Bishops must courageously proclaim the Gospel, Pope says

(September 21, 2012) Bishops today must be courageous in proclaiming the Gospel, encouraging others to grow in faith and working to ensure the unity of the Church based on adherence to its teaching, Pope Benedict XVI said on Thursday. He was addressing 95 recently-appointed bishops attending a course in Rome on the theme, “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith.” The Set. 11-20 course was sponsored by the Congregation for Bishops and the Congregation for Eastern Churches. Beginning their ministry as bishops as the Church was about to mark the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and the opening of the Year of Faith Oct. 11, the Pope reminded the pastors of their priority of promoting and sustaining a stronger ecclesial commitment to new evangelization in order to rediscover the joy of believing and the enthusiasm for communicating the faith. "Evangelization,” he reminded them, “is not a work for a few specialists, but for the whole people of God under the guidance of pastors." What is now called "the new evangelization," which is an effort to re-propose the faith in places where religious practice is waning, actually began with the Second Vatican Council's efforts to respond with faith to the questions and problems of the modern world, the Pope said. He thus urged the bishops to draw from the council's presentation of Catholic doctrine, spirituality and sanctity in order to educate their flock in the faith, so that their witness may become increasingly credible.
Pope Benedict also told the bishops that no one should be overlooked when it comes to opportunities to hear the Gospel or to know more about what the Catholic Church really teaches, both about basic Christian doctrine as well as modern ethical questions. People need to be "presented the essential contents of the faith, in a systematic and organic way, also to respond to the questions that our technological and globalized world raises," he added.