cf. Eph 2:14-18); in him, there is but one family, reconciled in love.
Peace, however, is not merely a gift to be received: it is also a task to be undertaken. In order to be true peacemakers, we must educate ourselves in compassion, solidarity, working together, fraternity, in being active within the community and concerned to raise awareness about national and international issues and the importance of seeking adequate mechanisms for the redistribution of wealth, the promotion of growth, cooperation for development and conflict resolution. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God”, as Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:9).
Peace for all is the fruit of justice for all, and no one can shirk this essential task of promoting justice, according to one’s particular areas of competence and responsibility. To the young, who have such a strong attachment to ideals, I extend a particular invitation to be patient and persevering in seeking justice and peace, in cultivating the taste for what is just and true, even when it involves sacrifice and swimming against the tide.
Raising one’s eyes to God
6. Before the difficult challenge of walking the paths of justice and peace, we may be tempted to ask, in the words of the Psalmist: “I lift up my eyes to the mountains: from where shall come my help?” (Ps 121:1).
To all, and to young people in particular, I wish to say emphatically: “It is not ideologies that save the world, but only a return to the living God, our Creator, the guarantor of our freedom, the guarantor of what is really good and true … an unconditional return to God who is the measure of what is right and who at the same time is everlasting love. And what could ever save us apart from love?”(9) Love takes delight in truth, it is the force that enables us to make a commitment to truth, to justice, to peace, because it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (cf. 1 Cor 13:1-13).
Dear young people, you are a precious gift for society. Do not yield to discouragement in the face of difficulties and do not abandon yourselves to false solutions which often seem the easiest way to overcome problems. Do not be afraid to make a commitment, to face hard work and sacrifice, to choose the paths that demand fidelity and constancy, humility and dedication. Be confident in your youth and its profound desires for happiness, truth, beauty and genuine love! Live fully this time in your life so rich and so full of enthusiasm.
Realize that you yourselves are an example and an inspiration to adults, even more so to the extent that you seek to overcome injustice and corruption and strive to build a better future. Be aware of your potential; never become self-centred but work for a brighter future for all. You are never alone. The Church has confidence in you, follows you, encourages you and wishes to offer you the most precious gift she has: the opportunity to raise your eyes to God, to encounter Jesus Christ, who is himself justice and peace.
All you men and women throughout the world, who take to heart the cause of peace: peace is not a blessing already attained, but rather a goal to which each and all of us must aspire. Let us look with greater hope to the future; let us encourage one another on our journey; let us work together to give our world a more humane and fraternal face; and let us feel a common responsibility towards present and future generations, especially in the task of training them to be people of peace and builders of peace. With these thoughts I offer my reflections and I appeal to everyone: let us pool our spiritual, moral and material resources for the great goal of “educating young people in justice and peace”.
From the Vatican, 8 December 2011
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
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(1) BENEDICT XVI, Address to Administrators of Lazio Region and of the Municipality and Province of Rome (14 January 2011): L’Osservatore Romano, 15 January 2011, p. 7.
(2) Commentary on the Gospel of John, 26, 5.
(3) BENEDICT XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate (29 June 2009), 11: AAS 101 (2009), 648; cf. PAUL VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio (26 March 1967), 14: AAS 59 (1967), 264.
(4) BENEDICT XVI, Address for the Opening of the Diocesan Ecclesial Meeting in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran (6 June 2005): AAS 97 (2005), 816.
(5) Cf. SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 16.
(6) Cf. BENEDICT XVI, Address to the Bundestag (Berlin, 22 September 2011): L’Osservatore Romano, 24 September 2011, pp. 6-7.
(7) ID., Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, 6 (29 June 2009), 6: AAS 101 (2009), 644-645.
(8) Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2304.
(9) BENEDICT XVI, Address at Youth Vigil (Cologne, 20 August 2005): AAS 97 (2005), 885-886.
© Copyright 2011 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
International Human Rights Day
10 December 2011
In his message on the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR), Pope John Paul II said that the Declaration had made a decisive contribution to the development of international law, and that it had challenged national legislation and ‘allowed millions of men and women to live with greater dignity.’ But, very pertinent is his following observation: “However, anyone who looks at today’s world cannot but note: these fundamental rights, proclaimed, codified and celebrated are still the object of serious and constant violations.”
