At the close of the Synod of the New
Evangelization, our Church looks to the future with hope. We have come together
as a Church, we have come together open to the Holy Spirit, and we have come
together as a people earnestly seeking the Lord’s help in bringing a scattered
people closer to Him.
Look at some of the helpful and hope-filled
things our leaders said about the new evangelization in the past weeks:
The Gospel … is true
and can therefore never wear out. In each period of history it reveals new
dimensions … as it responds to the needs of the heart and mind of human beings,
who can walk in this truth and so discover themselves…It is for this reason,
therefore, that I am convinced there will also be a new springtime for
Christianity.
-Pope Benedict XVI, Oct 15 afternoon session
Many Synod Fathers called for a new
Pentecost…of seeing the action of the Church today, enlivened by the Holy Spirit.
Many of the fathers spoke of the similarity between those early days of the
Church and our moment in time today.
We have to find ways of touching people's hearts, as well
as engaging their minds. The two must go together; we cannot neglect either…But
the thing that touches people's hearts is the example of Christian life within
families, within marriages, reaching out to the poor and those who are in
particular need in local societies, and a desire to actually love in the sense
of being willing to give of ourselves, to spend our own energy for the good of
others, whatever the return seems to be for ourselves, in the desire that this
will show our faith.
-Archbishop Bernard Longley of
Birmingham, UK, Oct 24 interview
The New Evangelization presents itself as a pastoral
project which will engage the Church for the next generations. It is urgent
that before “doing”, the foundation of our “being” Christian is rediscovered so
that the New Evangelization is not experienced as an addition in a moment of
crisis, but as a continuous mission of the Church. One must combine the need
for unity, to go beyond fragmentation, with the richness of ecclesial and
cultural traditions.
-Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, President of the
Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, Oct 9 Intervention
Visiting those unfamiliar with the Gospel of Christ we can
teach in the captivating creativity and patience of the mother who feeds her
son who does not want to, but ends up eating. We have the mandate to teach
everything the Lord commanded us. Positively teaching the wonder of life which
begins at the mother’s breast, natural marriage, faithful and fruitful, the
wealth of the elderly, the virtues and values, is more effective than scolding
and threatening those who have been wrong many times out of ignorance.
-Juan de la
Caridad Garcia Rodriguez, Archbishop of Camaguey, Oct 13
Intervention
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