(Vatican Radio) The Synod of Bishops on new evangelisation draws to a close this weekend
as over 260 Church leaders from around the globe come up with a final list of propositions
to present to Pope Benedict for inclusion in his apostolic exhortation. On Friday
morning, the bishops presented a concluding message which they hope will inspire all
those involved in promoting evangelisation, whether in busy inner city parishes, in
secluded monasteries or in the remotest parts of countries where the Church may be
only a tiny minority of the population. Our special correspondent Philippa Hitchen
was in the synod hall to find out what the bishops had to say......
Listen:
Concerned,
yes; pessimistic, no. In a nutshell, that’s the tone of the message that draws together
the many challenges and concerns the bishops have been discussing over the past three
weeks. Addressed to all ‘people of God’, the message says it’s not about starting
again or inventing new strategies, but about entering into the 2.000 year old history
of the Church with renewed enthusiasm, methods and expressions that can speak directly
to the hearts of people in our modern, globalised and secular societies. Beginning
with the image of the Samaritan woman at the well, who meets Jesus and finds living
water to quench her spiritual thirst, it says new evangelisation is all about conversion
of hearts – starting with the bishops themselves – so that the church can become a
truly welcoming community for anyone seeking answers to life’s most pressing questions
and problems. New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan was part of the committee tasked
with drawing up the message:
“We wanted it to be positive, uplifting and
evangelical, we wanted it to be rooted in Sacred Scripture and we thought it would
be a good idea to bookend it with the two women, the Woman at the Well and our Blessed
Mother.”
Not an easy task though, to come up with a document that does
justice to the widely differing cultural contexts from which the bishops are drawn,
but there is a paragraph dedicated to each continent and to the Oriental Catholic
Churches whose faithful are often struggling to survive. Persecution of Christians
in Asia is also mentioned explicitly, as is the difficult situation of many people
in Africa, where human rights must be promoted to free the continent from violence
and conflict. As expected, there’s a strong focus on the family, including the
so-called ‘irregular situations’ of divorced or cohabitating couples that must be
made more welcome in the Church. Lay people, men and women religious, priests, deacons
and catechists are all recognised for their dedicated work and witness of Christian
lives which always speak much louder than words. Above all though, it seems to
me that this wordy document is almost a message from the bishops to the
bishops themselves, a stark reminder, in light of recent crises, of their own responsibility
to show greater love, charity, solidarity and service to all those in their care.
Cardinal Wilfred Napier of Durban, South Africa….
“Two words kept coming
up, simplicity and humility, and if you’re going to show simplicity about the mission
of the Gospel, then you’re going to have to say I must start with myself, repent and
believe”
And if you really do believe, one Nigerian lady, in colourful
costume and headgear, told the bishops as they were preparing to leave the synod hall,
please remember to smile a little bit more – if you do, others will find it easier
to believe the Good News of the Gospel too!
Pleae find below the full text
of the Synod's concluding message:
Brothers and sisters, “Grace to you
and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 1:7). Before returning
to our particular Churches, we, Bishops of the whole world gathered by the invitation
of the Bishop of Rome Pope Benedict XVI to reflect on “the new evangelization for
the transmission of the Christian faith”, wish to address all of you spread throughout
the world in order to sustain and direct the preaching and teaching of the Gospel
in the diverse contexts in which the Church finds herself today to give witness.
1.
Like the Samaritan woman at the well Let us draw light from a Gospel passage: Jesus'
encounter with the Samaritan woman (cf. John 4:5-42). There is no man or woman who,
in one's life, would not find oneself like the woman of Samaria beside a well with
an empty bucket, with the hope of finding the fulfillment of the heart's most profound
desire, that which alone could give full meaning to existence. Today, many wells offer
themselves to quench humanity's thirst, but we must discern in order to avoid polluted
waters. We must orient the search well, so as not to fall prey to disappointment,
which can be disastrous. Like Jesus at the well of Sychar, the Church also feels
obliged to sit beside today's men and women. She wants to render the Lord present
in their lives so that they could encounter him because he alone is the water that
gives true and eternal life. Only Jesus can read the depths of our heart and reveal
the truth about ourselves: “He told me everything I have done”, the woman confesses
to her fellow citizens. This word of proclamation is united to the question that opens
up to faith: “Could he possibly be the Messiah?” It shows that whoever receives new
life from encountering Jesus cannot but proclaim truth and hope to others. The sinner
who was converted becomes a messenger of salvation and leads the whole city to Jesus.
