Pope Benedict to create
a new dicastery for
'new evangelization' in the West
by Andrea Tornielli
Translated from
April 25, 2010
He is profoundly concerned about the widening media campaign regarding sexual abuse of minors by priests and the attempts to involve him personally, but Benedict XVI never fails to surprise!
In the next few weeks, the Vatican will announce the creation of a new dicastery in the Roman Curia dedicated to the evangelization of the West, and it will be headed by Archbishop Rino Fisichella, currently rector fo the Pontifical Lateran University and president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.
Pope Benedict is said to be preparing the Apostolic Letter which will formalize the decision to create the Pontifical Council for New Evangelization, dedicated to re-evangelizing the countries which have been Christian for centuries but where Christianity's hold on peoples appears to have been considerably weakened.
Europe, the United States and South America will be the principal zones of jurisdiction for the new dicastery, alongside the centuries-old Propaganda Fide, or Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, which is dedicated to introducing Christianity in the mission lands of Africa and Asia.
The new dicastery would be the first innovation in the Roman Curia by Benedict XVI, whom many had expected to streamline the Curia.
The expression 'new evangelization' was used for the first time by John Paul II in June 1979, speaking in Nowa Huta, a dormitory city for Polish workers that seemed to be the Communist model of a city without God - it had no religious symbols or churches. The term became a key word in the Polish Pope's itinerant Pontificate.
The idea of a dicastery dedicated to this purpose first came from Don Luigi Giussani, the late founder of Comunione e Liberazione, who proposed it to John Paul II in the early 1980s, as recounted by Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes in his introduction to Fr. Massimo Camisasca's third volume on the history of C&L.
Since the context was different at the time, there was no follow-up.
[How was the context different? Western Europe was already quite de-Christianized, and certainly eastern Europe after more than 30 years of communism was!]
According to authoritative sources, the person who brought up the idea once more this time to Benedict XVI, about a year ago, was Cardinal Angelo Scola, Patriarch of Venice, who is also very much involved in the efforts to reinforce Europe's fading Christianity.
Apparently, Benedict XVI welcomed the suggestion and immediately thought of putting the new council under Mons. Fisichella, a theologian, as the most appropriate head of the new structure.
Fisichella is about to complete five years as rector at the Lateran, and is expected to be replaced by Mons. Enrico Dal Covolo, the Salesian priest chosen by Benedict XVI to preach the last Lenten spiritual exercises for the Pope and the Roman Curia.
Fisichella would also be giving up the presidency of the Pontifical Academy for Life
[where he has been involved in a dispute with some members over his statements regarding the medical abortion of a nine-year-old Brazilian girl's twin pregnancy that resulted from rape by her stepfather].
The relationship between a de-Christianized West and the faith has always occupied the attention of Joseph Ratzinger.
"The Church is always evangelizing, and has never interrupted its path of evangelization," he told a conference of catechists in 2000, "and yet, we are observing the progressive process of de-Christianization [in the West] and the loss of essential human values which are very concerning".
"That is why," he continued, "we must seek - beyond permanent evangelization, which has never stopped and must never stop - a new evangelization that can have an impact on that world which no longer has access to 'classic' evangelization. Everyone needs the Gospel. The Gospel is meant for everyone, and not just for a specific circle, and so, we are obliged to find new ways to bring the Gospel to everyone".
If he assumes the new position, Fisichella - who continues to be the chaplain of the Italian House of Deputies - will remain in the Roman Curia and automatically becomes a candidate for cardinalship.
Earlier speculation considered him the leading candidate to replace retiring Cardinal Severino Poletto as Archbishop of Turin. The other candidates are the Bishop of Alessandria, Giuseppe Versaldi, a protege of Cardinal Bertone; and the Bishop of Vicenza, Cesare Nosiglia, reportedly supported by Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, president of the Italian bishops' conference.
Meanwhile, the current president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Mons. Gianfranco Ravasi, is considered a growing possibility to succeed the retiring Archbishop Dionigi Tettamanzi of Milan. Ravasi spent most of his career before coming to the Vatican two years ago in the Curia of Milan.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 26/04/2010 03:14]