So that the city be not a desert” “

With a solemn ceremony, the International Congress for the New Evangelization opened in Paris on Saturday 23 October. The congress will continue till 1st November, All Saints, and include a series of some 450 events: liturgies, lectures, round tables and special initiatives aimed at the young, students and children. The idea of promoting a congress for evangelization in a different European capital each year was born from the meeting of four cardinals: Jean-Marie Lustiger (Paris), Christoph Schonborn (Vienna), Godfried Danneels (Brussels) and José da Cruz Policarpo (Lisbon). Last year the Congress was held in Vienna. The Archbishop of Paris, Jean-Marie Lustiger, invited his fellow-citizens to take part in the event: “Whatever your religion, whether you are a believer or not, know that in Paris you can count on our friendship”. THE CITY: DECISIVE PLACE OF EVANGELIZATION. “The big cities represent a decisive place for evangelization”. Strengthened by this conviction, Paris is hosting the International Congress for the new evangelization this year. “The big city, with all its bright lights and its chaos – explains Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, archbishop of Paris in an interview granted to the French Catholic daily La Croix, which has dedicated a special number to the event – is in reality a city of loneliness; for many it is an emotional desert devoid of love. So many suffer from it, to the point of often remaining psychologically scarred by it. Urban life is also a privileged place of violence that inhabits hearts and minds. Even if I am accused of dramatizing the situation, it seems to me that death is present almost everywhere in the city, though often it is repressed or camouflaged”. In response to this situation the Church wishes to bring “the hope that God wishes to give us” and not “just to break the loneliness of many and create more community life amid the anonymity of the city, but also to share a treasure with all those who are often seeking it”. The cardinal thinks that “perhaps we need to have the same courage and the same boldness as the first Christians”. We need, he said, to propose values such as “freedom, capacity for the absolute, the dignity of man” and to develop a “vocation to recognize ourselves children of God”. This – added Lustiger – is the truth we need to proclaim to European men and women in our time. It’s a message that requires “a depth of soul cultivated for a long time (for a lifetime!), renunciation of any immediate result, and a commitment undertaken not out of any conviction of being right but to follow Christ wherever he wants to lead us”. 450 EVENTS: A MISSIONARY CITY. The great missionary event in Paris began in earnest on Sunday 23 October, when a huge cross 16 metres high was erected in front of the cathedral of Notre-Dame. Exactly a week later, on Sunday 31 October, the “books of life” with the prayer requests that the faithful have been invited to write in them throughout the duration of the city mission in every church of Paris, will be deposited (at the end of a procession) at the foot of this cross. Key protagonists of this Congress will be the parishes, where over 300 workshops of reflection and exchange will be held during the week. Yet it is the cathedral of Notre-Dame and the basilica of the Sacre-Coeur that will be at the heart of the event: they will both remain open day and night for prayer and meditation. During the mission, a cycle of international conferences will also be held on the preaching of the Gospel in Europe, with the participation of leading academics, theologians and witnesses from other European countries. On Friday 29 October, a “Day of Forgiveness” will be celebrated: a day dedicated to reconciliation with others and with oneself. Celebrated in various churches and including various initiatives, it will also be open to non-Christians conscious of the need for reconciliation in our world. SCOPE FOR CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS. The programme aimed at the youth world is also wide-ranging. Perhaps the most eagerly awaited event for them is the feast of “Holy Wins” on Saturday 30 October, presented as a “Catholic response” to the Halloween of American tradition. The rendezvous is in the Place Saint-Sulpice for an evening concert. “Holy Wins” is an idea launched by the youth of the diocese of Paris in 2002 to “restore a sense to the feast of All Saints”. During the day, the young will distribute a brochure in which they explain the sense they want to give to the day in the light of the “Christian hope” in the face of death. Two years ago, “Holy Wins” attracted a participation of some 10,000 people. The Congress is also paying attention to the needs of children, for whom various meetings and parties have been organized to enable them to discover the happiness to which Christ calls us”.