From the Synod for the New Evangelization:
Brothers and sisters,
“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans
1:7). Before returning to our particular Churches, we, Bishops of the whole
world gathered by the invitation of the Bishop of Rome Pope Benedict XVI to reflect
on “the new evangelization for the transmission of the Christian faith”, wish
to address all of you spread throughout the world in order to sustain and
direct the preaching and teaching of the Gospel in the diverse contexts in
which the Church finds herself today to give witness.
1. Like the Samaritan woman at the well
Let us draw light from a Gospel
passage: Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman (cf. John 4:5-42). There is
no man or woman who, in one’s life, would not find oneself like the woman of
Samaria beside a well with an empty bucket, with the hope of finding the
fulfillment of the heart’s most profound desire, that which alone could give
full meaning to existence. Today, many wells offer themselves to quench
humanity’s thirst, but we must discern in order to avoid polluted waters. We
must orient the search well, so as not to fall prey to disappointment, which
can be disastrous.
Like Jesus at the well of Sychar, the Church also feels obliged to sit beside
today’s men and women. She wants to render the Lord present in their lives so
that they could encounter him because he alone is the water that gives true and
eternal life. Only Jesus can read the depths of our heart and reveal the truth
about ourselves: “He told me everything I have done”, the woman confesses to
her fellow citizens. This word of proclamation is united to the question that
opens up to faith: “Could he possibly be the Messiah?” It shows that whoever
receives new life from encountering Jesus cannot but proclaim truth and hope to
others. The sinner who was converted becomes a messenger of salvation and leads
the whole city to Jesus. The people pass from welcoming her testimony to
personally experiencing the encounter: “We no longer believe because of your
word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the
savior of the world”.
2. A new evangelization
Leading the men and women of our time
to Jesus, to the encounter with him is a necessity that touches all the regions
of the world, those of the old and those of the recent evangelization.
Everywhere indeed we feel the need to revive a faith that risks eclipse in
cultural contexts that hinders its taking root in persons and its presence in
society, the clarity of its content and its coherent fruits.
It is not about starting again, but
entering into the long path of proclaiming the Gospel with the apostolic
courage of Paul who would go so far as to say “Woe to me if I do not preach the
Gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16). Throughout history, from the first centuries of the
Christian era to the present, the Gospel has edified communities of believers
in all parts of the world. Whether small or great, these are the fruit of the
dedication of generations of witnesses to Jesus – missionaries and martyrs –
whom we remember with gratitude.
Changing societies and cultures call us
to something new: to live our communitarian experience of faith in a renewed
way and to proclaim it through an evangelization that is “new in its ardor, in
its methods, in its expressions” (John Paul II, Discourse to the XIX Assembly
of CELAM, Port-au-Prince, 9 March 1983, n. 3) as John Paul II said. Benedict
XVI recalled that it is an evangelization that is directed “principally at
those who, though baptized, have drifted away from the Church and live without
reference to the Christian life… to help these people encounter the Lord, who
alone fills our existence with deep meaning and peace; and to favor the
rediscovery of the faith, that source of grace which brings joy and hope to
personal, family and social life”(Benedict XVI, Homily for the Eucharistic
celebration for the solemn inauguration of the XIII Ordinary General Assembly
of the Synod of Bishops, Rome, 7 October 2012).
3. The personal encounter with Jesus
Christ in the Church
Before saying anything about the forms
that this new evangelization must assume, we feel the need to tell you with
profound conviction that the faith determines everything in the relationship
that we build with the person of Jesus who takes the initiative to encounter
us. The work of the new evangelization consists in presenting once more the
beauty and perennial newness of the encounter with Christ to the often
distracted and confused heart and mind of the men and women of our time, above
all to ourselves. We invite you all to contemplate the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ, to enter the mystery of his existence given for us on the cross,
reconfirmed in his resurrection from the dead as the Father’s gift and imparted
to us through the Spirit. In the person of Jesus, the mystery of God the
Father’s love for the entire human family is revealed. He did not want us to
remain in a false autonomy. Rather he reconciled us to himself in a renewed
pact of love.
