Synod: A message from the Church in China

(Vatican Radio) - There was a remainder of the price that men and women have paid in order to witness to their faith in the first intervention at the XIIIth General Congregation of the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelisation Tuesday morning. In was a short intervention, scripted entirely in Latin and read to the 250 participants by the Secretary General of the Synod, Archbishop Nikola Eterovic and it came all the way from China.

The intervention was penned by Bishop Luke Li Jing Feng, of Fengxiang [Shaanxi]. The ninety-year-old bishop was released in 1979 after twenty years in prison during the Cultural Revolution in China. He was born in 1922, ordained in 1947, consecrated bishop in 1980, and recognized by the Government on 30 August 2004. The Diocese of Fengxiang, Shaanxi, is located in the center of Shaanxi Province. Currently, the District has twenty thousand Catholics.

The Bishop wrote : “I congratulate you who can participate in the Synod and pay homage to Saint Peter's Tomb. I am very saddened that you cannot hear any voice from the Chinese Church. I want to say that our Church in China, in particular the laity, has always maintained the piety, faithfulness, sincerity and devotion of the first Christians, even whilst undergoing fifty years of persecution. I wish to add that I pray intensely and constantly Almighty God that our piety, faithfulness, sincerity and devotion may overcome the tepidness, unfaithfulness and secularism that have developed abroad as a result of unrestrained openness and freedom.
In the Year of Faith, in your synod discussions, you can examine why our faith in China was able to remain indefectible until now. As the great Chinese philosopher Lǎozi put it, 'As calamity generates prosperity, so in weakness calamity hides.' In the Churches outside of China, tepidness, unfaithfulness and secularism of the faithful have infected clergymen. In the Chinese Church, lay people are more pious than the clergy. And I believe that our faith as Chinese Christians can console the pope. I shall not talk about politics because it is transient."

Subsequently, the Secretary-General expressed the solidarity of the Synod Fathers and other participants with the Church in Haiti following the earthquake that hit the region.

Other interventions were made by Church leaders from India, Indonesia, Uganda, Russia, Croatia and Syria. Below the original texts of a selection of interventions:

-Card. Telesphore Placidus TOPPO, Archbishop of Ranchi, President of the Indian Bishops Conference (INDIA)

"When the Son of Man comes again, will he find faith on earth?" (Lk.18:8). The Holy Father Benedict XVI reviewing the Year 2011 for the Roman Curia last December, said frankly that according to many reports there is a "faith fatigue" in Europe. In his words, “The essence of the crisis of the Church in Europe is the crisis of faith. If we find no answer to this, if faith does not take on new life, deep conviction and real strength from the encounter with Jesus Christ, then all other reforms will remain ineffective.”
As we seek answers to the crisis of faith, one remedy would be to launch a massive campaign of preaching the kerygma afresh and more powerfully. In my country, India, time and again I have seen the power of the Gospel at work among Christians and non-Christians alike.
I would like to make a humble appeal to the religious orders to become missionary again! In the history of evangelization, all the religious orders led by the Holy Spirit have done outstanding and marvelous work. Can we say the same of the Religious Congregations today? Could it be that they have begun working like Multinationals, doing very good and necessary work to meet the material needs of humanity, but have forgotten that the primary purpose of their founding was to bring the kerygma, the Gospel, to a lost world? We must appreciate many Youth Groups and new Ecclesial Movements who are taking up the challenge. But, in my opinion this Synod must appeal to the Religious men and women to explicitly and directly take up the work of evangelization and transmission of faith in collaboration with the local bishops! I would also like to call upon the Sacred Congregation for Consecrated life to be pro active in promoting the sensus ecclesiae among all religious.
Finally, a worthy celebration of the Eucharist is the foundation of New Evangelization. The Eucharist is the “source and summit of Christian life,” and cannot be celebrated in a casual and superficial way as is being done in some places and by some priests. We must bring back the dignity and the centrality of the Holy Eucharist so that the power of the Eucharist to transform and build up the faith-life of our people is felt again more intensely. Then we will successfully foster a strong faith that will endure till Christ comes again!

