Pope speaks to Brazilian bishops about the duty of preaching the Gospel

(October 4, 2010) Pope Benedict XVI on Monday spoke to a group of Brazilian bishops about the Church’s basic duty of preaching the Gospel, which when done with transparency and respect does not infringe on the religious freedom of others. Bishops from north and northwest Brazil of the vast Amazon region met the Pope at the end of their ad limina visit which heads of dioceses are required to make every five years to report on the state of their jurisdiction. Talking to them about the Church’s missionary character, Pope Benedict urged that every baptized Christian rediscover his or her profound responsibility to preach the Gospel rather than limit oneself only to the study of new methodologies to make the message of Gospel more attractive. In any case, the Pope said, even if men can be saved in other ways by the mercy of God, one cannot think of saving oneself if one hinders the preaching of the Gospel because of negligence, fear, shame or because of false ideas. Sometimes, he said, we come across this objection: to impose a truth, even if it is the truth of the Gospel, to impose a way even if it is a way to salvation can only be a violence on religious freedom. As a response he cited Pope Paul VI who said that it would certainly by an error to impose something to the conscience of our brothers. But to propose to this conscience the Gospel truth and salvation in Jesus Christ with full transparency and absolute respect for free choice… far from being an attack on religious freedom is a homage to this freedom. In his apostolic exhortation “Evangelii Nuntiandi,” Pope Paul VI wrote that this respectful way of proposing Christ and his kingdom, more than being a right, is a duty of the evangelizer. Recalling the words of St. Paul – “Woe to me if I don’t preach the Gospel” – Pope Benedict told the Brazilian bishops that the preaching of the Gospel is not the task of only a select group in the Church but is the duty of all baptized.