Komunikat Nru 7 mis-Sinodu tal-Isqfijiet dwar l-Evanġelizzazzjoni Ġdida biex innisslu l-Fidi Nisranija

Mibgħut lilna mill-Eċċellenza Tiegħu Monsinjur Mario Grech, Isqof ta' Għawdex.

23 Ottubru 2012

(1) Fr Heinrich WALTER, General Superior of the Schoenstatt Fathers (GERMANY)

If we look at the long term, then the Church in the Western world cannot be renewed without the renewal of the family. Whoever has childern has a future. Parents with many children are statistically considered the happiest persons in society. Marriage and family must be recognized today as a vocation. This is where evangelization occurs. The believers follow, going against the current in relationship to society, the path of the sequela of Christ. For this they must be supported intensely in the preparation towards matrimony. The Sacrament of Matrimony is very precious. The failure of matrimony often has tragic consequences. We must ask ourselves clearly which are the conditions necessary for the Sacrament of Matrimony. Here a distinction must be made for the good of the family. The family remains the foundation for learning the faith. The family means seeing one’s home as the house of God. Children, with their parents, follow the lengthy path in learning the faith. The vitality of a community is connected to these homes. Families are not only the privileged location for evangelization, but inasmuch as they are laity they are also agents of evangelization.

(2) H. E. Mons. Leonardo ULRICH STEINER, O.F.M., Auxiliary Bishop of Brasília (BRAZIL)

By reason of their special vocation it belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God's will... There they are called by God that, being led by the spirit to the Gospel, they may contribute to the sanctification of the world, as from within like leaven, by fulfilling their own particular duties. Thus, especially by the witness of their life, resplendent in faith, hope and charity they must manifest Christ to others

The document of the Latin American Conference of Bishops in Santo Domingo (no. 97), invites all lay persons become the protagonists of new evangelization, of human promotion and of Christian culture. The constant promotion of the laity is necessary, free from any type of clericalism and without diminishing the intra-ecclesial. That the non-evangelized baptized should become the main recipients of new evangelization. This will effectively be achieved if the laity, conscious of their baptism, will answer the calling of Christ to be converted to being the protagonists of the new evangelization.

 New evangelization should take youths into consideration as ‘new agents’ of evangelization: the young who evangelize the young. To prepare them for catechesis, through the participation in the life of the Community of faith and the missionary experiences to be able to work in the Community and in society. To consider the new aeropagi of youths themselves as the world of education, media, internet, art and others. Indefeasible spaces for the new evangelization.

(3) H. E. Mons. Santiago J SILVA RETAMALES, Auxiliary Bishop of Valparaíso, General Secretary of the Latin American Episcopal Council (C.E.L.A.M.) (COLOMBIA)

New Evangelization can be carried out if there is the Church has the capacity for empathy and sympathy with the world and, therefore, a church that talks, which does not fear anything that is human, especially because the Son of Man came to bring to fulfillment to all men and to the whole man.  From this perspective the Church "as always" calls to open up new scenes to evangelize; it cannot be a "traditional” community, but anchored in a live tradition. It is a community that feels challenged by the Word of God, which listens with a prolific silence. It cannot be a powerful community that "im-poses" but which "ex-poses" because it is fully aware of the holder of the Truth and Life. No community can be ritualistic, but that which redefines life and puts it in the horizon of transcendence for sacramental medidtation.

(4) H. E. Mons. José  ULLOA MENDIETA, O.S.A., Archbishop of Panamá (PANAMA)

As Blessed Pope John Paul II affirmed: “the future of evangelization depends in great part on the Church of the home” (FC 52). However, for our family to reflect the face of the Church of the home, it is necessary to be a true community of love and life, of faith and salvation. And this will be possible inasmuch as it is reinforced within the nucleus of the family and in the sacrament of marriage.

However, in order to arrive at this we must develop and reinforce a pastoral care that accompanies marriage and families. We must dedicate more time and better resources to the preparation for the sacrament of marriage. We await with great interest the Vademecum prepared by the Pontifical Council for the Family, which will certainly contribute to the improvement of the human and Christian qualities of marriage. We must give greater pastoral dedication to sacramental marriages already celebrated through guidance programs in order that they be strengthened and prepared for the fulfilment of their commitments within the family, Church and society. The catechism of adults requires more attention on the part of all the Church

(5) H. E. Mons. Ricardo  TOBÓN RESTREPO, Archbishop of Medellín (COLOMBIA)

The New Evangelization in order to transmit faith should be much more than multiplying what we have done, it should be a full act, that in the circumstances of today’s world , highlights the intelligence, guiding freedom, moving the feelings, committing all life .Evangelization is an event, at the same time complex and simple. Complex because we can place it in the order of creation, simple because grace produces it naturally for those who are willing. In my humble opinion, the various processes in which evangelization is developed , should favor three specific and fundamental experiences.

Firstly, the experience of the fatherhood of God.... Secondly, it is necessary to have in a concrete way the experience of the Christian community.... Thirdly, we must get to the experience of the joy of giving to God. The true evangelization arises from the contact with God and with men in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the humble and brave testimony of what is experienced and cannot be silenced.

(6) H. E. Mons. José Luis AZUAJE AYALA, Bishop of El Vigía, Vice President of the Episcopal Conference (VENEZUELA)

Faith and charity in Christian life require that one mutually supports the other. Charity without faith is mere philanthropy, and faith that is not expressed in charity is an abstract faith; so both faith and charity involve the testimony of Christian life. Faith in charity shows us the face of Christ and sustains the preferential option for the poor, knowing that this option is "implicit in the Christological faith in the God who became poor for us, enrich us with his poverty ". Charity, in turn, bears witness to faith in the Risen Lord, who has given us the fullness of life.

The Church holds a valuable instrument of guidance and orientation for a New Evangelization of the social: Social Doctrine with its missionary component: the witness of love of Christ through the work of justice, peace and human development proposed in this doctrine (cf. VC 15). She must become announcement and witness of faith in the Resurrected who makes all things new.

(7)  - H. Em. Card. Josip BOZANIĆ, Archbishop of Zagreb (CROATIA)

Since the beginning of the Church and Christianity, the treasure of faith has found the highest as well as most fertile manifestation in the courageous witness of martyrs. The “profession and confession” of faith is tangible, in fact, in the lives given by pastors, by priests, religious men and women; but also - this must be emphasized strongly - by the lay faithful, their families. All, the ones and the others, humble and courageous witnesses who show - through their martyrdom - the place where an authentic faith arises and grows: the heart and the life of who falls in love with Christ.

In the recent history of the Church in Europe, but also in other places throughout the world, there are witnesses and experiences of this martyrdom which arose even as icons of holiness: and the liturgical memory which the Church celebrates with veneration is the eternal sign that martyrdom is always the most explicit and convincing form of transmission of the faith.

I would also like to call attention to the “new forms of martyrdom”, bloodless but still suffered, which are present and demanded today in the context of a globalized world.   Faith should never be closed within the private dimension, because the Christian’s witness is by its very nature public.

(8) H. E. Mons. Luigi NEGRI, Bishop of San Marino-Montefeltro (ITALY)

New evangelization means to re-propose the event of faith as an explicit certitude of the presence of Jesus in the life of the Church, which is the educational instrument where faith is consolidated and directs living the mission as true self-realization. Faith thus becomes culture, “critical enthusiasm of the faith”, the ability for dialogue within the horizon of charity. This implies a reasoning that is open to reality, alien to a techno-scientistic usage aimed at possessing it. 

New evangelization is the flow of life that takes on different forms of recognition, worthiness, correction when necessary, propitiating their encounter in the life of the Church. The action of the Spirit is what must be supported and which cannot be substituted with human projects.