'Evangelii Gaudium': of style and language

(Vatican Radio) On Tuesday 26th November, Pope Francis issued his first Apostolic Exhortation 'Evangelii Gaudium', translated into English as 'The Joy of the Gospel'. A document in which the Pope shares with us his perception for a missionary Church, whose “doors should always be open”, in which he touches on a number of different themes. Among them evangelisation, peace, homiletics,social justice, the family, faith and politics, ecumenism, interreligious dialogue, the role of women and of the laity in the Church and of course respect for creation….Veronica Scarisbrick asked the Tablet’s Rome correspondent and former colleague Robert Mickens to join me in studio to comment on the style and language of this document of this 224 page document:

"What we've witnessed in these past months has been kind of encapsulated in this document, this Apostolic Exhortation. One of the things I like to tell people when they ask me about the 'Francis effect'...is to say he's a man of word and witness. And when I say word I mean this style of speaking which we've grown accustomed to...It's a warm, direct kind of way of engaging people, it's heart to heart. As a matter of fact in the Apostolic Exhortation he talks alot about the homily during our liturgies and how very important it is to speak directly and briefly...He's a natural pastor, this is a man who understands what it is to be a priest in the messiness of people's lives. I like the phrase: when we put together our programmes and our theology we shoud not be doing it in a laboratory...

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