The people pass from welcoming her testimony to personally experiencing the encounter:
“We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we
know that this is truly the savior of the world”. 2. A new evangelization Leading
the men and women of our time to Jesus, to the encounter with him is a necessity that
touches all the regions of the world, those of the old and those of the recent evangelization.
Everywhere indeed we feel the need to revive a faith that risks eclipse in cultural
contexts that hinders its taking root in persons and its presence in society, the
clarity of its content and its coherent fruits. It is not about starting again,
but entering into the long path of proclaiming the Gospel with the apostolic courage
of Paul who would go so far as to say “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!” (1
Corinthians 9:16). Throughout history, from the first centuries of the Christian era
to the present, the Gospel has edified communities of believers in all parts of the
world. Whether small or great, these are the fruit of the dedication of generations
of witnesses to Jesus – missionaries and martyrs – whom we remember with gratitude. Changing
societies and cultures call us to something new: to live our communitarian experience
of faith in a renewed way and to proclaim it through an evangelization that is “new
in its ardor, in its methods, in its expressions” (John Paul II, Discourse to the
XIX Assembly of CELAM, Port-au-Prince, 9 March 1983, n. 3) as John Paul II said. Benedict
XVI recalled that it is an evangelization that is directed “principally at those who,
though baptized, have drifted away from the Church and live without reference to the
Christian life... to help these people encounter the Lord, who alone fills our existence
with deep meaning and peace; and to favor the rediscovery of the faith, that source
of grace which brings joy and hope to personal, family and social life”(Benedict XVI,
Homily for the Eucharistic celebration for the solemn inauguration of the XIII Ordinary
General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, Rome, 7 October 2012).
3. The personal
encounter with Jesus Christ in the Church Before saying anything about the forms
that this new evangelization must assume, we feel the need to tell you with profound
conviction that the faith determines everything in the relationship that we build
with the person of Jesus who takes the initiative to encounter us. The work of the
new evangelization consists in presenting once more the beauty and perennial newness
of the encounter with Christ to the often distracted and confused heart and mind of
the men and women of our time, above all to ourselves. We invite you all to contemplate
the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, to enter the mystery of his existence given for
us on the cross, reconfirmed in his resurrection from the dead as the Father's gift
and imparted to us through the Spirit. In the person of Jesus, the mystery of God
the Father's love for the entire human family is revealed. He did not want us to remain
in a false autonomy. Rather he reconciled us to himself in a renewed pact of love. The
Church is the space offered by Christ in history where we can encounter him, because
he entrusted to her his Word, the Baptism that makes us God's children, his Body and
his Blood, the grace of forgiveness of sins above all in the sacrament of Reconciliation,
the experience of communion that reflects the very mystery of the Holy Trinity, the
strength of the Spirit that generates charity towards all. We must form welcoming
communities in which all outcasts find a home, concrete experiences of communion which
attract the disenchanted glance of contemporary humanity with the ardent force of
love – “See how they love one another!” (Tertullian, Apology, 39, 7). The beauty of
faith must particularly shine in the actions of the sacred Liturgy, above all in the
Sunday Eucharist. It is precisely in liturgical celebrations that the Church reveals
herself as God's work and renders the meaning of the Gospel visible in word and gesture. It
is up to us today to render experiences of the Church concretely accessible, to multiply
the wells where thirsting men and women are invited to encounter Jesus, to offer oases
in the deserts of life. Christian communities and, in them, every disciple of the
Lord are responsible for this: an irreplaceable testimony has been entrusted to each
one, so that the Gospel can enter the lives of all. This requires of us holiness of
life.