- Bishop Joseph Anthony ZZIWA, of Kiyinda-Mityana (UGANDA)

We cannot hope to raise human persons with strong moral character if their education is not founded on faith in God. That is why the first missionaries in Uganda simultaneously built churches and schools. Where they failed to convert directly the elders, they eventually succeeded by converting the young generation through schools. In such cases, when the young people were evangelized and converted to Christianity, they in turn evangelized the elders.
The Church as teacher and custodian of faith and morals has played an important role in the educational sector in many countries. Formulation of stable diocesan education policies have served as a foundation to start and support learning at all levels. Some local Churches have founded Catholic model schools to allow in-depth teaching of Catholic doctrines and morals to the students who in turn become Catholic professionals. Through the chaplaincy in Catholic Institutions, the Church has been able to respond to current challenges by ensuring that the Catholic values and norms are safeguarded in these institutions.
However, in some countries, in recent years, catechesis or teaching religion has been sidelined or removed from the education system even in Catholic-founded Schools or institutions of learning. The situation is aggravated in public institutions where there are no programs of catechesis or Christian religious education at all for our Catholic students. Religious education is considered to be a private matter, to be attended to only in the church or at home.
The way forward for New Evangelisation:
Catholic schools be a channel of evangelization for the transmission of Christian faith
Priests, men and women of consecrated life and other pastoral agents like catechists be qualitatively empowered to teach religion in schools.
Christian Religious Education should be reinstated in the school syllabus where it has been neglected or removed. The Church must be assertive in this area.
Lay apostolic movements should be revived in schools.
Ethics, the Catechism of the Catholic Church and Social Doctrine of the Church should be components of the syllabus in centres of higher learning.
Catholic identity in our schools and institutions should be visible and respected.
Use mass media as an effective instrument to catechize and to educate.


- Bishop Stanley ROMAN, of Quilon (INDIA)

“You who have so little faith” addressed to the apostles in the Gospel of Matthew(6:30) can either be a reproach or a poignant challenge to us the successors of the apostles because the Lord has called us friends and bestowed on us His innumerable blessings. If it is a challenge, I wish to understand that faith means building an intimate relationship with Him. Redemptoris missio reminds me that ‘faith is strengthened when it is given to others’. (RM 1.4.) Hence it is my bounden duty as a baptized Christian to transmit it.
To examine when, where and how in one way or other the Church deviated from its task of constant evangelisation is in fact a long story with painful memories. Having learnt lessons from such distressing events of the past we have now to respond to the new invitation by the Synod to launch into the deep to gather all that is good and beautiful in the various cultures for adopting newer methods to evangelise and to re-evangelise the peoples of the world. Inculturations to be encouraged.
While many of the proposals in the Instrumentum Laboris, in my humble opinion, are overshadowed by a well-accepted Catholic background, it seems to me, the voice of those who have drifted from sacramental life is missing. In India we witness that young men and women, and even men of erudition from the developed countries flocking to many ashrams (monasteries) yearning for something absent in their own nations. Their hunger and thirst for something beyond this material world assures us that Jesus is relevant and if the story of salvation is retold in their language and explained in their life situations.
To re-evangelize and transmit faith
1. Catholic schools are necessary
2. Catholic teachers of integrity
3. Well trained laity through small Christian community
4. Longer period of marriage preparation course to have an in-depth knowledge of the sacrament of matrimony
5. Greater involvement in mass media to disseminate the gospel values and the true face of the Church.