That observation of Pope John Paul II is relevant even today, especially in India, which is proud of having produced a lengthy Constitution. The discriminatory paragraph 3 of the Presidential Order 1950 has denied equal status to millions of Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims for more than six decades; various mining projects in the country have resulted in massive eviction and displacement of millions of tribal people without adequate recompense or rehabilitation; people of minority religions like Islam and Christianity have been the unfortunate targets of communal violence. The lot of human rights defenders is no better than that of the above mentioned vulnerable groups. In 2011 alone four human rights defenders brutally killed in unexplained circumstances: Jharkhand social activist Niyamat Ansari in March; environmental activist Shehla Masood of Bhopal in August; Nadeem Sayed, a Gujarat-based activist, and Sr. Valsa John, anti-mining, anti-displacement activist in Jharkhand in November.
Even as the government brags about its recent laws like the Right to Education Act, Right to Information Act, Citizens’ Right to Grievance Redress Bill and so on, frequently reported are several cases of intimidation and harassment of human rights activists and whistleblowers. For example, having been acquitted of all ‘framed’ charges, human rights activist Arun Ferriera, who had suffered unjust incarceration for four years and four months, was abducted and illegally detained by none other than the commandoes of the Central Government Offices, in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra, immediately after his release on 27 September – and that in front of his own family members who had come to take him home. And, Dr Pugazhenthi, who had published his findings on the various safety issues related to the power plant in Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, laments that the police inspector at Puthupattinam station threatened, on 1 December 2011, to book him under National Security Act for whatever works he had been doing (visit
http://www.dianuke.org/pugazhenthi-kalpakkam/ for details).
‘Human rights are simply given by God. They are not to be taken by the State or by any human being without giving offense to God,’ says the Compendium of the Catholic Social Doctrine (No. 153). ‘When the violation of any fundamental human right is accepted without reaction, all other rights are placed at risk,’ said Pope John Paul II in his Message on the World Day of Peace, on 1 January 1999. On this 63rd anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, let us rededicate ourselves to the defence and promotion of human rights, reminding ourselves of the felicitous words of Demosthenes: “What we have in us of the image of God is the love of truth and justice.”
- Fr. Charles Irudayam, Secretary, JPD Office – CBCI, New Delhi
Letter of the Chairperson
Dalit Liberation Sunday
11th December 2011
Theme: Our God with Struggling People
Your Eminence/Grace/Excellency/Father/Sister/Brother in Christ,
Greetings of Peace and Joy to You!
Every year Dalit Liberation Sunday is an occasion for the entire Christian community to renew its commitment towards sisters and brothers of Dalit origin who suffer social economical and educational backwardness arising out of the traditional practice of untouchability.
Indian society is still under the grip of caste culture that perpetuates ethos, attitudes, structures of inequality and dehumanizing untouchable practices. Contrary to the Gospel vision of Christ ‘caste mentality’ prevails within Christian community. “It violates the God-given dignity and equality of human person. Human dignity and respect are due to human person and any denial of this is a sin against God and humans. (See Statement on Caste by Catholic Bishops Conference of India, Tiruchirappalli, January, 4-14, 1982).
The cries of Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims for Scheduled Caste status are unheard, their non-violent, democratic representations and struggles are ignored by the Indian State and the mainstream media. The Union Government of India is yet to file a reply in the Supreme Court of India to the issues raised in the Writ Petitions filed from 2004 onwards, praying the deletion of paragraph 3 of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order 1950.
The Christian community as a whole needs to identify helpless groans and assertive struggles of Dalits as a privileged locus of divine revelation. The Spirit of Life with its salvific intervention is actively present in the battered bodies, wounded psyche, dynamic restlessness, unrelenting articulation, creative imagination and aesthetic expressions of the Dalits. (See The Statement of the Indian Theological Association- 28th Annual Meeting, (Bangalore (April 24-28, 2005).
Jesus of Nazareth who shares the Dalit origin, anointed by the Spirit of God, announces the Good news to the afflicted and to soothe the broken-hearted Dalits. God of compassion clothes Dalits in garments of salvation and wraps them in a cloak of saving justice. Vested interests may deceive Dalits and the Union Government may delay justice to the Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims. But God of justice is wrestling on behalf of them and as the earth sends up its shoots and a garden makes seeds sprout, so God of Life makes saving justice and praise spring up in the sight of all nations. (Isaiah 61: 1-2, 10-11).