4. The occasions of encountering Jesus and listening to the Scriptures Someone
will ask how to do all this. We need not invent new strategies as if the Gospel were
a product to be placed in the market of religions. We need to rediscover the ways
in which Jesus approached persons and called them, in order to put them into practice
in today's circumstances. We recall, for example, how Jesus engaged Peter, Andrew,
James and John in the context of their work, how Zaccheus was able to pass from simple
curiosity to the warmth of sharing a meal with the Master, how the Roman centurion
asked him to heal a person dear to him, how the man born blind invoked him as liberator
from his own marginalization, how Martha and Mary saw the hospitality of their house
and of their heart rewarded by his presence. By going through the pages of the Gospels
as well as the apostles' missionary experiences in the early Church, we can discover
the various ways and circumstances in which persons' lives were opened to Christ's
presence. The frequent reading of the Sacred Scriptures – illuminated by the Tradition
of the Church who hands them over to us and is their authentic interpreter – is not
only necessary for knowing the very content of the Gospel, which is the person of
Jesus in the context of salvation history. Reading the Scriptures also helps us to
discover opportunities to encounter Jesus, truly evangelical approaches rooted in
the fundamental dimensions of human life: the family, work, friendship, various forms
of poverty and the trials of life, etc.
5. Evangelizing ourselves and opening
ourselves to conversion We, however, should never think that the new evangelization
does not concern us personally. In these days voices among the Bishops were raised
to recall that the Church must first of all heed the Word before she could evangelize
the world. The invitation to evangelize becomes a call to conversion. We firmly
believe that we must convert ourselves above all to the power of Christ who alone
can make all things new, above all our poor existence. With humility we must recognize
that the poverty and weaknesses of Jesus' disciples, especially of his ministers,
weigh on the credibility of the mission. We are certainly aware – we Bishops first
of all – that we could never really be equal to the Lord's calling and mandate to
proclaim his Gospel to the nations. We know that we must humbly recognize our vulnerability
to the wounds of history and we do not hesitate to recognize our personal sins. We
are, however, also convinced that the Lord's Spirit is capable of renewing his Church
and rendering her garment resplendent if we let him mold us. This is demonstrated
by the lives of the Saints, the remembrance and narration of which is a privileged
means of the new evangelization. If this renewal were up to us, there would be
serious reasons to doubt. But conversion in the Church, just like evangelization,
does not come about primarily through us poor mortals, but rather through the Spirit
of the Lord. Here we find our strength and our certainty that evil will never have
the last word whether in the Church or in history: “Do not let your hearts be troubled
or afraid” (John 14:27), Jesus said to his disciples. The work of the new evangelization
rests on this serene certainty. We are confident in the inspiration and strength of
the Spirit, who will teach us what we are to say and what we are to do even in the
most difficult moments. It is our duty, therefore, to conquer fear through faith,
humiliation through hope, indifference through love. 6. Seizing new opportunities
for evangelization in the world today This serene courage also affects the way
we look at the world today. We are not intimidated by the circumstances of the times
in which we live. Our world is full of contradictions and challenges, but it remains
God's creation. The world is wounded by evil, but God loves it still. It is his field
in which the sowing of the Word can be renewed so that it would bear fruit once more. There
is no room for pessimism in the minds and hearts of those who know that their Lord
has conquered death and that his Spirit works with might in history. We approach this
world with humility, but also with determination. This comes from the certainty that
the truth triumphs in the end. We choose to see in the world God's invitation to witness
to his Name. Our Church is alive and faces the challenges that history brings with
the courage of faith and the testimony of her many daughters and sons. We know
that we must face in this world a difficult struggle against the “principalities”
and “powers”, “the evil spirits” (Ephesians 6:12). We do not ignore the problems that
such challenges bring, but they do not frighten us. This is true above all for the
phenomena of globalization which must be opportunities for us to expand the presence
of the Gospel. Despite the intense sufferings for which we welcome migrants as brethren,
migrations have been and continue to be occasions to spread the faith and build communion
in its various forms. Secularization – as well as the crisis brought about the ascendancy
of politics and of the State – requires the Church to rethink its presence in society
without however renouncing it. The many and ever new forms of poverty open new opportunities
for charitable service: the proclamation of the Gospel binds the Church to be with
the poor and to take on their sufferings like Jesus. Even in the most bitter forms
of atheism and agnosticism, we can recognize – although in contradictory forms – not
a void but a longing, an expectation that awaits an adequate response. In the face
of the questions that dominant cultures pose to faith and to the Church, we renew
our trust in the Lord, certain that even in these contexts the Gospel is the bearer
of light and capable of healing every human weakness. It is not we who are to conduct
the work of evangelization, but God, as the Pope reminded us: “The first word, the
true initiative, the true activity comes from God and only by inserting ourselves
in to the divine initiative, only by begging this divine initiative, will we too be
able to become – with him and in him – evangelizers”(Benedict XVI, Meditation during
the first general Congregation of the XIII General Ordinary Assembly of the Synod
of Bishops, Rome, 8 October 2012).
