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Pope Francis addressed the Dicastery for Evangelization plenary
Toward the Jubilee experience of faith, conversion and forgiveness
The Dicastery for Evangelization is presided over directly by the Roman Pontiff.
“In a few weeks” the apostolic letter for the official proclamation of the Jubilee will be published, which is to be lived as an “experience of faith, conversion and forgiveness”.
This was announced by Pope Francis in his address to the participants in the plenary session of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Section for Fundamental Questions in the World, received in audience this morning, Friday, March 15, in the Clementine Hall.
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I am pleased to welcome you, Superiors, Members and Consultors of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Section for Fundamental Questions in the World, gathered in plenary assembly.
It is an important moment for the confrontation that the problems of evangelization involve, especially when we look at the different regions of the world, so different from each other in culture and tradition.
Secularism:
My first thought is the situation of various local Churches where the secularism of recent decades has created enormous difficulties: from the loss of a sense of belonging to the Christian community, to indifference towards the faith and its content. These are serious problems, that many brothers and sisters have to face every day. But we must not lose heart.
Secularism has been studied and tons of pages have been written about it. We are aware of the negative effects it has produced, but this is the right time to understand what an effective response we are called to give to the younger generations so that they can recover the meaning of life. The appeal to the autonomy of the person, which is one of the claims of secularism, cannot be theorized as independence from God, since it is God himself who guarantees freedom to personal action.
And with regard to the new digital culture, which presents so many interesting aspects for the progress of humanity – let us think of medicine and the protection of creation – it also brings with it a vision of the human person that seems problematic when it refers to the need for the truth that dwells in every person, combined with the need for freedom in interpersonal and social relations.
Therefore, the great problem that lies before us is to understand how to overcome the rupture that has been estblished in the transmission of the faith. To this end, it is urgent to recover an effective relationship with families and formation centres.
Faith in the Risen Lord, who is the heart of evangelization, requires a meaningful experience lived in the family and in the Christian community as an encounter with Jesus Christ who transforms lives. Without this encounter, real and existential, we will always be subject to the temptation to make faith a theory and not a testimony of life.
With regard to the priority question of the transmission of the faith, I thank you for your service in the field of catechesis. And you are doing this also by using the new Directory that you have prepared for 2020. It is a valid instrument and can be effective, not only for the renewal of catechetical methodology, but I would say above all for the commitment of the Christian community as a whole.
The ministry of the Catechist
In this mission, a specific role is entrusted to those who have received and will receive the ministry of catechist, in order to be strengthened in their commitment to the service of evangelization.
I hope that the Bishops will be able to encourage and accompany vocations to this ministry, especially among young people, so that the gap between the generations may be reduced and that the transmission of the faith may not appear as a task entrusted only to the elderly.
In this sense, I encourage you to find ways to ensure that the Catechism of the Catholic Church continues to be known, studied and appreciated, so that t can provide answers to the new needs that arise over the decades.
God’s Mercy
A second theme that I would like to share with you is the spirituality of mercy as a fundamental content in the work of evangelization.
God’s mercy never fails and we are called to bear witness to it and to circulate it, as it were, in the veins of the body of the Church.
God is mercy: this perennial message was proclaimed by John Paul II to the Church and to humanity at the beginning of the third millennium, with renewed vigour and in new ways.
The pastoral care of the Shrines, for which you are responsible, must be imbued with mercy so that those who come to these places may find oases of peace and serenity..
The Missionaries of Mercy, with their generous service to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, offer a witness that should help all priests to rediscover the grace and joy of being ministers of God who always and without limits.
Ministers of God who not only waits but goes out to meet him, goes in search, because he is a merciful Father, not a master, he is a good Shepherd, not a hireling, and he is filled with joy when he can welcome a person who returns, or finds him wandering in his labyrinths (cf. Jn 10; Lk 15).
When evangelization is carried out with the anointing and the style of mercy, it is listened to more and the heart is opened with greater readiness to conversion.
In fact, we are touched by what we feel we need most, that is, pure, gratuitous love, which is the source of new life.
Preparing for next year’s Ordinary Jubilee
The third theme I would like to propose to you is preparation for next year’s Ordinary Jubilee.
It will be a Jubilee in which the strength of hope must emerge.
In a few weeks’ time, I will publish the Apostolic Letter for its official promulgation: I hope that these pages will help many to reflect on hope and, above all, to live it concretely.
This theological virtue (hope) has been poetically described as the “younger sister” among the other two, faith and charity, but without which these two do not move forward, they do not express themselves at their best.
God’s holy people need it so much!
I am aware of the great commitment that the Dicastery is putting into the organization of the next Jubilee on a daily basis.
I thank you and I am sure that this effort will bear fruit.
The welcoming of the pilgrims, however, must be expressed not only in the necessary structural and cultural works, but also in possibility of living the experience of faith, conversion and forgiveness, encountering a living community that bears a joyful and convinced witness to them.
And let us not forget that this pre-Jubilee Year is dedicated to prayer.
We need to rediscover prayer as an experience of being in the presence of the Lord, of feeling understood, welcomed and loved by Him.
As Jesus taught us, it is not a question of multiplying our words but, rather, it is a matter of giving space to silence in order to listen to his word and receive it into our lives (Mt 6:5-9 – When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.).
Let us, brothers and sisters, begin to pray more, to pray better, in the school of Mary and of the saints.
I thank you for your work in these days and for your service to the Church. I cordially bless you and pray for you. And I ask you to pray for me. Thank you very much!
