Komunikat Nru 9 mis-Sinodu tal-Isqfijiet dwar l-Evanġelizzazzjoni Ġdida biex innisslu l-Fidi Nisranija

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

24 Ottubru 2012

(1)  Fr. Bruno CADORÉ, O.P., Master General of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans)

The labor of evangelization finds its joy and strength in contemplation. This insight made by mendicant Orders brings to light three of the challenges that evangelization faces.

The challenge of knowledge; faced in dialogue with all seekers of truth, philosophers, scientists, researchers. Deploying the sciences and knowledge provides the opportunity to realize this “beautiful friendship between faith and the sciences” proclaimed by the Council. In faith one contemplates the mystery of the ongoing creation of God and his faithful call to the freedom and reason of man. In friendship we can, with men of science, discern the challenges in order to build together a world for man.

The challenge of freedom. In meeting with our contemporaries, believers and non-believers, it is necessary first of all to present the friendship of God with man, rather than formulating questions and answers that at times are not asked in the proper terms. Being led by God’s patience rather than relying on man, so that he learns to place his freedom at the height of his dignity and to contemplate the mercy of Christ, who precedes him, He who teaches his friends what he received from the Father.

The challenge of brotherhood. Religious communities desire to be places in which brotherhood constructed in diversity aspires to be transformed by the spirit of communion in “sacrament” of friendship of God with the world. And, because of this hope, they are challenged to broaden this hope of communion, tying their destination to the forgotten of the world, making of them the conviction of the Synod of 1971: “Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel”.

(2)   Card. Angelo AMATO, S.D.B., Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (VATICAN CITY)

Saints as indispensable protagonists of the new evangelization: “the key element in the work of the new evangelization is for every Christian to answer the call to holiness” The theme of the sanctity of the Church in her being and in the acting of her children constitutes a recurring theme of the document.

In the Saints the Church offers an edifying display of the Gospel lived out, witnessed to and proclaimed sine glossa. Indeed, the Saints evangelize with their virtuous lives, nourished by faith, hope and charity. They personify the evangelical beatitudes, which are a faithful reflection of Christ: blessed are the poor in spirit, the gentle, the pure of heart, the merciful, the peacemakers, the persecuted. They respond with extraordinary creativity to the commandment to love God and neighbor: I was hungry and thirsty and you gave me food and drink, I was a stranger and you made me welcome, sick and in prison and you visited me. The saints embrace humanity with their love, rendering coexistence better, more peaceful, more fraternal. This is why the days of our calendars are marked with the names of the saints.

The history of the Church, in the East as well as the West, in the North as in the South, records saints of every age, country, race, language and culture, so that the grace of God the Trinity might be like the morning dew. It is found on all of the plants in the garden, yet on the rose it is red, on the leaves it is green, on the lilies it is white. It is the same with sanctity which, though being unique as a Divine gift, lightly penetrates and transforms the hearts of children of the Church all around the world, in Asia as well as Africa, in America as well as in Oceania or Europe. There are holy martyrs, holy confessors, holy doctors in the Church. All are witnesses to Christ and evangelizers.

(3) H. E. Mons. Emmanuel Adetoyese BADEJO, Bishop of Oyo (NIGERIA)

The Church needs to explore the possibility of turning the celebration of the sacraments themselves into more efficacious moments of faith impact which can attract non-Christians to catechesis and commitment. This can be done if we continually update homiletics and sacramental procedure with engaging art, language, idioms and imagery which can better communicate their power and meaning.....

Many in the world of today may not go to Church but they need the Church to come to them, right there where people are found, especially in those places where churches are emptying. Or is it the Holy Spirit calling us out of the “catacombs of fear and self-consciousness” to share Jesus more with others? The “original spaces of social media” namely the playgrounds, the streets, town squares, market places, nightclubs, shopping malls, even pubs and the slums, thirst to be “Church” in some form......

I would like this Synod to strongly reaffirm the role and responsibility of Catholic media professionals and practitioners in the New Evangelization and the need to pay particular attention to their spiritual development. Millions of youth all over the world are sharing the same stories, experiences and challenges, irrespective of their location, thanks to the new social, personal and digital media. The Church must humbly seek their confidence and trust knowing that youth prefer a co-communicator relationship to the old teacher-learner, speaker-listener model. When they feel like allies with the Church they can with the right format and language bring their Christian faith and values to the new social forums.

(4) -  H. Exc. Rev. Mons. Ägidius Johann ZSIFKOVICS, Bishop of Eisenstadt (AUSTRIA)

We all live in a world where the existence of not only the individual person but also all of humanity has become precarious. Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin saw life and the universe as a creative movement done by God, a movement which still has not reached its goal. I am convinced that this vision of the Church and the world could indicate a resolution to the crisis and, on the division which exists between faith and life, will have the same beneficial effect on the problems of understanding between Christian reasoning and technological research.

(5)  H. E. Mons. Joseph Anthony ZZIWA, Bishop 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....

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.