In Thailand tagt derzeit
der asiatische Missionskongress. Das Treffen mit über 1000 Delegierten ist vom neuen
Präfekten der Kongregation für die Evangelisierung, Kardinal Ivan Dias, eröffnet worden.
In seiner Predigt erinnerte er an den Missionsauftrag der Kirche. Viele Menschen in
Asien hätten das Evangelium noch nicht gehört. Die Kirche in Asien ist dynamisch:
In den vergangenen 25 Jahren hat sich die Zahl der Priester auf knapp 50.000 fast
verdoppelt, die Seminaristenzahl nahm sogar um mehr als 150 Prozent zu. In Zukunft
wird die Mission von Asien ausgehen, so der Tenor vieler Beiträge. Trotzdem ist die
Situation nicht leicht, meint der Direktor der katholischen Nachrichtenagentur Asianews,
Bernardo Cervellera: „Die Bischöfe haben festgestellt, dass viele Katholiken
in Asien ihren Glauben zwar in der Kirche leben, im Alltag spielt er dann aber eine
untergeordnete Rolle. Zum Teil weil die Christen eine Minderheit sind, zum anderen,
weil sie umgeben sind von anderen Religionen. Daher besteht die Gefahr, den Glauben
zu vergessen.“ Die Ghettoisierung der Christen hänge zusammen mit ihren Minderwertigkeitsgefühlen
gegenüber den großen Religionen, die seit Jahrtausenden die asiatischen Kulturen prägen.
Daher sei ein kultureller Dialog wichtig, ein Dialog des Lebens, so Cervellera: „Der
Dialog wird möglich, wenn man um klar um seine eigene christliche Identität weiß.
Dieser Stolz, Christ zu sein, ist nichts, was uns in einen Gegensatz zu anderen bringt,
sondern etwas, was zu einer größeren Aufmerksamkeit für den anderen führt und zu einer
größeren Liebe zur Situation der anderen.“ Informationen zur Tagung sind im
Internet erhältlich unter www.catholic.or.th (rv 211006 mc)
Hier
die Predigt von Kardinal Ivan Dias im englischen Original: Homily of His Eminence
Cardinal Ivan Dias Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of
Peoples at the Opening Mass of the Asian Mission Congress Chiang
Mai, Thailand, 19 October 2006"This is the day which the Lord has made, let
us rejoice and be glad in it." At this inaugural Eucharist of this First Asian
Mission Congress we are united in the precious Name of Jesus who has promised to be
present where two or three are gathered in His Name. While we recall the joys which
Asia has benefited from receiving the Good News of Jesus Christ, let us humbly ask
God to bless our deliberations on the many challenges we face in our mission to spread
His Gospel in the length and breadth of the vast Asian Continent and to inspire us
to take relevant decisions as He bids us anew to "launch out into the deep." It
is with legitimate pride that we note that the Asian continent has had a privileged
place in the mind of God ever since, in the garden of Eden after the fall of Adam
and Eve, He promised to send humankind a unique and universal redeemer. Adapting Jesus'
words to Nicodemus, we can truly say that God so loved Asia that He sent His only
Son to be born and to work out His redemptive mission there, so that all those who
believe in Him may not perish, but have eternal life. Yes, we can be truly proud of
the fact that the "Story of Jesus" which started in Asia some two thousand years ago
has now become "history" i.e. His-story for the whole of humankind and for all times
and ages. During this Holy Eucharist there are many intentions we would like to
present to God our heavenly Father, through Christ, with Him and in Him, in the unity
of the Holy Spirit. Looking to the past, there are many persons we must remember -
for gratitude is, indeed, the memory of the heart. We remember all those who from
the first centuries of the Christian era, starting with the Apostles, spread the sweet
fragrance of Jesus Christ in the Asian continent. The Gospel message was in fact carried
down the centuries - even in the midst of trials and sufferings - from the cenacle
in Jerusalem to countries and kingdoms in central and southern Asia, from the Middle
to the Far East. We cannot forget the great missionary thrust given from the sixteenth
century onwards by stalwarts like St. Francis Xavier, Matteo Ricci, Roberto de Nobili,
Blessed Joseph Vaz, the laymen who brought Christianity to the Korean peninsula, and
many others. And we recall those who have suffered or are suffering under adverse
regimes or who were victims of persecutions all over the Asian continent: in Armenia,
Japan, Vietnam, Korea, India, China, even here in Thailand, and elsewhere. They are
our intercessors in heaven and may the blood they have shed for Christ's sake be the
seed of new Christians (Tertullian). Looking to the future, during this
Congress we shall recall the missionary mandate we have received from Our Lord Jesus
Christ to preach the Good News to every creature, and the challenges to proclamation
it poses within an ecumenical and inter-religious dialogical framework. The modern
challenges are many and varied: from lifting high the sacred Person of Jesus to people
who are worshipping an unknown God to the urgency of inculturating the Gospel and
evangelizing our cultures, remembering that we are children of our respective cultures
and parents of the cultures which will follow us. On the one hand, we cannot ignore
the self-centered New Age mentality which prevails in Asia today, where God is considered
irrelevant. On the other hand, we must be alert to the demands posed by what Pope
John Paul 11, in his encyclical Redemptoris Missio (n.37), called "the modern
areopagus" where he mentioned new areas of evangelization which transcend all geographical,
cultural and social boundaries, viz. the world of culture and research, of migrants
and poverty, of social communication and international relations - which include,
of course, information technology and the media in all its forms - commitment to peace,
development and the liberation of peoples, the rights of individuals and peoples,
especially those of minorities, the empowerment of women and the education of children,
the ecological safeguard of the created world. All these sectors of the modern areopagus,
says the Pope, need to be illuminated with the light of the Gospel, and hence enter
within the missionary mandate of the Church. Let us Present all these intentions to
the Lord during this Holy Eucharist. Finally, let us remember the many peoples
and persons in the Asian continent who have not yet received the Good News of Jesus
Christ, or rather, the Good News who is Jesus Christ, true God and true man. Evangelization,
we know, is primarily the action of the Holy Spirit, who has been at work in all cultures
since the beginning of the universe. It was He who prepared the Incarnation of the
Son of God and His redemptive sacrifice two thousand years ago on Asian soil. He has
left pointers all along the history of world cultures: they are the "seeds of the
Word" which would lead honest seekers towards the fullness of the truth in Christ
Jesus. The Holy Spirit started the work of evangelization with direct and indirect
proclamation at the very moment that Christ Jesus was born in Bethlehem (Lk
2:8-20; Mt 2:1--12). Direct proclamation: when the Angels announced
the glad tiding of Jesus' birth to shepherds who watched their flock that night. Indirect
proclamation: when a star rose in the East and led some Wise Men laden with precious
gifts to Jesus, the new-born King and Savior of the world. Applying this to the Asian
peoples, we must acknowledge and respect the precious treasures of the cultural and
religious heritage which - like the Wise Men - they carry in their bosom, as also
the efforts they are making to discover Truth by following their respective scriptures
and saints as guiding stars. Just as the Wise Men were restless until they found Jesus
and placed their treasures before Him and adored Him, so also the peoples of Asia,
with their varied rich cultures and religious traditions, will be restless until they
find and adore Him who alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life. "You have made us
for yourself, 0 Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You" (St Augustine). May
the Blessed Virgin Mary, Star of the New Evangelization, bless this Asian Mission
Congress, its participants and all those who are dedicated to telling the "Story of
Jesus" all over our beloved Asian continent.