The Church is the space offered by
Christ in history where we can encounter him, because he entrusted to her his
Word, the Baptism that makes us God’s children, his Body and his Blood, the
grace of forgiveness of sins above all in the sacrament of Reconciliation, the
experience of communion that reflects the very mystery of the Holy Trinity, the
strength of the Spirit that generates charity towards all.
We must form welcoming communities in
which all outcasts find a home, concrete experiences of communion which attract
the disenchanted glance of contemporary humanity with the ardent force of love
– “See how they love one another!” (Tertullian, Apology, 39, 7). The beauty of
faith must particularly shine in the actions of the sacred Liturgy, above all
in the Sunday Eucharist. It is precisely in liturgical celebrations that the
Church reveals herself as God’s work and renders the meaning of the Gospel
visible in word and gesture.
It is up to us today to render
experiences of the Church concretely accessible, to multiply the wells where
thirsting men and women are invited to encounter Jesus, to offer oases in the
deserts of life. Christian communities and, in them, every disciple of the Lord
are responsible for this: an irreplaceable testimony has been entrusted to each
one, so that the Gospel can enter the lives of all. This requires of us
holiness of life.
4. The occasions of encountering Jesus
and listening to the Scriptures
Someone will ask how to do all this. We
need not invent new strategies as if the Gospel were a product to be placed in
the market of religions. We need to rediscover the ways in which Jesus
approached persons and called them, in order to put them into practice in
today’s circumstances.
We recall, for example, how Jesus
engaged Peter, Andrew, James and John in the context of their work, how
Zaccheus was able to pass from simple curiosity to the warmth of sharing a meal
with the Master, how the Roman centurion asked him to heal a person dear to
him, how the man born blind invoked him as liberator from his own
marginalization, how Martha and Mary saw the hospitality of their house and of
their heart rewarded by his presence. By going through the pages of the Gospels
as well as the apostles’ missionary experiences in the early Church, we can
discover the various ways and circumstances in which persons’ lives were opened
to Christ’s presence.
The frequent reading of the Sacred
Scriptures – illuminated by the Tradition of the Church who hands them over to
us and is their authentic interpreter – is not only necessary for knowing the
very content of the Gospel, which is the person of Jesus in the context of
salvation history. Reading the Scriptures also helps us to discover
opportunities to encounter Jesus, truly evangelical approaches rooted in the
fundamental dimensions of human life: the family, work, friendship, various forms
of poverty and the trials of life, etc.
5. Evangelizing ourselves and opening
ourselves to conversion
We, however, should never think that
the new evangelization does not concern us personally. In these days voices
among the Bishops were raised to recall that the Church must first of all heed
the Word before she could evangelize the world. The invitation to evangelize
becomes a call to conversion.
We firmly believe that we must convert
ourselves above all to the power of Christ who alone can make all things new,
above all our poor existence. With humility we must recognize that the poverty
and weaknesses of Jesus’ disciples, especially of his ministers, weigh on the
credibility of the mission. We are certainly aware – we Bishops first of all –
that we could never really be equal to the Lord’s calling and mandate to
proclaim his Gospel to the nations. We know that we must humbly recognize our
vulnerability to the wounds of history and we do not hesitate to recognize our
personal sins. We are, however, also convinced that the Lord’s Spirit is
capable of renewing his Church and rendering her garment resplendent if we let
him mold us. This is demonstrated by the lives of the Saints, the remembrance
and narration of which is a privileged means of the new evangelization.
If this renewal were up to us, there
would be serious reasons to doubt. But conversion in the Church, just like
evangelization, does not come about primarily through us poor mortals, but
rather through the Spirit of the Lord. Here we find our strength and our
certainty that evil will never have the last word whether in the Church or in
history: “Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid” (John 14:27), Jesus
said to his disciples.