Let this Dalit Liberation Sunday instill in us the hope that God leads our struggle to demand equal rights for Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims and our efforts to build inclusive communities of justice, peace and joy.
Suggested Action Plan:
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Kindly preach about the struggles of Dalits in general and Dalit Christians in particular and the need for the entire Christian community to involve in the struggle.
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Please organize processions, rallies, meetings, seminars to conscientize the parish communities and the public about the Dalit and Dalit Christian, Dalit Muslim issue.
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Kindly send a memorandum signed by all the members of Christian community to the Prime Minister and copies to the UPA Chairperson, the Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, the Minister for Minority Affairs and Minister for Law and Justice.
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Since we need to intensify our lobbying and to strengthen the Supreme Court Case, you are invited to send your contribution in favour of “CBCI Office for SC/BC.” Even a small contribution will be very helpful.
Thanking you for all your prayerful support and collaboration
Yours Sincerely in Christ Jesus,
(Most Rev. A. Neethinathan)
Chairperson
CBCI Office for SC/BC
Reflection on the Theme
(The following reflections are provided by the CBCI Office for SC/BC to assist you in animating the Faithful and creating awareness among them on the importance of the Dalit Liberation Sunday. They may be used a a resource in preaching, talks and other means of animation. Ed.)
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During the season of Advent we meditate on God’s intervention in history and immersion into humanity by becoming a human person. God who has been with his people continues to be with them in joys, sorrows, anxieties, anguish, hopes and efforts to realize fullness of life.
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God’s special care for the vulnerable people is expressed clearly in the first reading of today: “He has sent me to bring the news to the afflicted, to soothe the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, release those in prison,…” (Is 61: 1-2)
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The Nazareth Manifesto of Jesus (Lk 4: 16-19) emphatically defines his mission and his disciples. The community of the disciples is called to continue the mission of Christ by exercising “the gift of prophesy” not stifling the Spirit of God who dwells in us and in the Church to inspire us to “hold on to what is good and shun every form of evil.” (1 Thes 5: 16-17). Hence the Christian community as a whole is called to continue the struggle for justice for Dalits professing Christian Faith with hope amidst the delay and denial of justice by the Union Governments of India.
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Dalits professing Christian Faith are denied benefits of affirmative action such as political representation from panchayat level to Parliament, special legal protection, employment, scholarships, loans, access to funds allotted under Scheduled Caste Sub Plan (SCSP) since they profess a religion of their own choice. This is blatant violation against the freedom of religion enshrined in the Constitution of India. It is gross violation of fundamental human rights. In short, they are second class citizens of this country. The root cause is paragraph 3 of the Constitution Scheduled Castes Order 1950 which confines the benefits of Scheduled Caste status to Dalits of Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist origin. We are called to oppose this communal paragraph and seek justice through legal remedy and executive action through our collective efforts.
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The season of Advent is a time to overcome darkness by bearing witness to the light. John the Baptist bore witness to Christ the Light of the World. As witnesses to Christ, we need to overcome darkness of casteism within the Christian community and crooked caste attitudes and structures operating in the society. Let us recall the message of Blessed Pope John Paul II, addressed to a group of Bishops from India on 17 November, 2003, “They (Christians of SC origin) should never be segregated from other members of society. Any semblance of a caste-based prejudice in relations between Christians is a countersign to authentic human solidarity, a threat to genuine spirituality and a serious hindrance to the Church’s mission of evangelization. Therefore, customs or traditions that perpetuate or reinforce caste division should be sensitively reformed so that they may become an expression of solidarity of the whole Christian community.” We need to supplant structures of caste-arrogance with values of humble service to the sisters and brothers of Dalit community. The Spirit of Jesus urges every Christian to relate to the weak, particularly to Dalits in our society with humility and love them as human persons.