7. Evangelization, the family and consecrated
life Ever since the first evangelization, the transmission of the faith from one
generation to the next found a natural home in the family where women play a very
special role without diminishing the figure and responsibility of the father. In the
context of the care that every family provides for the growth of its little ones,
infants and children are introduced to the signs of faith, the communication of first
truths, education in prayer, and the witness of the fruits of love. Despite the diversity
of their geographical, cultural and social situations, all the Bishops of the Synod
reconfirmed this essential role of the family in the transmission of the faith. A
new evangelization is unthinkable without acknowledging a specific responsibility
to proclaim the Gospel to families and to sustain them in their task of education. We
do not ignore the fact that today the family, established in the marriage of a man
and of a woman which makes them “one flesh” (Matthew 19:6) open to life, is assaulted
by crises everywhere. It is surrounded by models of life that penalize it and neglected
by the politics of society of which it is also the fundamental cell. It is not always
respected in its rhythms and sustained in its tasks by ecclesial communities. It is
precisely this, however, that impels us to say that we must particularly take care
of the family and its mission in society and in the Church, developing specific paths
of accompaniment before and after matrimony. We also want to express our gratitude
to the many Christian couples and families who, through their witness, show the world
an experience of communion and of service which is the seed of a more loving and peaceful
society. Our thoughts also went to the many families and couples living together
which do not reflect that image of unity and of lifelong love that the Lord entrusted
to us. There are couples who live together without the sacramental bond of matrimony.
More and more families in irregular situations are established after the failure of
previous marriages. These are painful situations that negatively affect the education
of sons and daughters in the faith. To all of them we want to say that God's love
does not abandon anyone, that the Church loves them, too, that the Church is a house
that welcomes all, that they remain members of the Church even if they cannot receive
sacramental absolution and the Eucharist. May our Catholic communities welcome all
who live in such situations and support those who are in the path of conversion and
reconciliation. Family life is the first place in which the Gospel encounters the
ordinary life and demonstrates its capacity to transform the fundamental conditions
of existence in the horizon of love. But not less important for the witness of the
Church is to show how this temporal existence has a fulfillment that goes beyond human
history and attains to eternal communion with God. Jesus does not introduce himself
to the Samaritan woman simply as the one who gives life, but as the one who gives
“eternal life” (John 4:14). God's gift, which faith renders present, is not simply
the promise of better conditions in this world. It is the proclamation that our life's
ultimate meaning is beyond this world, in that full communion with God that we await
at the end of time. Of this supernatural horizon of the meaning of human existence,
there are particular witnesses in the Church and in the world whom the Lord has called
to consecrated life. Precisely because it is totally consecrated to him in the exercise
of poverty, chastity and obedience, consecrated life is the sign of a future world
that relativizes everything that is good in this world. May the gratitude of the Assembly
of the Synod of Bishops reach these our brothers and sisters for their fidelity to
the Lord's calling and for the contribution that they have given and give to the Church's
mission. We exhort them to hope in situations that are difficult even for them in
these times of change. We invite them to establish themselves as witnesses and promoters
of new evangelization in the various fields to which the charism of each of their
institutes assigns them.
8. The ecclesial community and the many agents of
evangelization No one person or group in the Church has exclusive right to the
work of evangelization. It is the work of ecclesial communities as such, where one
has access to all the means for encountering Jesus: the Word, the sacraments, fraternal
communion, charitable service, mission. In this perspective, the role of the parish
emerges above all as the presence of the Church where men and women live, “the village
fountain”, as John XXIII loved to call it, from which all can drink, finding in it
the freshness of the Gospel. It cannot be abandoned, even though changes can require
of it to be made up of small Christian communities or to either the articulation into
small communities or forge bonds of collaboration within larger pastoral contexts.
