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Here is my translation of the new Motu Proprio...
Apostolic Letter motu proprio of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI
by which is instituted
the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of New Evangelization
The Church has the duty to announce always and everywhere the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
He, the first and supreme evangelizer, ordered his disciples on the day of his Ascension to the Father: "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Mt 28,19-20).
Faithful to this command, the Church - a people God acquired in order to proclaim his wondrous works (cfr 1Pt 2,9) - from the day of Pentecost when it received the gift of the Holy Spirit (cfr Acts 2,1-4), has never tired in letting the whole world know the beauty of the Gospel, announcing Jesus Christ, true God and true man, who remains the same 'yesterday, today and always' (Heb 13,8), who with his death and resurrection, brought salvation, fulfilling the ancient promise.
That is why, the evangelizing mission - a continuation of the work of the Lord Jesus - is necessary and irreplaceable for the Church: the expression of her very nature.
Throughout history, its mission has taken on forms and modalities that are always new, depending on place, situation and historical circumstances.
In our time, one of its singular characteristics has been to measure up against the phenomenon of detachment from faith, which has been progressively manifested in societies and cultures which, for centuries, had appeared to be impregnated with the Gospel.
The social transformations which we have witnessed in the last decades have complex causes which have their roots deep in time, and have profoundly modified how we perceive our world.
One thinks of the gigantic progress in science and technology, in extending the possibilities of life and of the spaces for individual freedom, of profound changes in the economic field, in the intermingling of races and cultures resulting from massive migration phenomena and the growing interdependence among peoples.
All this has not been without consequences for the religious dimension of human life. If, on the one hand, mankind has known undeniable benefits from such transformations, and the Church has received new stimuli to give reason for the hope that she bears (cfr 1Pt 3,15), on the other hand, there has been a worrisome loss of the sense of the sacred, to the point of disputing some foundations which appeared to be indisputable, such as faith in one God who is the creator and provider; the revelation of Jesus Christ as the only savior; a common understanding of the fundamental human experiences such as birth, death, living in a family; and the recourse to natural moral law.
If all this has been greeted by some as a liberation, we quickly became aware of the interior desert that results when man, wishing to be the only builder of his own nature and his own destiny, finds himself devoid of that which constitutes the foundation of all things.
In fact, the Second Vatican Council tackled the central themes of the relationship between the Church and the contemporary world. In the wake of the Conciliar teachings, my predecessors reflected further on the need to find adequate means that would allow our contemporaries to hear once again the living and eternal Word of the Lord.
With farsightedness, the Servant of God Paul VI observed that the task of evangelization "is shown to be equally ever more necessary, because of the situations of de-Christianization frequent in our day for multitudes of persons who have received Baptism but who live completely outside Christian life; for simple folk who have a certain faith but do not know much of its fundamentals; for intellectuals who feel the need to know Jesus Christ in a light different from the teaching they received in their childhood; and for many others" (Apost Exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi, n. 52).
And for those who are distant from the faith, he added that the evangelizing activity of the Church "should constantly find the means and the language that are adequate to propose and re-propose to them the revelation of God and faith in Jesus Christ" (Ibid., n. 56).
The Venerable Servant of God John Paul II made this demanding task one of the cardinal points of his Magisterium, synthesizing in the concept of 'new evangelization', which he treated systematically in numerous interventions, the mission that awaits the Church today, particularly in the regions that were Christianized since ancient times.
A task which, in regard to her way of relating to the outside world, presumes first of all, a constant internal renewal, a continuous passage, so to speak, from being evangelized to being the evangelizer.
Let us remember what the Post-synodal Exhortation Christifides laici says:
Whole countries and nations where religion and the Christian life were formerly flourishing and capable of fostering a viable and working community of faith, are now put to a hard test, and in some cases, are even undergoing a radical transformation, as a result of a constant spreading of an indifference to religion, of secularism and atheism.
This particularly concerns countries and nations of the so-called First World, in which economic well-being and consumerism, even if coexistent with a tragic situation of poverty and misery, inspires and sustains a life lived "as if God did not exist".
This indifference to religion and the practice of religion devoid of true meaning in the face of life's very serious problems, are not less worrying and upsetting when compared with declared atheism.
Sometimes the Christian faith as well, while maintaining some of the externals of its tradition and rituals, tends to be separated from those moments of human existence which have the most significance, such as, birth, suffering and death.
In such cases, the questions and formidable enigmas posed by these situations, if remaining without responses, expose contemporary people to an inconsolable delusion or to the temptation of eliminating the truly humanizing dimension of life implicit in these problems.
...In other regions or nations many vital traditions of piety and popular forms of Christian religion are still conserved; but today this moral and spiritual patrimony runs the risk of being dispersed under the impact of a multiplicity of processes, including secularization and the spread of sects.
Only a re-evangelization can assure the growth of a clear and deep faith, and serve to make these traditions a force for authentic freedom.
Without doubt a mending of the Christian fabric of society is urgently needed in all parts of the world. But for this to come about what is needed is to first remake the Christian fabric of the ecclesial community itself present in these countries and nations. (No. 34)
Thus, as I take on the concerns of my venerated predecessors, I find it opportune to offer adequate responses in order that the entire Church, allowing herself to be regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit, may present herself to the contemporary world with a missionary impulse that is capable of promoting a new evangelization.
It would address, above all, the Churches with ancient foundations, who live in well-differentiated realities which correspond to different needs, and would therefore require different evangelizing approaches.
Indeed, in some territories, where the phenomenon of secularization is progressing, Christian practice still manifests vitality and profound rootedness in the spirit of entire populations.
In other regions, however, there is an even clearer distancing of society in general from faith, with an ecclesial fabric that has grown weaker, even if not entirely devoid of elements of liveliness, which the Holy Spirit cannot fail to inspire.
And unfortunately, we know of areas which appear to be almost completely de-Christianized, where the light of faith is limited to the witness of small communities: These lands that require a renewed announcement of the Gospel appear to be particularly refractory to many aspects of the Christian message.
The diversity of situations requires careful discernment. To speak of 'new evangelization' does not mean having to elaborate one formula that will apply to all circumstances. Nonetheless, it is not difficult to see how all the churches found in traditionally Christian territories need a renewed missionary impulse, as an expression of a new and generous openness to the gift of grace.
Indeed, we cannot forget that the first task will always be to make ourselves obedient to the gratuitous work of the Spirit of the Risen Lord which accompanies all those who are bearers of the Gospel, and which opens the hearts of those who listen. To proclaim the Word of the Gospel in a fruitful way, it is required above all to have a profound experience of God.
As I have had occasion to state in my first encyclical Deus caritas est: "Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choise or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction" (1).
Similarly, at the root of every evangelization is not a human project of expansion, but the desire to share the inestimable gift that God has given us to participate in his own life.
Therefore, in the light of these reflections, after having carefully examined every aspect and having sought the opinion of experts, I establish and decree the following:
Art.1.
§ 1. The Pontifical Council for the Promotion of New Evangelization is hereby instituted, as a dicastery of the Roman Curia, following the sense of the Apostolic Constitution Pastor bonus.
§ 2. The Council will pursue its purposes by stimulating reflections on themes regarding new evangelization and by identifying and promoting the forms and instruments appropriate for realizing it.
Art. 2.
The activities of the Council, which shall be carried out in collaboration with other Dicasteries and Organisms of the Roman Curia, according to their respective competencies, will be at the service of local Churches, especially in territories of Christian tradition where the phenomenon of secularization is most evident.
Art. 3.
Among the specific tasks of the Council are:
1°. To examine deeply the theological and pastoral significance of new evangelization;
2°. To promote and favor, in close collaboration with the concerned Episcopal Conferences, who can have an ad hoc organism for this purpose, the study, dissemination and execution of the pontifical magisterium on the themes related to new evangelization;
3°. To make known and to sustain initiatives linked to new evangelization that are already under way in the different local Churches, and to promote the realization of new initiatives, actively involving the resources present in Institutes for Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, as well as in associations of lay faithful and in new communities;
4°. To study and favor the use of modern forms of communication a instruments for the new evangelization;
5°. To promote the use of the Catechism of the Catholic Church as the essential and compete formulation of the content of the faith for men of our time.
Art. 4
§ 1. The Council will be headed by an Archbishop President, aided by a Secretary, an Under-Secretary, and the necessary number of officials, according to the norms established by the Apostolic Constitution Pastor bonus and the General Rules of the Roman Curia.
§ 2. The Council will have its own Members and can avail of its own consultors.
I order that everything that has been deliberated with this Motu proprio, has full and stable validity, despite anything to the contrary, even worthy of particular mention, and I establish that it shall be promulgated through its publication in the newspaper L'Osservatore Romano and that it comes into effect on the day of promulgation.
Done in Castel Gandolfo, on September 21, 2010
Feast of Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist
in the sixth year of my Pontificate
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 15/10/2010 20:23] |