The work of the new evangelization
rests on this serene certainty. We are confident in the inspiration and
strength of the Spirit, who will teach us what we are to say and what we are to
do even in the most difficult moments. It is our duty, therefore, to conquer
fear through faith, humiliation through hope, indifference through love.
6. Seizing new opportunities for
evangelization in the world today
This serene courage also affects the
way we look at the world today. We are not intimidated by the circumstances of
the times in which we live. Our world is full of contradictions and challenges,
but it remains God’s creation. The world is wounded by evil, but God loves it
still. It is his field in which the sowing of the Word can be renewed so that
it would bear fruit once more.
There is no room for pessimism in the
minds and hearts of those who know that their Lord has conquered death and that
his Spirit works with might in history. We approach this world with humility,
but also with determination. This comes from the certainty that the truth
triumphs in the end. We choose to see in the world God’s invitation to witness
to his Name. Our Church is alive and faces the challenges that history brings
with the courage of faith and the testimony of her many daughters and sons.
We know that we must face in this world
a difficult struggle against the “principalities” and “powers”, “the evil
spirits” (Ephesians 6:12). We do not ignore the problems that such challenges
bring, but they do not frighten us. This is true above all for the phenomena of
globalization which must be opportunities for us to expand the presence of the
Gospel. Despite the intense sufferings for which we welcome migrants as
brethren, migrations have been and continue to be occasions to spread the faith
and build communion in its various forms. Secularization – as well as the
crisis brought about the ascendancy of politics and of the State – requires the
Church to rethink its presence in society without however renouncing it. The
many and ever new forms of poverty open new opportunities for charitable
service: the proclamation of the Gospel binds the Church to be with the poor
and to take on their sufferings like Jesus. Even in the most bitter forms of
atheism and agnosticism, we can recognize – although in contradictory forms –
not a void but a longing, an expectation that awaits an adequate response.
In the face of the questions that
dominant cultures pose to faith and to the Church, we renew our trust in the
Lord, certain that even in these contexts the Gospel is the bearer of light and
capable of healing every human weakness. It is not we who are to conduct the
work of evangelization, but God, as the Pope reminded us: “The first word, the
true initiative, the true activity comes from God and only by inserting
ourselves in to the divine initiative, only by begging this divine initiative,
will we too be able to become – with him and in him – evangelizers”(Benedict
XVI, Meditation during the first general Congregation of the XIII General
Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, Rome, 8 October 2012).
7. Evangelization, the family and
consecrated life
Ever since the first evangelization,
the transmission of the faith from one generation to the next found a natural
home in the family where women play a very special role without diminishing the
figure and responsibility of the father. In the context of the care that every
family provides for the growth of its little ones, infants and children are
introduced to the signs of faith, the communication of first truths, education
in prayer, and the witness of the fruits of love. Despite the diversity of
their geographical, cultural and social situations, all the Bishops of the
Synod reconfirmed this essential role of the family in the transmission of the
faith. A new evangelization is unthinkable without acknowledging a specific responsibility
to proclaim the Gospel to families and to sustain them in their task of
education.
We do not ignore the fact that today
the family, established in the marriage of a man and of a woman which makes
them “one flesh” (Matthew 19:6) open to life, is assaulted by crises
everywhere. It is surrounded by models of life that penalize it and neglected
by the politics of society of which it is also the fundamental cell. It is not
always respected in its rhythms and sustained in its tasks by ecclesial communities.
It is precisely this, however, that impels us to say that we must particularly
take care of the family and its mission in society and in the Church,
developing specific paths of accompaniment before and after matrimony. We also
want to express our gratitude to the many Christian couples and families who,
through their witness, show the world an experience of communion and of service
which is the seed of a more loving and peaceful society.
Our thoughts also went to the many
families and couples living together which do not reflect that image of unity
and of lifelong love that the Lord entrusted to us. There are couples who live
together without the sacramental bond of matrimony. More and more families in
irregular situations are established after the failure of previous marriages.
These are painful situations that negatively affect the education of sons and
daughters in the faith. To all of them we want to say that God’s love does not
abandon anyone, that the Church loves them, too, that the Church is a house
that welcomes all, that they remain members of the Church even if they cannot
receive sacramental absolution and the Eucharist. May our Catholic communities
welcome all who live in such situations and support those who are in the path
of conversion and reconciliation.
Family life is the first place in which
the Gospel encounters the ordinary life and demonstrates its capacity to
transform the fundamental conditions of existence in the horizon of love. But
not less important for the witness of the Church is to show how this temporal
existence has a fulfillment that goes beyond human history and attains to
eternal communion with God. Jesus does not introduce himself to the Samaritan
woman simply as the one who gives life, but as the one who gives “eternal life”
(John 4:14). God’s gift, which faith renders present, is not simply the promise
of better conditions in this world. It is the proclamation that our life’s
ultimate meaning is beyond this world, in that full communion with God that we
await at the end of time.
Of this supernatural horizon of the
meaning of human existence, there are particular witnesses in the Church and in
the world whom the Lord has called to consecrated life. Precisely because it is
totally consecrated to him in the exercise of poverty, chastity and obedience,
consecrated life is the sign of a future world that relativizes everything that
is good in this world. May the gratitude of the Assembly of the Synod of
Bishops reach these our brothers and sisters for their fidelity to the Lord’s
calling and for the contribution that they have given and give to the Church’s
mission. We exhort them to hope in situations that are difficult even for them
in these times of change. We invite them to establish themselves as witnesses
and promoters of new evangelization in the various fields to which the charism
of each of their institutes assigns them.
8. The ecclesial community and the many
agents of evangelization
No one person or group in the Church
has exclusive right to the work of evangelization. It is the work of ecclesial
communities as such, where one has access to all the means for encountering
Jesus: the Word, the sacraments, fraternal communion, charitable service,
mission.
In this perspective, the role of the
parish emerges above all as the presence of the Church where men and women
live, “the village fountain”, as John XXIII loved to call it, from which all
can drink, finding in it the freshness of the Gospel. It cannot be abandoned,
even though changes can require of it to be made up of small Christian
communities or to either the articulation into small communities or forge bonds
of collaboration within larger pastoral contexts. We exhort our parishes to
join the new forms of mission required by the new evangelization to the traditional
pastoral care of God’s people. These must also permeate the various important
expressions of popular piety.
In the parish, the ministry of the
priest – father and pastor of his people – remains crucial. To all priests, the
Bishops of this Synodal Assembly express thanks and fraternal closeness for
their difficult task. We invite them to strengthen the bonds of the diocesan
presbyterium, to deepen their spiritual life, to an ongoing formation that
enables them to face the changes.
Alongside the priests, the presence of
deacons is to be sustained, as well as the pastoral action of catechists and of
many other ministers and animators in the fields of proclamation, catechesis,
liturgical life, charitable service. The various forms of participation and
co-responsibility of the faithful must also be promoted. We cannot thank enough
our lay men and women for their dedication in our communities’ manifold
services. We ask all of them, too, to place their presence and their service in
the Church in the perspective of the new evangelization, taking care of their
own human and Christian formation, their understanding of the faith and their
sensitivity to contemporary cultural phenomena.
With regard to the laity, a special
word goes to the various forms of old and new associations, together with the
ecclesial movements and the new communities: All are an expression of the
richness of the gifts that the Spirit bestows on the Church. We also thank
these forms of life and of commitment in the Church, exhorting them to be faithful
to their proper charism and to earnest ecclesial communion especially in the
concrete context of the particular Churches.
Witnessing to the Gospel is not the
privilege of one or of a few. We recognize with joy the presence of many men
and women who with their lives become a sign of the Gospel in the midst of the
world. We recognize them even in many of our Christian brothers and sisters
with whom unity unfortunately is not yet full, but are nevertheless marked by
the Lord’s Baptism and proclaim it. In these days it was a moving experience
for us to listen to the voices of many authorities of Churches and ecclesial
communities who gave witness to their thirst for Christ and their dedication to
the proclamation of the Gospel. They, too, are convinced that the world needs a
new evangelization. We are grateful to the Lord for this unity in the necessity
of the mission.
9. That the youth may encounter Christ
The youth are particularly dear to us,
because they, who are a significant part of humanity’s and the Church’s
present, are also their future. With regard to them, the Bishops are far from
being pessimistic. Concerned, yes; but not pessimistic. We are concerned
because the most aggressive attacks of our times happen to converge precisely
on them. We are not, however, pessimistic, above all because what moves in the
depths of history is Christ’s love, but also because we sense in our youth deep
aspirations for authenticity, truth, freedom, generosity, to which we are
convinced that the adequate response is Christ.
We want to support them in their search
and we encourage our communities to listen to, dialogue with and respond boldly
and without reservation to the difficult condition of the youth. We want our
communities to harness, and not to suppress, the power of their enthusiasm; to
struggle for them against the fallacies and selfish ventures of worldly powers
which, to their own advantage, dissipate the energies and waste the passion of
the young, taking from them every grateful memory of the past and every earnest
vision of the future.
The world of the young is a demanding
but also particularly promising field of the New Evangelization. This is
demonstrated by many experiences, from those that draw many of them like the
World Youth Days, to the most hidden – but nonetheless powerful – like the
different experiences of spirituality, service and mission. The youth’s active
role in evangelizing first and foremost their world is to be recognized.
10. The Gospel in dialogue with human
culture and experience and with religions
The New Evangelization is centered on
Christ and on care for the human person in order to give life to a real
encounter with him. However, its horizons are as wide as the world and beyond
any human experience. This means that it carefully cultivates the dialogue with
cultures, confident that it can find in each of them the “seeds of the Word”
about which the ancient Fathers spoke. In particular, the new evangelization
needs a renewed alliance between faith and reason. We are convinced that faith
has the capacity to welcome every product of a sound mind open to transcendence
and the strength to heal the limits and contradictions into which reason could
fall. Faith does not close its eyes, not even before the excruciating questions
arising from evil’s presence in life and in history, in order to draw the light
of hope from Christ’s Paschal Mystery.
The encounter between faith and reason
nourishes also the Christian community’s commitment in the field of education
and culture. The institutions of formation and of research – schools and
universities – occupy a special place in this. Wherever human intelligence is
developed and educated, the Church is pleased to bring her experience and
contribution to the integral formation of the person. In this context
particular care is to be reserved for catholic schools and for catholic
universities, in which the openness to transcendence that belongs to every
authentic cultural and educational course, must be fulfilled in paths of
encounter with the event of Jesus Christ and of his Church. May the gratitude
of the Bishops reach all who, in sometimes difficult conditions, are involved
in this.
Evangelization requires that we pay
much attention to the world of social communication, especially the new media,
in which many lives, questions and expectations converge. It is the place where
consciences are often formed, where people spend their time and live their
lives. It is a new opportunity for touching the human heart.
A particular field of the encounter
between faith and reason today is the dialogue with scientific knowledge. This
is not at all far from faith, since it manifests the spiritual principle that
God placed in his creatures. It allows us to see the rational structures on
which creation is founded. When science and technology do not presume to
imprison humanity and the world in a barren materialism, they become an
invaluable ally in making life more humane. Our thanks also go to those who are
involved in this sensitive field of knowledge.
We also want to thank men and women
involved in another expression of the human genius, art in its various forms,
from the most ancient to the most recent. We recognize in works of art a
particularly meaningful way of expressing spirituality inasmuch as they strive
to embody humanity’s attraction to beauty. We are grateful when artists through
their beautiful creations bring out the beauty of God’s face and that of his
creatures. The way of beauty is a particularly effective path of the new
evangelization.
In addition to works of art, all of
human activity draws our attention as an opportunity in which we cooperate in
divine creation through work. We want to remind the world of economy and of
labor of some reminders arising from the Gospel: to redeem work from the
conditions that often make it an unbearable burden and an uncertain future
threatened by youth unemployment, to place the human person at the center of
economic development, to think of this development as an occasion for humanity
to grow in justice and unity. Humanity transforms the world through work.
Nevertheless he is called to safeguard the integrity of creation out of a sense
of responsibility towards future generations.
The Gospel also illuminates the
suffering brought about by disease. Christians must help the sick feel that the
Church is near to persons with illness or with disabilities. Christians are to
thank all who take care of them professionally and humanely.
A field in which the light of the Gospel can and must shine in order to
illuminate humanity’s footsteps is politics. Politics requires a commitment of
selfless and sincere care for the common good by fully respecting the dignity
of the human person from conception to natural end, honoring the family founded
by the marriage of a man and a woman and protecting academic freedom; by
removing the causes of injustice, inequality, discrimination, violence, racism,
hunger and war. Christians are asked to give a clear witness to the precept of
charity in the exercise of politics.
Finally, the Church considers the other
religions are her natural partners in dialogue. One is evangelized because one
is convinced of the truth of Christ, not because one is against another. The
Gospel of Jesus is peace and joy, and his disciples are happy to recognize
whatever is true and good that humanity’s religious spirit has been able to
glimpse in the world created by God and that it has expressed in the various
religions.
The dialogue among religions intends to
be a contribution to peace. It rejects every fundamentalism and denounces every
violence that is brought upon believers as serious violations of human rights.
The Churches of the whole world are united in prayer and in fraternity to the
suffering brethren and ask those who are responsible for the destinies of
peoples to safeguard everyone’s right to freely choose, profess and witness to
one’s faith.
11. Remembering the Second Vatican
Council and referring to the Catechism of the Catholic Church in the Year of
Faith
In the path opened by the New
Evangelization, we might also feel as if we were in a desert, in the midst of
dangers and lacking points of reference. The Holy Father Benedict XVI, in his
homily for the Mass opening the Year of Faith, spoke of a “spiritual ‘desertification’”
that has advanced in the last decades. But he also encouraged us by affirming
that “it is in starting from the experience of this desert, from this void,
that we can again discover the joy of believing, its vital importance for us,
men and women. In the desert we rediscover the value of what is essential for
living” (Homily for the Eucharistic celebration for the opening of the Year of
Faith, Rome, 11 October 2012). In the desert, like the Samaritan woman, we seek
water and a well from which to drink: blessed is the one who encounters Christ
there!
We thank the Holy Father for the gift
of the Year of Faith, an exquisite portal into the path of the new
evangelization. We thank him also for having linked this Year to the grateful
remembrance of the opening of the Second Vatican Council fifty years ago. Its
fundamental magisterium for our time shines in the Catechism of the Catholic
Church, which is proposed once more as a sure reference of faith twenty years
after its publication. These are important anniversaries, which allow us to
reaffirm our close adherence to the Council’s teaching and our firm commitment
to carry on its implementation.
12. Contemplating the mystery and being
at the side of the poor
In this perspective we wish to indicate
to all the faithful two expressions of the life of faith which seem
particularly important to us for witnessing to it in the New Evangelization.
The first is constituted by the gift
and experience of contemplation. A testimony that the world would consider
credible can arise only from an adoring gaze at the mystery of God, Father, Son
and Holy Spirit, only from the deep silence that receives the unique saving
Word like a womb. Only this prayerful silence can prevent the word of salvation
from being lost in the many noises that overrun the world.
