New evangelisation begins with heart says Pope

“Faith is not conserved by its own merits in the world, it is not automatically transmitted to the human heart, but must always be announced. To be effective the proclamation of faith must begin with a heart that believes, hopes, loves, a heart that loves Christ and believes in the power of the Holy Spirit!”

This was Pope Benedict XVI’s message to the bishops, clergy religious and laity of his diocese Monday evening, gathered together in the Basilica of St John Lateran to open the annual convention of the Diocese of Rome.

The Holy Father called priests, parents and catechists to launch a new evangelisation, to transmit a living faith to the future generation of Romans and create a community of believers in the Eternal City where the Gospel is not only preached but put into practice.

Drawing from the Acts of the Apostle, the Pope began by noting that Peter’s proclamation of the Good News was not confined to a simple listing of facts, but that the people of Jerusalem on hearing his words were – through the grace of God – ‘cut to the heart’ and understood that Christ’s resurrection was and is capable of illuminating human existence. From this event “a new understanding of mankind’s dignity and his eternal destiny, of the relationship between man and woman, of the ultimate meaning of suffering of commitment to building society, was born”. The response of faith is born, he said , when mankind discovers, through the grace of God, that believing means finding true life, “full life”.


Pope Benedict then called on pastoral workers to embrace the need for a new evangelisation: “Dear friends, the Church, each one of us, must bring this Good News to the world, that Jesus is Lord […] This proclamation should resonate again in the regions of ancient Christian tradition”. He recalled how his predecessor Blessed John Paul II spoke of the need for a new evangelization aimed at those who, “despite having already heard of the faith, do not appreciate, moreover no longer recognise, the beauty of Christianity, indeed, sometimes even consider it an obstacle to happiness”.


He continued “If people forget God it is also because the person of Jesus is often reduced to that of a wise man and his divinity weakened if not denied. This way of thinking prevents people from grasping the radical novelty of Christianity, because if Jesus is not the only Son of the Father, so then God never came to visit the history of man. We have only human ideas of God. The incarnation, however, belongs to the heart of the Gospel! Therefore, the commitment to a renewed season of evangelization, which is the task not only of some, but all members of the Church must grow. Evangelization tells us that God is near, God has shown Himself to us. In this hour of history, is not this the mission that God entrusts to us: to announce the permanent newness of the Gospel, as Peter and Paul did when they came to our city? Do we not also need to show the beauty and the reasonableness of faith, bringing the light of God to man of our time, with courage, conviction, and joy? There are many people who have not yet met the Lord: they shall be given a special pastoral care. In addition to children and young people of Christian families who ask to travel the path of Christian initiation, there are adults who have not received baptism, or who distanced themselves from the faith and the Church. It is now more urgent than ever to pay particular pastoral attention to this, seeking to engage with confidence, sustained by the certainty that God's grace always works, even today, in the heart of man”.


The Holy Father told those gathered, that all baptised are called to be the messengers of the Gospel in today’s world, but above all parents, whose duty it is to seek Baptism for their children. All mothers and fathers are called to cooperate with God in the transmission of the priceless gift of life, but also in making known He who is The Life. And the Church must support parents in this mission.


The Pope also spoke of the formation of children and teenagers, the need to help them understand and mature in their faith but also experience prayer, charity and solidarity. But the words of Faith risk becoming mute, he said, if they do not find a community that puts them into practise, rendering them alive and attractive as a real life experience. To this end Pope Benedict continued, the world of the parish oratory, summer camps and small experiences of being of service to others are of precious help to adolescents on their Christian journey.

Finally Pope Benedict XVI encouraged all those committed in these fields to help others discover the Gospel not as a utopia but as the full and real form of human existence. “Do not be afraid to commit to the Gospel! Despite the difficulties encountered in reconciling the demands of family and work with those communities in which you carry out your mission, always trusting in the Virgin Mary, Star of Evangelization. May Blessed John Paul II, who until his last strove to preach the gospel in our city and loved its young people with particular affection, intercede for us with the Father”.Listen: