Motu Propio: Pope Benedict XVI Establishes Pontifical Council for New Evangelization

The Church has the duty to announce the Gospel of Jesus Christ always and everywhere

In establishing the Council for the New Evangelization the Pope said "The Church has the duty to announce the Gospel of Jesus Christ always and everywhere. I feel it appropriate to offer an adequate response so that the entire Church, allowing herself to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit, may present herself to the modern world with a missionary vigor capable of promoting a new evangelization".   

P>VATICAN CITY (Catholic Online) - The Latin term "Motu Propio" means "on his own accord". It is applied to actions taken by the Pope personally and on his own authority. They often reveal a matter which the Vicar of Christ, the successor of Peter, holds near and dear. Such is clearly the case with the issuance of a motu proprio on Tuesday, October 12, 2010 officially creating the new Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization. The action came through an Apostolic Letter 'motu proprio, Ubicumque et semper' -  the Latin means "Always and Everywhere". In this historic letter and act the Pope acknowledges the dire need of the Church and signals his commitment to a new missionary age. He has created a new dicastery called the  "Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization."

Vatican Radio reported that this is a "full-fledged Vatican office dedicated to the task of preaching the gospel to Europe and other traditionally Christian regions where the faith is in crisis. The motu proprio explains that the new dicastery will work with local bishops to propose Church teaching, employing modern communications tools and methods for the promotion of the Church's message, and will mobilize missionary activities using members of religious orders and new religious movements.

"New Evangelization's new President, Archbishop Rino Fisichella spoke at a press conference in the Vatican on Tuesday to present the profile of the new Council, saying, "The Gospel is not a myth,
but the living witness of an historical event that changed the face of history." He went on to say, "The new evangelization first and foremost make known the historical person of Jesus, and his teachings as they have been faithfully transmitted by the original community, teachings that find in the Gospels and in the writings of the New Testament their normative expression."

Vatican Information Service reported: " This morning in the Holy See Press Office Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the newly-founded Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, explained the contents of "Ubicumque et semper", the Apostolic Letter "Motu Proprio data" by which Benedict XVI establishes the new dicastery.  "The theme of new evangelization has been the subject of deep reflection by Church Magisterium over recent decades", said Archbishop Fisichella. "It is immediately clear that this goal represents a challenge to the entire Church, which must ... find adequate ways to renew her announcement to many baptised people who no longer understand what it means to belong to the Christian community, and are victims of the subjectivism of our times with its closure in an individualism that often lacks public and social responsibility. The 'Motu Proprio' directly identifies those Churches of ancient tradition which ... require a renewed missionary spirit, one capable of helping them make a forward leap to meet the new requirements which the current historical situation imposes".   

"As 'Ubicumque et semper' makes clear, new evangelization is not a mere formula, identical in all circumstances", the archbishop explained. "Rather, it obliges us to develop well-founded ideas capable of acting as support to a corresponding pastoral activity. Moreover it must be capable of carefully verifying the various traditions and goals that the Churches possess by virtue of the treasure of their centuries-long history: a plurality of forms that does not undermine unity".    Nor must new evangelization sound like "an abstract formula", the president of the new dicastery continued his remarks.

"We must", he said, "fill it with theological and pastoral content, and we will do so with the strong support of the Magisterium of recent decades", also bearing in mind "the many initiatives which, over the course of recent years, have been enacted by individual bishops in their particular Churches, Episcopal conferences and groups of believers".    Among the tasks entrusted to the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization is that of promoting the use of the Catechism of the Universal Church. "The Catechism is indeed", the prelate noted, "one of the most mature fruits to emerge from the directives of Vatican Council II.

It is an organic compilation of the entire heritage of the development of dogma and is the most complete instrument to transmit the unchanging faith in the face of the constant changes and questions the world poses to believers". Thus the new dicastery will use "all the inventions that progress in communications technology has created, making them positive instruments at the service of new evangelization", Archbishop Fisichella concluded.

Vatican Information Service provided excerpts from the Apostolic Letter written by Pope Benedict XVI which we present below:

"The Church has the duty to announce the Gospel of Jesus Christ always and everywhere. ... Over history this mission has assumed new forms and methods, depending on place, situation and historical moment. In our own time, one of its most singular characteristics has been that of having to measure itself against the phenomenon of abandonment of the faith, which has become progressively more evident in societies and cultures that were, for centuries, impregnated with the Gospel.  

"The social transformations we have seen over recent decades have complex causes, the roots of which are distant in time and have profoundly modified our perception of the world. ... If, on the one hand, humanity has seen  undeniable benefits from these transformations and the Church received  further stimuli to give reasons for the hope she carries, on the other, we  have seen a worrying loss of the sense of the sacred, even going so far as  to call into discussion apparently unquestionable foundations, such as faith  in the God of creation and providence; the revelation of Jesus Christ our  only Savior, the shared understating of man's fundamental experiences like  birth, death and family life, and the reference to natural moral law".  

"Among the central themes examined by Vatican Council II was the question  of relations between the Church and the modern world. In the wake of this conciliar teaching, my predecessors dedicated further reflection to the need to find adequate forms to allow our contemporaries to still hear the Lord's living and eternal Word".  "Venerable Servant of God John Paul II made this demanding undertaking one  of the pivotal points of his vast Magisterium, summarizing the task awaiting  the Church today in the concept of 'new evangelization' (which he  systematically developed in numerous occasions), especially in regions of  age-old Christianity".  

"Thus, in my turn, sharing the concern of my venerated predecessors, I feel it appropriate to offer an adequate response so that the entire Church, allowing herself to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit, may present herself to the modern world with a missionary vigor capable of promoting a new  evangelization".  

"In Churches of ancient foundation, ... although the phenomenon of  secularization continues its course, Christian practice still shows signs of  possessing vitality and profound roots among entire peoples. ... We also know, unfortunately, of areas which appear almost completely de-Christianized, areas in which the light of faith is entrusted to the witness of small communities. These lands, which need a renewed first announcement of the Gospel, seem particularly unreceptive to many aspects of the Christian message".   "At the root of all evangelization there is no human project of expansion, but the desire to share the priceless gift that God wished to give us, sharing His life with us".

---

'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'

Copyright 2021 - Distributed by Catholic Online