We exhort our parishes to join the new forms of mission required by the new evangelization
to the traditional pastoral care of God's people. These must also permeate the various
important expressions of popular piety. In the parish, the ministry of the priest
– father and pastor of his people – remains crucial. To all priests, the Bishops of
this Synodal Assembly express thanks and fraternal closeness for their difficult task.
We invite them to strengthen the bonds of the diocesan presbyterium, to deepen their
spiritual life, to an ongoing formation that enables them to face the changes. Alongside
the priests, the presence of deacons is to be sustained, as well as the pastoral action
of catechists and of many other ministers and animators in the fields of proclamation,
catechesis, liturgical life, charitable service. The various forms of participation
and co-responsibility of the faithful must also be promoted. We cannot thank enough
our lay men and women for their dedication in our communities' manifold services.
We ask all of them, too, to place their presence and their service in the Church in
the perspective of the new evangelization, taking care of their own human and Christian
formation, their understanding of the faith and their sensitivity to contemporary
cultural phenomena. With regard to the laity, a special word goes to the various
forms of old and new associations, together with the ecclesial movements and the new
communities: All are an expression of the richness of the gifts that the Spirit bestows
on the Church. We also thank these forms of life and of commitment in the Church,
exhorting them to be faithful to their proper charism and to earnest ecclesial communion
especially in the concrete context of the particular Churches. Witnessing to the
Gospel is not the privilege of one or of a few. We recognize with joy the presence
of many men and women who with their lives become a sign of the Gospel in the midst
of the world. We recognize them even in many of our Christian brothers and sisters
with whom unity unfortunately is not yet full, but are nevertheless marked by the
Lord's Baptism and proclaim it. In these days it was a moving experience for us to
listen to the voices of many authorities of Churches and ecclesial communities who
gave witness to their thirst for Christ and their dedication to the proclamation of
the Gospel. They, too, are convinced that the world needs a new evangelization. We
are grateful to the Lord for this unity in the necessity of the mission.
9.
That the youth may encounter Christ The youth are particularly dear to us, because
they, who are a significant part of humanity's and the Church's present, are also
their future. With regard to them, the Bishops are far from being pessimistic. Concerned,
yes; but not pessimistic. We are concerned because the most aggressive attacks of
our times happen to converge precisely on them. We are not, however, pessimistic,
above all because what moves in the depths of history is Christ's love, but also because
we sense in our youth deep aspirations for authenticity, truth, freedom, generosity,
to which we are convinced that the adequate response is Christ. We want to support
them in their search and we encourage our communities to listen to, dialogue with
and respond boldly and without reservation to the difficult condition of the youth.
We want our communities to harness, and not to suppress, the power of their enthusiasm;
to struggle for them against the fallacies and selfish ventures of worldly powers
which, to their own advantage, dissipate the energies and waste the passion of the
young, taking from them every grateful memory of the past and every earnest vision
of the future. The world of the young is a demanding but also particularly promising
field of the New Evangelization. This is demonstrated by many experiences, from those
that draw many of them like the World Youth Days, to the most hidden – but nonetheless
powerful – like the different experiences of spirituality, service and mission. The
youth's active role in evangelizing first and foremost their world is to be recognized.
10.
The Gospel in dialogue with human culture and experience and with religions The
New Evangelization is centered on Christ and on care for the human person in order
to give life to a real encounter with him. However, its horizons are as wide as the
world and beyond any human experience. This means that it carefully cultivates the
dialogue with cultures, confident that it can find in each of them the “seeds of the
Word” about which the ancient Fathers spoke. In particular, the new evangelization
needs a renewed alliance between faith and reason. We are convinced that faith has
the capacity to welcome every product of a sound mind open to transcendence and the
strength to heal the limits and contradictions into which reason could fall. Faith
does not close its eyes, not even before the excruciating questions arising from evil's
presence in life and in history, in order to draw the light of hope from Christ's
Paschal Mystery. The encounter between faith and reason nourishes also the Christian
community's commitment in the field of education and culture. The institutions of
formation and of research – schools and universities – occupy a special place in this.