-Archbishop Ignatius SUHARYO HARDJOATMODJO, of Jakarta, (INDONESIA)

I would like to share with you a simple experience I had during my visit to a parish where I met a local catechist. I asked him, “How many catechumens do you have?” I was surprised to hear that he had more than ninety catechumens. It was quite a lot. I asked him further, “Have you ever asked your catechumens why they wish to be baptized into the Catholic Church?” He answered, “Many of them said that they were touched by the way Catholics pray during public events such as wedding feasts or funeral services”. The prayers are so touching to their hearts, because in those occasions the invocations and benedictions are delivered in their vernacular mother tongue so that they readily understand the content, whereas before they usually heard prayers recited in a foreign language, as Muslims pray in Arabic.
The Church's evangelizing activity is - as we all understand - an act of communication which entails two basic components, namely the communication content or message - God's revelation and faith in Jesus Christ - and the communication medium - means and language within a faith community context. As far as language is concerned, translating one liturgical text to another - and any text for that matter, often prompts us to face delicate challenges or even problems. There is on the one hand, the demand for literal translation. On the other hand, we all understand that literal translation is not always possible, because of the diversity and complexity of languages. For example when the priest addresses the people, “Dominus vobiscum”, and the people are to reply “Et cum spiritu tuo”. The word “spiritus” as translated into “roh” in our language could readily evoke the idea of “evil spirit”, thus “et cum spiritu tuo” means for some communities “with your evil spirit”.
My wish - I hope that I am not alone - is that the translation of liturgical text ought not always to be done literally, rather seriously take into account the diversity of the cultural background. Could the principle of subsidiarity be applied in the task of translation and even in other areas of the life of the local Church? - subsidiarity being the spirit of Vatican II. In this way we keep our “fidelity both to the message whose servants we are and to the people to whom we must transmit it”, (EN 4), .particularly with respect to the young who live in a mass-media culture, the Church must strive to convey her message in a language that touches their hearts.
In this way, the local Church will become more communicative and expressive and as a result the faith of the people will be more energized and more relevant to their Catholic lives and engagement both in the Church and in the world .

- Mr. Manoj SUNNY, director and journalist; founder of "Jesus Youth" (INDIA)

Four specific areas which need attention in the context of the “New Evangelization”:
1. The centrality of the role of the laity: More than any other section of the Church community, the laity are in the world and involved in all the seven sectors listed in Instrumentum Laboris (Art. 51-67). Realizing the importance of the laity in reaching out to crucial areas of the secular world, working along with the clergy, is vital to the “new evangelization”.
2. The significance of reaching out to Asia: We need to focus on the evangelization of Asia, given the growing economy of Asia, the fast growth of CHINDIA (China and India) and the large number of migrations from Asia to different parts of the world. Evangelizing the laity in Asia will in turn become the most effective tool for world evangelization.
3. The urgency of forming young missionaries: Considering that there are three billion people aged below 25 on this planet, there is a pressing need to form these youngsters as missionaries. In the Jesus Youth, we take the following 7 steps to build youth as missionaries: 1. Reach out and invite them into a friendly group; 2. Orient them to an encounter with the Lord; 3. Integrate them into a community and faith culture; 4. Help them to discover their call and charisms; 5. Provide catechesis to build their Catholic faith; 6. Motivate and send them for mission; 7. Help them partake in the life of the movement and its culture of mission and commitment.
4. The emergence of new ecclesial movements and lay missionaries: The new ecclesial movements mentioned in Article 115 have given rise to the new phenomenon of lay full-time missionaries which is indispensable for the "new evangelization". Many lay people are being called to forsake full-time jobs and serve as missionaries. Armed with great professional skills and better access to secular avenues, they take the Gospel to the farthest reaches of the world where the Church struggles to enter. The Church needs to recognize and encourage such lay missionaries and support their formation, for the "new evangelization" to be truly effective.


- Mr. Riad SARGI, President of Saint Vicent de Paul Damasco (SIRIA)

During the last few days of this Synod, we have heard a lot of speeches from the Fathers of the Churches in different countries all over the word. We exchanged the knowledge and the experiences of the main topic of this Synod. In my view, the goal of the church is how to let the Christian people live the Gospel in their own families, in their Cities, their Countries, and across the entire World. To achieve this purpose, we have to let children and young people be nourished on the Gospel, the catechism, and the teachings of Christianity and later on they will spread this knowledge. To achieve this purpose we have to find the methods for attracting the girls and boys. We can't oblige them to come to the Church to get a Christian education. Therefore, we have to find the means to encourage them come to the Church through creating an atmosphere full of joy and blessing and giving them Christian knowledge based on updated technology: through the media, computers and the latest communication systems. Bishops and Priests also need to cooperate with adults in their parishes and dioceses and to use all the existing possibilities in them.
Most Holy Father, we are the minority in our country and we have two Easter feasts. The coming year, 2013, the difference will be five weeks. This situation embarrasses the Christians and many feel guilty about this situation in front of the resurrected Jesus. Christ. We humbly ask that a solution be found to this deep problem between our Church and the Orthodox Churches.


- Fr Vinko MAMI_, O.C.D., President of the Union of Religious Superiors (CROATIA)

I find it significant that in the Preface of the Instrumentum Laboris Mt 8:26 is quoted, “Why are you so frightened, you who have so little faith?”, whereas in its Conclusion there is another citation from Mt 28:5, quoted twice, “Don’t be afraid!” The last sentence of the document affirms, “''Don’t be afraid!', be the words of the new evangelization”.
To evangelize basically means to assist people to arrive to the gift of faith and Christian conduct. Consequently, the proclamation of God's Word is just a part of this task. As mentioned in these past days, evangelization consists of contemplation and silence, as well. In fact, the most memorable and probably the most effective act of evangelization during the visit of the Holy Father Benedict XVI to Croatia last year, was a short period of silence and Eucharistic adoration with the youth gathered in the main square of Zagreb, the capital city. In that silence, which lasted for about five minutes, many who were present at the gathering - as they testified later - experienced God's closeness and loving care. Nobody felt fear; they were delivered from their burdens and anxieties; they enjoyed being together; they were truly happy and spent the rest of the day in joyful singing and thanksgiving to God. I do not think that words or wonderful thoughts could have been more evangelizing than that moment of the contemplative silence which allowed them to personally encounter Jesus Christ.
Silence and contemplation are only sporadically mentioned in the Instrumentum Laboris. I believe that they should be elaborated to a greater extent if we want to better trace the path towards an actualization of the key words of the document, “Don’t be afraid”. Some of the ideas that are in the Message of the Holy Father for the 46th Communications Day, entitled, “Silence and Word: Path of Evangelization” could be used as a launching ground.

- Mr. Mikhail FATEEV, Director of "United Television" in Saint Petersburg (RUSSIAN FEDERATION)

In Russia most of the Christians represent only the first generation of believing people. Many peoples started our Christian life as adults. As we were not raised in Christian families, we don't have any experience, necessary for upbringing our own children.
This problem is now common for every Christian confession in Russia: for the Catholics, for the Orthodox and Protestants. That is why we are trying to solve it together. An official magazine of the Russian Orthodox Church in St Petersburg regularly asks Catholic authors to write texts on Christian upbringing, catechism and Christian life in families. So we have an inspiring example of cooperation between two Sister Churches. This cooperation is a testimony of a real Christian unity that we need so much in the modern secularized world.
Nevertheless, in search for unity we should not reject or forget our Catholic identity. The people are more ready to speak with us as exactly with the Catholics, not as with “common Christians”. We could see this after a meeting organized by the lay Catholics in one of the largest bookstores of Saint Petersburg. The event attracted much interest in media. So we decided to start a series of public meetings and discussions on Catholic Church, its faith and traditions. We, Catholics, went out to meet the people and were met with a great interest!
Russian Catholic community is very small. The number of those who actually practice their faith, is even smaller and instable. That is why is so important to reach those, who is losing his Catholic identity, through media. The Catholic community in Russia is very poor, so the most effective way is to use new media, such as social networks, blogs and websites. That is the best way to be heard by the young people and also by the young families. We should also cooperate with secular media. All these media resources will help us to invite the people to come back to the Church, to invite them for more deep and personal Christian life.