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Mr. Velankanni, brother of a priest hailing from Dalit Christian community was buried at the parish cemetery on 22nd January 2011 at Thatchoor, Kancheepuram District, Tamilnadu. It was possible due to the efforts of the diocesan administration supported by the Untouchability Eradication Front and other human rights movements. Thatchoor parish was closed for more than ten years because of the struggle for equality by Dalit Christians and the opposition from non-Dalit Christians. After the burial, the local MLA and the members of the Unotuchability Eradication Front asked the local Sub Inspector of Police to give protection to the parish priest of Thatchoor, the family of deceased person and Dalit families.
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It is a call for the entire Christian community to take note of all forms of discrimination and take positive steps to eradicate untouchability within the community. It is a call to follow the footsteps of our Lord Jesus who came to restore human dignity and God’s reign of equality and fellowship.
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Let us introspect ourselves: Are we able to overcome darkness of casteism and change our crooked caste attitudes and untouchable practices? Are we humble enough to accept the leadership from Dalit community? Are we ready to include sisters and brothers of Dalit community in decision-making process and accept their skills, talents and wisdom for the growth of the Christian community and development of society? Do we promote inter-ritual and inter-caste marriages and inter-dining? Are we bold enough to take steps to eradicate visible forms of discrimination in the diocese such as separate cemetery, two places in the same worshiping place and so on?
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Let us be like John the Baptist in bearing witness to Christ the Light by overcoming darkness of casteism and untouchability. As children of light let us make straight the way of the Lord practicing values of equality, solidarity and fellowship.
Message of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for the World Day of
Migrants and Refugees 2012,15th January
Migration and the New Evangelization
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Proclaiming Jesus Christ the one Saviour of the world "constitutes the essential mission of the Church. It is a task and mission which the vast and profound changes of present-day society make all the more urgent" (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 14). Indeed, today we feel the urgent need to give a fresh impetus and new approaches to the work of evangelization in a world in which the breaking down of frontiers and the new processes of globalization are bringing individuals and peoples even closer. This is both because of the development of the means of social communication and because of the frequency and ease with which individuals and groups can move about today. In this new situation we must reawaken in each one of us the enthusiasm and courage that motivated the first Christian communities to be undaunted heralds of the Gospel's newness, making St Paul's words resonate in our hearts: "For if I preach the gospel that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!" (2 Cor 9:16).
"Migration and the New Evangelization" is the theme I have chosen this year for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, and it arises from the aforesaid situation. The present time, in fact, calls upon the Church to embark on a new evangelization also in the vast and complex phenomenon of human mobility. This calls for an intensification of her missionary activity both in the regions where the Gospel is proclaimed for the first time and in countries with a Christian tradition.
Blessed John Paul II invited us to "nourish ourselves with the word in order to be 'servants of the word' in the work of evangelization ... [in] a situation which is becoming increasingly diversified and demanding, in the context of 'globalization' and of the consequent new and uncertain mingling of peoples and cultures" • (Novo Millennio Ineunte, 40). Internal or international migration, in fact, as an opening in search of better living conditions or to flee from the threat of persecution, war, violence, hunger or natural disasters, has led to an unprecedented mingling of individuals and peoples, with new problems not only from the human standpoint but also from ethical, religious and spiritual ones. The current and obvious consequences of secularization, the emergence of new sectarian movements, widespread insensitivity to the Christian faith and a marked tendency to fragmentation are obstacles to focusing on a unifying reference that would encourage the formation of "one family of brothers and sisters in societies that are becoming ever more multiethnic and intercultural, where also people of various religions are urged to take part in dialogue, so that a serene and fruitful coexistence with respect for legitimate differences may be found", as I wrote in my Message last year for this World Day. Our time is marked by endeavours to efface God and the Church's teaching from the horizon of life, while doubt, scepticism and indifference are creeping in, seeking to eliminate all the social and symbolic visibility of the Christian faith.
