(Vatican Radio) As the XIII General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops moves into its
final week, Vatican Radio’s Father Bernd Hagenkord, S.J., spoke with Cardinal Oswald
Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay and President of the Latin Rite Catholic Bishops’ Conference
of India. Archbishop Gracias also serves as Secretary General of the Federation of
Asian Bishops’ Conferences.
“For us,” Cardinal Gracias says, “New Evangelisation
really is living [the Gospel] more intensely, and projecting the Church, projecting
the Gospel as the answer for the problems of the society.” Further, he say, “New Evangelisation
is getting into interreligious dialogue, getting into dialogue with cultures, dialogue
with the poor. That’s extremely important for that. That’s our context, our society.
That would really be meaningful for us.”
So, Cardinal Gracias explains, for
the Church in India, the New Evangelisation has “a two-pronged effort. One effort
is to strengthen the faith of our own people, so they live it better, understand it
better, and proclaim it more confidently.” The second effort “is to really go out
and spread the good news to others.”
Cardinal Gracias speaks about the contribution
Asia can make to the New Evangelisation: “We’ve got to get God back again back to
the centre of society. I think Asia would be able to teach the world that, in spite
of material progress, God is important. In spite of material progress, God is essential
to us, that we cannot live without God.”
“I see such great enthusiasm, such
confidence and such courage” in the initiatives being proposed in the Synod. That
enthusiasm, that confidence and that courage, says Cardinal Gracias, is what he will
be bringing home with him when he returns to India.
Listen to
the complete interview of Cardinal Oswald Gracias with Father Bernd Hagenkord: