Quilon’s Bishop calls for new methods to evangelize people

(Oct. 17, 2012) A call for adopting new methods to re-evangelize people searching for God was made by Bishop Stanley Roman of Quilon, Kerala State on Tuesday morning at the Synod’s 13th General Assembly. The Indian prelate said that faith is strengthened when it is given to others and it is our duty as baptized Christians to transmit it. To examine when, where, and how in one way or other the Church deviated from its task of constant evangelization is in fact a long story with painful memories, he said. However, having learnt lessons from such distressing events of the past, we now have to respond to the new invitation of the Synod on “New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Faith” to launch into the deep and gather all that is good and beautiful in the various cultures to re-evangelize the lost sheep.. Bishop Roman noted that in India, young men and women and even educated people from developed countries flock to the local ashrams yearning for something absent in their own nations. Their hunger and thirst for something beyond this material world, said the Indian Bishop, assures us that Jesus is relevant today. Giving some suggestions for re-evangelization, Bishop Roman mentioned the need for Catholic schools and Catholic teachers of integrity; a well trained laity, longer periods of marriage preparation course to have an indepth knowledge of the sacrament of matrimony and greater involvement in mass media to spread Gospel values