In these context migrants who have known and welcomed Christ are not infrequently constrained to consider him no longer relevant to their lives, to lose the meaning of their faith, no longer to recognize themselves as members of the Church, and often lead a life no longer marked by Christ and his Gospel. Having grown up among peoples characterized by their Christian faith they often emigrate to countries in which Christians are a minority or where the ancient tradition of faith, no longer a personal conviction or a community religion, has been reduced to a cultural fact. Here the Church is faced with the challenge of helping migrants keep their faith firm even when they are deprived of the cultural support that existed in their country of origin, and of identifying new pastoral approaches, as well as methods and expressions, for an ever vital reception of the Word of God. In some cases this is an opportunity to proclaim that, in Jesus Christ, humanity has been enabled to participate in the mystery of God and in his life of love. Humanity is also opened to a horizon of hope and peace, also through respectful dialogue and a tangible testimony of solidarity. In other cases there is the possibility of reawakening the dormant Christian conscience through a renewed proclamation of the Good News and a more consistent Christian life to enable people to rediscover the beauty of the encounter with Christ who calls Christians to holiness wherever they may be, even in a foreign land.
The phenomenon of migration today is also a providential opportunity for the proclamation of the Gospel in the contemporary world. Men and women from various regions of the earth, who have not yet encountered Jesus Christ or know him only partially, ask to be received in countries with an ancient Christian tradition. It is necessary to find adequate ways for them to meet and to become acquainted with Jesus Christ and to experience the invaluable gift of salvation which, for everyone, is a source of "life in abundance" (cf. Jn 10:10); migrants themselves have a special role in this regard because they in turn can become "heralds of God's word and witnesses to the Risen Jesus, the hope of the world" (Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini, 105).
Pastoral workers - priests, religious and lay people - play a crucial role in the demanding itinerary of the new evangelization in the context of migration. They work increasingly in a pluralist context: in communion with their Ordinaries, drawing on the Church's Magisterium. I invite them to seek ways of fraternal sharing and respectful proclamation, overcoming opposition and nationalism. For their part, the Churches of origin, of transit and those that welcome the migration flows should find ways to increase their cooperation for the benefit both of those who depart and those who arrive, and, in any case, of those who, on their journey, stand in need of encountering the merciful face of Christ in the welcome given to one's neighbour. To achieve a fruitful pastoral service of communion, it may be useful to update the traditional structures of care for migrants and refugees, by setting beside them models that respond better to the new situations in which different peoples and cultures interact with one another.
Asylum seekers, who fled from persecution, violence and situations that put their life at risk, stand in need of our understanding and welcome, of respect for their human dignity and rights, as well as awareness of their duties. Their suffering pleads with individual states and the international community to adopt attitudes of reciprocal acceptance, overcoming fears and avoiding forms of discrimination, and to make provisions for concrete solidarity also through appropriate structures for hospitality and resettlement programmes. All this entails mutual help between the suffering regions and those which, already for years, have accepted a large number of fleeing people, as well as a greater sharing of responsibilities among States.
The press and the other media have an important role in making known, correctly, objectively and honestly, the situation of those who have been forced to leave their homeland and their loved ones and want to start building a new life.
Christian communities are to pay special attention to migrant workers and their families by accompanying them with prayer, solidarity and Christian charity, by enhancing what is reciprocally enriching, as well as by fostering new political, economic and social planning that promotes respect for the dignity of every human person, the safeguarding of the family, access to dignified housing, to work and to welfare.
Priests, men and women religious, lay people, and most of all young men and women are to be sensitive in offering support to their many sisters and brothers who, having fled from violence, have to face new lifestyles and the difficulty of integration. The proclamation of salvation in Jesus Christ will be a source of relief, hope and "full joy" (cf. Jn 15:11).
Lastly, I would like to mention the situation of numerous international students who are facing problems of integration, bureaucratic difficulties, hardship in the search for housing and welcoming structures. Christian communities are to be especially sensitive to the many young men and women who, precisely because of their youth, need reference points in addition to cultural growth, and have in their hearts a profound thirst for truth and the desire to encounter God. Universities of Christian inspiration are to be, in a special way, places of witness and of the spread of the new evangelization, seriously committed to contributing to social, cultural and human progress in the academic milieu. They are also to promote intercultural dialogue and enhance the contribution that international students can give. If these students meet authentic Gospel witnesses and examples of Christian life, it will encourage them to become agents of the new evangelization.
Dear friends, let us invoke the intercession of Mary, "Our Lady of the Way", so that the joyful proclamation of salvation in Jesus Christ may bring hope to the hearts of those who are on the move on the roads of the world. To one and all I assure my prayers and impart my Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, 21 September 2011
BENEDICTUS PP. XV