Pope announces next synod, recalls Mission Sunday

(October 25, 2010) The next Synod of Bishops will be held in 2012 in the Vatican to discuss the issue of re-evangelization. Pope Benedict XVI made the announcement on Sunday as he concluded the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East with a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. The Pope also referred to it later at the midday ‘Angelus’ Marian prayer, the Synod will be on the theme: "The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith." The pontiff recently created a new Vatican office, the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization, to revive Christianity in Europe, part of his efforts to counter secular trends in traditionally Christian countries. Recalling that Oct. 24 was also the Church’s annual Mission Sunday, the Pope noted that like the Middle East Synod, this year’s Mission Sunday also focussed on ecclesial communion. "Both invite us to look upon the Church as a mystery of communion that, by its nature, is destined for the whole person, and to all people," he said. "The missionary task," he explained, "is not to bring about revolution in the world but to transfigure it, drawing power from Jesus Christ…to form ourselves in his school and live more and more consciously united to him, Master and Lord.”