Pope addresses Vatican’s new Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization

(May 30, 2011) Being a Christian is not like wearing a dress in private or on particular occasions; rather it is something living and all-encompassing, capable of assimilating all that is good in modern times.” This observation of the Pope Benedict XVI came in his address to the participants in the first plenary assembly of the Vatican’s new Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization. Pope Benedict had formally established the council in October, charging it with renewing and strengthening the faith life in traditionally Christian countries where religious belief and practice are threatened by secularism and indifference. Talking about today’s crisis the Pope noted it brings with it the traits of the exclusion of God from the life of the people, a general indifference to the Christian faith, an attempt to marginalize it from public life. Although "proclaiming Jesus Christ as the only Savour of the world is more complex today than in the past," the Pope said the mission has not changed, just as the enthusiasm and courage that moved the Apostles and first disciples must not change. " The German Pope entrusted the council members with the job of outlining a project to help the entire Church in the task of the new evangelization – a plan where the need for renewed preaching takes care of formation, especially of young people, and is combined with the need for concrete signs to make the response of the Church evident in today’s crisis. While the entire Christian community is called to revive the missionary spirit with a new proclamation that the men of today are awaiting, one cannot forget that the lifestyle of believers need a genuine credibility, which becomes more convincing as the condition of those they serve becomes more dramatic.