The new splendour ” “

May you “offer a clear and appealing witness of the strength and beauty of the Catholic faith”: that is the exhortation that John Paul II made in his message to the 2,000 participants in the first International Congress on the new evangelization and the city mission, on the theme “Open the doors to Christ!” of which the first stage is now in progress in Vienna, until Sunday 1st June. The mission will continue in separate stages in Paris (2004) and in Lisbon (2005), to conclude in Brussels (2006). So four European capitals are involved in the initiative promoted by their respective archbishops. In this regard, the Pope writes in his message: “It is important that the European capitals shine forth with new splendour in their commitment to holiness”. Inviting “the city of Vienna” to pilgrimage “towards the City of God”, the Pope exhorts each missionary “to have no fear of bringing the Gospel of Christ to the homes and families of this city and of the whole country” with particular concern for “the families crucified by suffering”. Over 1,500 missionaries from 30 countries in five continents are attending the Congress; 15 are Australian delegates sent by the diocese of Sydney. To these should be added some 400 missionaries from Vienna itself. The “missionary offensive”. Recognizing “the error in recent years of proclaiming the Gospel to the already converted”, the German theologian Paul Zulehner proposed a “missionary offensive both against those appealing for help, and against those who don’t”. To this end “the missionary must above all immerse himself in Christ. If we ourselves are imbued with Christ – he said – our testimony will bear fruit because we will be automatically led towards the men and women of our time”. According to the theologian, “evangelising the cities” means “abandoning the predictable and accepting the challenge of a complex society, characterised by exhaustion, suffering and lack of humanity”. “The Church must therefore modify her own attitude to modern culture and not despise the conditions of life of contemporary society which is not hostile to the Church”, remarked the archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn. The poor and mission. “Where can God be experienced? Not far from the poor; indeed, as close as possible to them. They remind us of our weakness; they speak of the vanity of a life enclosed in our own sheltered environments; they remind us of the vulnerability we disguise under our fine clothes…”. So says Andrea Riccardi, founder of the St. Egidio Community. He is convinced that “friendship with the poor evangelises in depth”. “The Gospel expresses a preferential option for the ‘least’ and it’s not “out of a sense of guilt that the Church devotes herself to the poor when contemporary society marginalises them”, Riccardi concluded, referring in particular to the measures recently adopted by Prague to expel the homeless from the city centre. Evangelising the outskirts. “Introducing the Gospel message to Moslems and helping them to overcome the stereotypes about Christianity” and “renewing the faith of Christians, often foreigners, who wish to be welcomed in the parish community”. That’s how Cyril Tisserand, street educator in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis, summed up the “challenge” of a mission directed especially at young people and adolescents “abandoned to their own devices on the streets, victims of drug dealers and traffickers”. “The majority of Moslem families, some 70%, express a great spiritual hunger; in speaking with them, the first question that crops up is God”. Nor is it “a question of proselytism – he explains -; it’s they themselves who turn the conversation in this direction”. Christians and politics. “Europe has a need for Christians engaged in politics”, declared the Austrian Chancellor Wolfang Schussel. According to Schussel, “the participation of Christians in politics is not just a right, but a duty”, because their “view of life, which goes far beyond worldly aspects, is what the new Europe more than ever needs”. Europe, he warned, “must not lose sight of the Balkans, or the countries of the Mediterranean basin, or the African continent”.