Komunikat Nru 5 mis-Sinodu tal-Isqfijiet dwar l-Evanġelizzazzjoni Ġdida
biex innisslu l-Fidi Nisranija
Mibgħut lilna
mill-Eċċellenza Tiegħu
Monsinjur Mario Grech, Isqof ta' Għawdex.
21 Ottubru 2012
(1) H. E. Javier
ECHEVARRÍA RODRÍGUEZ, Prelate of the Prelature of Opus Dei
The People of God
would like the Bishops and priests to be masters of holiness,
precisely because they seek it on a daily basis, through the
sacramental life and through their own ministry. They must be men
who pray with faith, who passionately love the Sacrament of the
Eucharist and the Sacrament of the Confession, and who live them
with sincere piety, to enrich themselves with graces and to be,
therefore, bearers of the Good News to other priests and to all the
faithful. Using those methods instituted by Jesus Christ in order to
identify oneself with Him ensures that the faithful, listening to
priests, listen to the Lord; seeing them pray, they in turn are
moved to prayer. Aware that they frequently turn to Confession, they
too will seek sacramental forgiveness.
(2) H. E.. Mons.
Joseph NGUYÊN NANG, Bishop of Phát Diêm (VIETNAM)
In Vietnam, the
Christian family plays an important role in communicating and
nurturing the faith. Parents are the first catechists that teach
prayer and doctrine to the children, especially during times of
persecution. Many families, through reciting the evening prayer
together, and reflecting on the Gospel, are progressively
evangelized. Many of the non-Christian individuals by being present,
in solidarity, at Catholic rites of marriages or funerals, hear them
speaking, for the first time, about the meaning and the
characteristics of Christian marriage, the meaning of life, the
resurrection and eschatological hope. In fact, many individuals
return for religious teaching after having participated in
liturgical celebrations.
(3) H. Em. Card. R.
SARAH, President of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum"
Faith and charity call
upon each other. The intrinsical relation between evangelization and
diakonia is demonstrated by the fact that, with the liturgy they are
the fundamental and proper dimensions in which the Church realizes
herself. The Church offers an enviable witness of charity to the
world, which gives birth to many conversions. ..., In her missionary
activity, the Church has always joined the annunciation of the
Gospel with works of charity. The great mission of charity of the
Church demonstrates the overwhelming force and the vigorous vitality
of Christ’s message to the world. Our pastoral of charity is a great
instrument of evangelization, for those who give as well as those
who receive this service. It is clear that the Church should not be
diminished to being a social service agency, however our challenge
is to lead once again, through works of charity, to God who is
charity. The charitable activity of the Church, therefore, can offer
a huge opportunity to make the light of God penetrate the world for
us.
(4) H. E. Józef
MICHALIK, Archbishop President of the Episcopal Conference (POLAND)
The current crisis in
Christian civilization in Europe is not a crisis of Christianity nor
a crisis of faith, as contemporary man is in the continual search
for answers to the questions that go beyond the dimension of
temporal and biological existence
..................
If the faith of today
becomes ever weaker, we must not only blame others, but rather
ourselves. If the message of faith is not interesting or attractive
- this is perhaps the case because that same message is no longer
interesting or attractive to us, because it does not excite us,
because we do not preach Christ to our families or on the streets of
our cities.
(5) H. E. Mons.
Francesco MORAGLIA, Patriarch of Venice (ITALY)
I hope that the new
evangelization allows greater space for catechesis, with special
attention to the complementarity of faith and reason. ..... It is
not unusual for the Catholic to experience a sort of inferiority
complex with regard to modernity and post-modernity due to a
personal, unresolved conflict between faith and reason. The silence
of the average Catholic, in giving reasons for his hope, is
resounding. Beyond strengthening the first proclamation, the reading
of the Bible, the lectio divina, .... I consider it necessary, with
regard to the new evangelization, to consolidate the structural link
between reason and faith. ..... If with God or without God
everything changes, it is our duty to re-focus catechesis on God and
on how much Christian revelation says about Him, not forgetting that
the God of Jesus Christ - as Benedict XVI reminds us - is, together,
Agapee Logos.
(6) H. E. Mons.
Sócrates René SÁNDIGO JIRÓN, Bishop of Juigalpa, President of the
Episcopal Conference (NICARAGUA)
In the Gospels there
are many concrete examples of personalized ways of transmitting the
faith, such as that related in the parable of the lost sheep (Lk 15:
1-7; Mt 18: 12-14) or the story of Jesus himself with the Samaritan
woman (Jn 4: 7-27), and Nicodemus (Jn 3:1-21): this method produces
a positive result in the recipients of the Word of the Lord. We the
Bishops of Latin America have emphasized, the importance of
transmitting the faith in a personal way, given that the individual
feels valued in the moment in which, from how we treat him according
to Jesus’ style, he perceives his meaning to God and the Church.
While outlining a New
Evangelization, we must not disregard the fact that growth in the
Church’s numbers may in fact have led to a lack of the personal
attention that Jesus gave; that is at the root of a situation in
which many baptized persons do not feel they are treated as
individuals, and “many baptized are not evangelized”.
Nevertheless, this
personalized approach to transmitting the faith calls for many
members to dedicate time to each individual and for this it is
necessary to have the support of a family that is a “special place
in which to encounter the person of Christ”. The family is “the
school of faith, the training ground for human and civil values”
Practically speaking, if in the New Evangelization there is an
interest in transmitting the faith, which is now in crisis, there
must also be an interest in the family, since ... “there is a clear
link between the crisis in faith and the crisis in marriage”.
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