Wherever human intelligence is developed and educated, the Church is pleased to bring
her experience and contribution to the integral formation of the person. In this context
particular care is to be reserved for catholic schools and for catholic universities,
in which the openness to transcendence that belongs to every authentic cultural and
educational course, must be fulfilled in paths of encounter with the event of Jesus
Christ and of his Church. May the gratitude of the Bishops reach all who, in sometimes
difficult conditions, are involved in this. Evangelization requires that we pay
much attention to the world of social communication, especially the new media, in
which many lives, questions and expectations converge. It is the place where consciences
are often formed, where people spend their time and live their lives. It is a new
opportunity for touching the human heart. A particular field of the encounter between
faith and reason today is the dialogue with scientific knowledge. This is not at all
far from faith, since it manifests the spiritual principle that God placed in his
creatures. It allows us to see the rational structures on which creation is founded.
When science and technology do not presume to imprison humanity and the world in a
barren materialism, they become an invaluable ally in making life more humane. Our
thanks also go to those who are involved in this sensitive field of knowledge. We
also want to thank men and women involved in another expression of the human genius,
art in its various forms, from the most ancient to the most recent. We recognize in
works of art a particularly meaningful way of expressing spirituality inasmuch as
they strive to embody humanity's attraction to beauty. We are grateful when artists
through their beautiful creations bring out the beauty of God's face and that of his
creatures. The way of beauty is a particularly effective path of the new evangelization. In
addition to works of art, all of human activity draws our attention as an opportunity
in which we cooperate in divine creation through work. We want to remind the world
of economy and of labor of some reminders arising from the Gospel: to redeem work
from the conditions that often make it an unbearable burden and an uncertain future
threatened by youth unemployment, to place the human person at the center of economic
development, to think of this development as an occasion for humanity to grow in justice
and unity. Humanity transforms the world through work. Nevertheless he is called to
safeguard the integrity of creation out of a sense of responsibility towards future
generations. The Gospel also illuminates the suffering brought about by disease.
Christians must help the sick feel that the Church is near to persons with illness
or with disabilities. Christians are to thank all who take care of them professionally
and humanely. A field in which the light of the Gospel can and must shine in order
to illuminate humanity's footsteps is politics. Politics requires a commitment of
selfless and sincere care for the common good by fully respecting the dignity of the
human person from conception to natural end, honoring the family founded by the marriage
of a man and a woman and protecting academic freedom; by removing the causes of injustice,
inequality, discrimination, violence, racism, hunger and war. Christians are asked
to give a clear witness to the precept of charity in the exercise of politics. Finally,
the Church considers the other religions are her natural partners in dialogue. One
is evangelized because one is convinced of the truth of Christ, not because one is
against another. The Gospel of Jesus is peace and joy, and his disciples are happy
to recognize whatever is true and good that humanity's religious spirit has been able
to glimpse in the world created by God and that it has expressed in the various religions. The
dialogue among religions intends to be a contribution to peace. It rejects every fundamentalism
and denounces every violence that is brought upon believers as serious violations
of human rights. The Churches of the whole world are united in prayer and in fraternity
to the suffering brethren and ask those who are responsible for the destinies of peoples
to safeguard everyone's right to freely choose, profess and witness to one's faith.
11.
Remembering the Second Vatican Council and referring to the Catechism of the Catholic
Church in the Year of Faith In the path opened by the New Evangelization, we might
also feel as if we were in a desert, in the midst of dangers and lacking points of
reference. The Holy Father Benedict XVI, in his homily for the Mass opening the Year
of Faith, spoke of a “spiritual 'desertification'” that has advanced in the last decades.
But he also encouraged us by affirming that “it is in starting from the experience
of this desert, from this void, that we can again discover the joy of believing, its
vital importance for us, men and women. In the desert we rediscover the value of what
is essential for living” (Homily for the Eucharistic celebration for the opening of
the Year of Faith, Rome, 11 October 2012). In the desert, like the Samaritan woman,
we seek water and a well from which to drink: blessed is the one who encounters Christ
there! We thank the Holy Father for the gift of the Year of Faith, an exquisite
portal into the path of the new evangelization. We thank him also for having linked
this Year to the grateful remembrance of the opening of the Second Vatican Council
fifty years ago. Its fundamental magisterium for our time shines in the Catechism
of the Catholic Church, which is proposed once more as a sure reference of faith twenty
years after its publication. These are important anniversaries, which allow us to
reaffirm our close adherence to the Council's teaching and our firm commitment to
carry on its implementation.
12. Contemplating the mystery and being at the
side of the poor In this perspective we wish to indicate to all the faithful two
expressions of the life of faith which seem particularly important to us for witnessing
to it in the New Evangelization. The first is constituted by the gift and experience
of contemplation. A testimony that the world would consider credible can arise only
from an adoring gaze at the mystery of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, only from
the deep silence that receives the unique saving Word like a womb. Only this prayerful
silence can prevent the word of salvation from being lost in the many noises that
overrun the world. We now address a word of gratitude to all men and women who
dedicate their lives in monasteries and hermitages to prayer and contemplation. Moments
of contemplation must interweave with people's ordinary lives: spaces in the soul,
but also physical ones, that remind us of God; interior sanctuaries and temples of
stone that, like crossroads, keep us from losing ourselves in a flood of experiences;
opportunities in which all could feel accepted, even those who barely know what and
whom to seek. The other symbol of authenticity of the new evangelization has the
face of the poor. Placing ourselves side by side with those who are wounded by life
is not only a social exercise, but above all a spiritual act because it is Christ's
face that shines in the face of the poor: “Whatever you did for one of these least
brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40). We must recognize the privileged
place of the poor in our communities, a place that does not exclude anyone, but wants
to reflect how Jesus bound himself to them. The presence of the poor in our communities
is mysteriously powerful: it changes persons more than a discourse does, it teaches
fidelity, it makes us understand the fragility of life, it asks for prayer: in short,
it brings us to Christ. The gesture of charity, on the other hand, must also be
accompanied by commitment to justice, with an appeal that concerns all, poor and rich.
Hence, the social doctrine of the Church is integral to the pathways of the new evangelization,
as well as the formation of Christians to dedicate themselves to serve the human community
in social and political life.
13. To the Churches in the various regions of
the world The vision of the Bishops gathered in the synodal assembly embraces all
the ecclesial communities spread throughout the world. Their vision seeks to be comprehensive,
because the call to encounter Christ is one, while keeping diversity in mind. The
Bishops gathered in the Synod gave special consideration, full of fraternal affection
and gratitude, to you Christians of the Catholic Oriental Churches, those who are
heirs of the first wave of evangelization – an experience preserved with love and
faithfulness – and those present in Eastern Europe. Today the Gospel comes to you
again in a new evangelization through liturgical life, catechesis, daily family prayer,
fasting, solidarity among families, the participation of the laity in the life of
communities and in dialogue with society. In many places your Churches are amidst
trials and tribulation through which they witness to their participation in the sufferings
of Christ. Some of the faithful are forced to emigrate. Keeping alive their oneness
with their community of origin, they can contribute to the pastoral care and to the
work of evangelization in the countries that have welcomed them. May the Lord continue
to bless your faithfulness. May your future be marked by the serene confession and
practice of your faith in peace and religious liberty. We look to you Christians,
men and women, who live in the countries of Africa and we express our gratitude for
your witness to the Gospel often in difficult circumstances. We exhort you to revive
the evangelization that you received in recent times, to build the Church as the family
of God, to strengthen the identity of the family, to sustain the commitment of priests
and catechists especially in the small Christian communities. We affirm the need to
develop the encounter between the Gospel and old and new cultures. Great expectation
and a strong appeal is addressed to the world of politics and to the governments of
the various countries of Africa, so that, in collaboration with all people of good
will, basic human rights may be promoted and the continent freed from violence and
conflicts which still afflict it. The Bishops of the synodal Assembly invite you,
Christians of North America, to respond with joy to the call to a new evangelization,
while they look with gratitude at how your young Christian communities have borne
generous fruits of faith, charity and mission. You need to recognize the many expressions
of the present culture in the countries of your world which are today far from the
Gospel. Conversion is necessary, from which is born a commitment that does not bring
you out of your cultures, but in their midst to offer to all the light of faith and
the power of life. As you welcome in your generous lands new populations of immigrants
and refugees, may you be willing to open the doors of your homes to the faith. Faithful
