If the Church in Europe wants to reverse the decline in religious practise, particularly
visible in Mass attendance and confession, then it needs to start again from God,
it needs to start celebrating God, professing God and witnessing to God in the midst
of a “wounded Europe”. This was Pope Benedict XVI’s message Thursday to the Italian
Bishops Conference gathered in Plenary Assembly this week here at the Vatican on the
theme “Mature in faith and witnesses of humanity”. Emer McCarthy reports,
listen:
In
order to start again from God, however, the Church needs people who know about their
faith, for if “many of the baptized have lost their identity and affiliation” with
the Church, it is because “they do not know the essential content of faith, or they
think they can nourish it independently of the Church”.
“In a time in which
for many God has become the Great Unknown and Jesus reduced to a great historical
figure” people will only be attracted to an encounter with Christ by men and women
who have a “deep experience of God”, because the “first condition to speak about God
is to speak with God, becoming more and more men of God, nourished by an intense life
of prayer and shaped by his Grace”.
In short, “there will be no revival of
missionary action without the renewal of the quality of our faith and our prayer”.
Below Vatican Radio translation of excerpts from Pope Benedict XVI’s
address
“Scientific rationale and technical culture, in fact, not only tend to make the world
more uniform, but often they go beyond their specific areas, and claim to delineate
the perimeter of the certainties of reason by the single empirical criterion of their
conquests. Thus the power of human ability is ultimately the measure of action, free
from all moral norms. Precisely in this context, a unique and growing demand for spirituality
and the supernatural re-emerges, sometimes in a confused way, as a sign of restlessness
that dwells in the heart of man who is not open the horizon of the transcendent God.
This situation of secularism above all characterizes traditionally Christian societies
and erodes the cultural fabric that until the recent past, was a unifying reference,
capable of embracing the whole of human existence and articulating its most significant
moments, from birth to our passing to eternal life. The spiritual and moral patrimony
which is the roots and lifeblood of the West is no longer understood in its profound
value, to the point that it is no longer the arbiter of truth. Even a fertile land
thus risks becoming barren desert and the good seed of being suffocated, trampled
on and lost”.
This is reflected in the decline of religious practice, visible
in participation in the Liturgy of the Eucharist and, more importantly, the Sacrament
of Reconciliation. Many of the baptized have lost their identity and affiliation:
they do not know the essential content of faith, or they think they can nourish it
independently of the Church's mediation. And while many look doubtfully at the truths
taught by the Church, others reduce the Kingdom of God to a few great values, which
certainly have something to do with the Gospel, but which still do not regard the
core of Christian faith. The Kingdom of God is a gift that transcends us. As stated
by the Blessed John Paul II, " The kingdom of God is not a concept, a doctrine, or
a program subject to free interpretation, but it is before all else a person
with the face and name of Jesus of Nazareth, the image of the invisible God " ( Redemptoris
Missio, 18). Unfortunately, God Himself is excluded from the horizon by many people,
and when he does not meet with indifference, closure or refusal, talk of God is still
relegated to the subjective sphere, reduced to a private and intimate fact, marginalized
from public consciousness. The very heart of the spiritual and moral crisis that is
wounding Europe passes through this abandonment, this lack of openness to the Transcendent:
man claims to have an identity that is simply finite in itself.