We now address a word of gratitude to
all men and women who dedicate their lives in monasteries and hermitages to
prayer and contemplation. Moments of contemplation must interweave with
people’s ordinary lives: spaces in the soul, but also physical ones, that
remind us of God; interior sanctuaries and temples of stone that, like
crossroads, keep us from losing ourselves in a flood of experiences;
opportunities in which all could feel accepted, even those who barely know what
and whom to seek.
The other symbol of authenticity of the
new evangelization has the face of the poor. Placing ourselves side by side
with those who are wounded by life is not only a social exercise, but above all
a spiritual act because it is Christ’s face that shines in the face of the
poor: “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for
me” (Matthew 25:40).
We must recognize the privileged place
of the poor in our communities, a place that does not exclude anyone, but wants
to reflect how Jesus bound himself to them. The presence of the poor in our
communities is mysteriously powerful: it changes persons more than a discourse
does, it teaches fidelity, it makes us understand the fragility of life, it
asks for prayer: in short, it brings us to Christ.
The gesture of charity, on the other
hand, must also be accompanied by commitment to justice, with an appeal that
concerns all, poor and rich. Hence, the social doctrine of the Church is
integral to the pathways of the new evangelization, as well as the formation of
Christians to dedicate themselves to serve the human community in social and
political life.
13. To the Churches in the various
regions of the world
The vision of the Bishops gathered in
the synodal assembly embraces all the ecclesial communities spread throughout
the world. Their vision seeks to be comprehensive, because the call to
encounter Christ is one, while keeping diversity in mind.
The Bishops gathered in the Synod gave
special consideration, full of fraternal affection and gratitude, to you
Christians of the Catholic Oriental Churches, those who are heirs of the first
wave of evangelization – an experience preserved with love and faithfulness –
and those present in Eastern Europe. Today the Gospel comes to you again in a
new evangelization through liturgical life, catechesis, daily family prayer,
fasting, solidarity among families, the participation of the laity in the life
of communities and in dialogue with society. In many places your Churches are
amidst trials and tribulation through which they witness to their participation
in the sufferings of Christ. Some of the faithful are forced to emigrate.
Keeping alive their oneness with their community of origin, they can contribute
to the pastoral care and to the work of evangelization in the countries that
have welcomed them. May the Lord continue to bless your faithfulness. May your
future be marked by the serene confession and practice of your faith in peace
and religious liberty.
We look to you Christians, men and
women, who live in the countries of Africa and we express our gratitude for
your witness to the Gospel often in difficult circumstances. We exhort you to
revive the evangelization that you received in recent times, to build the
Church as the family of God, to strengthen the identity of the family, to
sustain the commitment of priests and catechists especially in the small
Christian communities. We affirm the need to develop the encounter between the
Gospel and old and new cultures. Great expectation and a strong appeal is
addressed to the world of politics and to the governments of the various
countries of Africa, so that, in collaboration with all people of good will,
basic human rights may be promoted and the continent freed from violence and
conflicts which still afflict it.
The Bishops of the synodal Assembly
invite you, Christians of North America, to respond with joy to the call to a
new evangelization, while they look with gratitude at how your young Christian
communities have borne generous fruits of faith, charity and mission. You need
to recognize the many expressions of the present culture in the countries of
your world which are today far from the Gospel. Conversion is necessary, from
which is born a commitment that does not bring you out of your cultures, but in
their midst to offer to all the light of faith and the power of life. As you
welcome in your generous lands new populations of immigrants and refugees, may
you be willing to open the doors of your homes to the faith. Faithful to the commitments
taken at the synodal Assembly for America, be united with Latin America in the
ongoing evangelization of the continent you share.
The synodal assembly addressed the same
sentiment of gratitude to the Church in Latin America and the Caribbean. Particularly
striking throughout the ages is the development in your countries of forms of
popular piety still fixed in the hearts of many people, of charitable service
and of dialogue with cultures. Now, in the face of many present challenges,
first of all poverty and violence, the Church in Latin America and in the
Caribbean is encouraged to live in an ongoing state of mission, announcing the
Gospel with hope and joy, forming communities of true missionary disciples of
Jesus Christ, showing in the commitment of its sons and daughters how the
Gospel could be the source of a new, just and fraternal society. Religious
pluralism also tests your Churches and requires a renewed proclamation of the
Gospel.