to the commitments taken at the synodal Assembly for America, be united with Latin
America in the ongoing evangelization of the continent you share. The synodal assembly
addressed the same sentiment of gratitude to the Church in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Particularly striking throughout the ages is the development in your countries of
forms of popular piety still fixed in the hearts of many people, of charitable service
and of dialogue with cultures. Now, in the face of many present challenges, first
of all poverty and violence, the Church in Latin America and in the Caribbean is encouraged
to live in an ongoing state of mission, announcing the Gospel with hope and joy, forming
communities of true missionary disciples of Jesus Christ, showing in the commitment
of its sons and daughters how the Gospel could be the source of a new, just and fraternal
society. Religious pluralism also tests your Churches and requires a renewed proclamation
of the Gospel. To you, Christians of Asia, we also offer a word of encouragement
and of exhortation. As a small minority in the continent which houses almost two thirds
of the world's population, your presence is a fruitful seed entrusted to the power
of the Spirit, which grows in dialogue with the diverse cultures, with the ancient
religions and with the countless poor. Although often outcast by society and in many
places also persecuted, the Church of Asia, with its firm faith, is a valuable presence
of the Christ's Gospel which proclaims justice, life and harmony. Christians of Asia,
feel the fraternal closeness of Christians of other countries of the world which cannot
forget that in your continent – in the Holy Land – Jesus was born, lived, died and
rose from the dead. The Bishops address a word of gratitude and hope to the Churches
of the European continent, in part marked today by a strong – sometimes even aggressive
– secularization, and in part still wounded by many decades of regimes with ideologies
hostile to God and to man. We look with gratitude towards the past, but also to the
present, in which the Gospel has created in Europe singular theologies and experiences
of faith – often overflowing with holiness – that have been decisive for the evangelization
of the whole world: richness of theological thought, variety of charismatic expressions,
varied forms of charitable service towards the poor, profound contemplative experiences,
the creation of a humanistic culture which has contributed to defining the dignity
of the person and shaping the common good. May the present difficulties not pull you
down, dear Christians of Europe: may you consider them instead as a challenge to be
overcome and an occasion for a more joyful and vivid proclamation of Christ and of
his Gospel of life. Finally, the bishops of the synodal assembly greet the people
of Oceania who live under the protection of the southern Cross, they thank them for
their witness to the Gospel of Jesus. Our prayer for you is that you might feel a
profound thirst for new life, like the Samaritan Woman at the well, and that you might
be able to hear the word of Jesus which says: “If you knew the gift of God” (John
4:10). May you more strongly feel the commitment to preach the Gospel and to make
Jesus known in the world of today. We exhort you to encounter him in your daily life,
to listen to him and to discover, through prayer and meditation, the grace to be able
to say: “We know that this is truly the Savior of the World” (John 4:42).
14.
The star of Mary illumines the desert Arriving at the end of this experience of
communion among Bishops of the entire world and of collaboration with the ministry
of the Successor of Peter, we hear echoing in us the actual command of Jesus to his
disciples: “Go and make disciples of all nations [...] and behold, I am with you always,
until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19,20). This time, the mission is not addressed
to one geographic area only, but goes to the very hidden depths of the hearts of our
contemporaries to draw them back to an encounter with Jesus, the Living One who makes
himself present in our communities. This presence fills our hearts with joy. Grateful
for the gifts received from him in these days, we raise to him the hymn of praise:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord [...] The Mighty One has done great things
for me” (Luke 1:46,49). We make Mary’s words our own: the Lord has indeed done great
things for his Church throughout the ages in various parts of the world and we magnify
him, certain that he will not fail to look on our poverty in order to show the strength
of his arm in our days and to sustain us in the path of the new evangelization. The
figure of Mary guides us on our way. Our work, as Pope Benedict XVI told us, can seem
like a path across the desert; we know that we must journey, taking with us what is
essential: the company of Jesus, the truth of his word, the eucharistic bread which
nourishes us, the fellowship of ecclesial communion, the impetus of charity. It is
the water of the well that makes the desert bloom. As stars shine more brightly at
night in the desert, so the light of Mary, Star of the new evangelization, brightly
shines in heaven on our way. To her we confidently entrust ourselves.