AN ECCLESIAL MESSAGE OF NEW EVANGELIZATION

Introduction - We were there at Santo Domingo - How to understand the New Evangelization from a pastoral standpoint - The various aspects of newness - The role of the educative method - The assigning of priorities - An organic system of youth pastoral work - The Involvement of the lay faithful - Insistence on a renewed spirituality - Mary, the Star of the New Evangelization.

Rome, 12 December 1992 Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

My dear confreres,

In recent months I have been able to make visits to various provinces in Latin America, Europe and India, and in the present plenary session of the General Council we are at present examining the reports of the many provincial chapters so far received. As a result it can certainly be said that serious work is being done in the applications of the GC23 and the realization of its concrete educational indications.

“The dawn of a new evangelization”, we read in the Chapter Documents, “is a call to take up the building of a more human society, and asks us above all to renew in fresh contexts our faith in the Good News brought to man by Jesus Christ”.¹ The challenges we studied in the Chapter “are not mere passing difficulties, but indications of a 'change of epoch' that we must learn to assess in the light of faith.”²

“The individual and society,” the Chapter recalls, “become transformed by a 'new culture', attentive not only to the demands of individual morality, but also to the human being's every need”.³ For this reason the task of educating the young to the faith in the context of the new evangelization leads the community to rethink and renew itself in the light of the Gospel and of our Rule of life” as a community which is not only a “sign of faith” but also a “school of faith” and a “center of communion and participation”.⁴ The GC23 has clearly launched us into the orbit of “new vangelization” in the light of the emerging culture.

From October 12 to 28 last, at Santo Domingo in the Antilles, the Latin-American Bishops considered the theme of the new evangelization from a specifically pastoral point of view. Evidently they had in mind the contexts of that continent, but I think that the ecclesial nature of the event means that it can suggest valid elements to other Churches too, and particularly to our own Congregation in different parts of the world. And so I think it opportune to invite you to reflect on some of the pastoral indications of the event which bring light and strength to our own post-Chapter commitments. Our reflections will not amount to a study of the Santo Domingo Document, so rich in suggestions and pastoral proposals, but merely a general approach which can shed light on our efforts and give them added stimulation. They are more the expression of a lived experience than the results of the analysis of a text.