To you, Christians of Asia, we also
offer a word of encouragement and of exhortation. As a small minority in the
continent which houses almost two thirds of the world’s population, your
presence is a fruitful seed entrusted to the power of the Spirit, which grows
in dialogue with the diverse cultures, with the ancient religions and with the
countless poor. Although often outcast by society and in many places also
persecuted, the Church of Asia, with its firm faith, is a valuable presence of
the Christ’s Gospel which proclaims justice, life and harmony. Christians of Asia,
feel the fraternal closeness of Christians of other countries of the world
which cannot forget that in your continent – in the Holy Land – Jesus was born,
lived, died and rose from the dead.
The Bishops address a word of gratitude
and hope to the Churches of the European continent, in part marked today by a
strong – sometimes even aggressive – secularization, and in part still wounded
by many decades of regimes with ideologies hostile to God and to man. We look
with gratitude towards the past, but also to the present, in which the Gospel
has created in Europe singular theologies and experiences of faith – often
overflowing with holiness – that have been decisive for the evangelization of
the whole world: richness of theological thought, variety of charismatic
expressions, varied forms of charitable service towards the poor, profound
contemplative experiences, the creation of a humanistic culture which has
contributed to defining the dignity of the person and shaping the common good.
May the present difficulties not pull you down, dear Christians of Europe: may
you consider them instead as a challenge to be overcome and an occasion for a
more joyful and vivid proclamation of Christ and of his Gospel of life.
Finally, the bishops of the synodal
assembly greet the people of Oceania who live under the protection of the
southern Cross, they thank them for their witness to the Gospel of Jesus. Our
prayer for you is that you might feel a profound thirst for new life, like the
Samaritan Woman at the well, and that you might be able to hear the word of
Jesus which says: “If you knew the gift of God” (John 4:10). May you more
strongly feel the commitment to preach the Gospel and to make Jesus known in
the world of today. We exhort you to encounter him in your daily life, to
listen to him and to discover, through prayer and meditation, the grace to be
able to say: “We know that this is truly the Savior of the World” (John 4:42).
14. The star of Mary illumines the desert
Arriving at the end of this experience
of communion among Bishops of the entire world and of collaboration with the
ministry of the Successor of Peter, we hear echoing in us the actual command of
Jesus to his disciples: “Go and make disciples of all nations [...] and behold,
I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19,20). This time,
the mission is not addressed to one geographic area only, but goes to the very
hidden depths of the hearts of our contemporaries to draw them back to an
encounter with Jesus, the Living One who makes himself present in our
communities.
This presence fills our hearts with
joy. Grateful for the gifts received from him in these days, we raise to him
the hymn of praise: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord [...] The
Mighty One has done great things for me” (Luke 1:46,49). We make Mary’s words
our own: the Lord has indeed done great things for his Church throughout the
ages in various parts of the world and we magnify him, certain that he will not
fail to look on our poverty in order to show the strength of his arm in our
days and to sustain us in the path of the new evangelization.
The figure of Mary guides us on our
way. Our work, as Pope Benedict XVI told us, can seem like a path across the
desert; we know that we must journey, taking with us what is essential: the
company of Jesus, the truth of his word, the eucharistic bread which nourishes
us, the fellowship of ecclesial communion, the impetus of charity. It is the
water of the well that makes the desert bloom. As stars shine more brightly at
night in the desert, so the light of Mary, Star of the new evangelization,
brightly shines in heaven on our way. To her we confidently entrust ourselves.
When looking at our hits on blog, I've noticed that over the past couple months we've been receiving an increasing amount of visits from people in Russia. So much so that in this past month, they almost equal the hits we receive in our own country of Canada. 