In this context,
how can we live up to the responsibilities entrusted to us by the Lord? How can we
spread the Word of God with confidence, so that everyone can find the truth about
himself, his authenticity and hope? We understand that new ways of proclaiming the
Gospel or pastoral action are not enough to ensure that the Christian proposal find
a greater welcome and adhesion. In preparing for Vatican II, the prevailing question
and the one that the Council Sessions wanted an answer to was: "Church, what do you
say about yourself? '. Deepening this question, the Council Fathers were, so to speak,
brought back to the heart of the answer: it meant starting again from God, celebrated,
professed and witnessed. Not by chance, in fact, the first constitution to be approved
was the one on the Sacred Liturgy: divine worship directs man towards the future City
and restores primacy to God; it forms the Church, constantly called by the Word, and
shows the world the fruitfulness of our encounter with God. In turn, while we must
cultivate gratefulness for the growth of good grain in often arid land, we feel that
our situation calls for a renewed impetus, which points to what is essential in Christian
faith and life. In a time in which for many God has become the Great Unknown and Jesus
reduced to a great historical figure, there will be no revival of missionary action
without the renewal of the quality of our faith and our prayer; we will not be able
to offer adequate answers without a new welcome of the gift of Grace; we will not
know how to win souls for the Gospel if not by returning ourselves first to a deep
experience of God
Dear Brothers, our first, true and only task is to commit
our lives to what is true and permanent, to what is really trustworthy, necessary
and ultimate. Man lives for God, for whom he often unconsciously or tentatively searches
to give full meaning to life: we have the task of proclaiming Him, showing Him, of
leading people to an encounter with Him. But it is always important to remember that
the first condition to speak about God is to speak with God, becoming more and more
men of God nourished by an intense life of prayer and shaped by his Grace. St. Augustine,
after an exhausting but sincere journey in search of the Truth, had finally come to
find it in God. He then realized that a unique aspect of wonder and joy filled his
heart: he understood that throughout his journey it was the Truth that was looking
for him and that found him. I would like to say to each one of you: Let us allow
ourselves to be found and grasped by God, to help everyone we meet be reached by the
Truth. It is through our relationship with Him that our communion is born and our
ecclesial community generated which embraces all times and places to build the one
People of God.
For this reason I decided to hold a Year of Faith, which begins
on 11 October, to rediscover and gather once more this precious gift that is faith,
to deepen our knowledge of the truths that are the lifeblood of our lives, to guide
mankind today, often distracted, to a renewed encounter with Jesus Christ "way, truth
and life."
In the midst of transformations which affected large sections
of mankind, Servant of God Paul VI stated clearly that the Church's task to affect
and as it were upset, “through the power of the Gospel, mankind's criteria of judgment,
determining values, points of interest, lines of thought, sources of inspiration and
models of life, which are in contrast with the Word of God and the plan of salvation
"(Evangelii nuntiandi, 19). Here I would recall how, during the first visit
as pontiff to his homeland, Blessed John Paul II visited an industrial district of
Krakow conceived as a sort of "city without God." Only the stubbornness of the workers
had led to first a cross being erected, then a church. In these signs, the Pope recognized
the beginning of what he, for the first time, called the "new evangelization", explaining
that "the evangelization of the new millennium must refer to the doctrine of Vatican
II. It must be, as this Council teaches, the common work of bishops, priests, religious
and laity, the work of parents and young people. “He concluded, "You have built the
church; now build your life with the Gospel" (Homily at the Shrine of the Holy Cross,
Mogila, June 9, 1979).
Dear Brothers, the ancient and new mission that lies
before us is to introduce the men and women of our time to a relationship with God,
helping them to open their minds and hearts to the God who seeks them out and wants
to get close to them, guide them to understanding that accomplishing his will is not
a limit to freedom, but to be truly free, to realize the true good of life. God is
the guarantor, not the competitor, for our happiness, and where the Gospel - and friendship
of Christ – is welcomed there the man experiences being the object of a love that
cleanses, renews and warms, and makes us capable of loving and serving humanity with
divine love.
As the theme of this Assembly highlights, new evangelization
needs adults who are "mature in faith and witnesses of humanity." Attention to the
adult world shows your awareness of the role of those called, in various spheres of
life, to assume responsibility as educators of new generations. Continue to follow
and work so that the community knows how to train adults in the Christian faith because
they have met Jesus Christ, who has become the fundamental reference point of their
lives, because people who know him because they love him and love him because they
have encountered him, people who are able to offer robust and credible reasons for
life. In this formation the Catechism of the Catholic Church is particularly important
- twenty years after its publication – as a valuable support for a complete and organic
knowledge of the content of the faith and to guide people towards an encounter with
Christ.