Outline of 2012 Bishops’ Synod presented

(March 04, 2011) The Catholic Church’s next Synod of Bishops on the new evangelization will aim at finding adequate responses to the signs of the time through the promotion of a culture that is deeply rooted in the Gospel. This was said on Friday at a press conference in the Vatican for the presentation of the ‘Lineamenta’ or the ‘outline’ of the 13th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the theme, “The New Evangelization For The Transmission Of The Christian Faith,” scheduled from Oct. 7 to 28, 2012. Archbishop Nikola Eterović, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, presented the synod guidelines at the press conference along with under-secretary, Msgr. Fortunato Frezza. Pope Benedict XVI had announced the theme of the upcoming synod on Oct. 24 while concluding the special Synod of Bishops for the Middle East. The expression ‘new evangelization’, coined by Pope John Paul II during his 1979 visit to Poland in, refers to the revival of the Christian faith in traditionally Christian countries where spiritual life and practice of faith has been stifled by secular trends. The synod’s outline said that “the new evangelisation is not a duplication of the first; it is not a mere repetition, but expresses the courage to undertake new paths, in the face of the changed conditions within which the Church is called to live the proclamation of the Gospel today” Among the several issues that the synod outline analyses are today’s secularized culture, migration and globalisation, the communication media, economic imbalance, the environment, ethical and moral issues of scientific and technological advances and the global political situation today.