At the heart of society

“The aim of the congress, to enable the Church to offer her message about the meaning of life to man in our time, was achieved. We showed ourselves to be without complexes and without arrogance, and welcomed at least 50% more people than we had anticipated”, declared the archbishop of Brussels, Cardinal GODFRIED DANNEELS , commenting on the international congress for the new evangelization, “Toussaint2006”, which ended in the Belgian capital on 5 November. During a round table held between the five cardinals and archbishops who are promoting the initiative that each year since 2003 has taken place in a different European capital (Vienna, Paris, Lisbon, Brussels and in 2007 Budapest), Cardinal Danneels recalled the motto of this year’s meeting (Come and See) and remarked: “No one can say that we were not seen!”. According to the archbishop, moreover, “religion is not a private fact: it has its place in public life, at the heart of society”. TOWARDS BUDAPEST 2007. Over 100,000 participants took part in the mission; 5,000 in the congress proper, held in the basilica of Koekelberg; and the rest divided between the over 700 activities (prayer meetings, conferences, round tables, exhibitions and concerts) held in the various parishes of Brussels and in Christian communities elsewhere in the country. The participants included 1500 visitors from France, Portugal, Hungary, Holland, Austria, Italy, Canada and Australia. “We have touched a point of no return” commented Cardinal CRISTOPH SCH?NBORN, Archbishop of Vienna, where the first such “city mission” was held in 2003. Next year the torch will pass to Cardinal PETER ERD?, Archbishop of Budapest, who declared: “What I have experienced this week in Brussels represents for me a precious encouragement to continue the series of great congresses dedicated to the challenge of evangelization in our big cities”. CURRENTS OF LIFE. “In history – pointed out the founder of the St. Egidio Community ANDREA RICCARDI – there are deep forces that, like earthquakes, can cause great upheavals. There are deep currents of life, love and faith. Especially, history is not a direct and predictable line; the unexpected is always possible because history is not abandoned to itself, but is loved and inhabited by a deep current of the spirit of love”. According to Riccardi, “it is especially in the midst of the poor of the earth that this love is perceived”; that’s why “the Christian who has understood something about his life chooses to go towards the places where the poor and the disadvantaged live”. Evangelising, therefore, means being “friends of the poor”, but it also means maintaining “a close link with prayer”. According to ENZO BIANCHI, Prior of the Bose Community, “evangelization cannot be authentic unless it has its source in prayer: only those who have listened to the Word of God – and we have seen how this listening had its foundation in prayer – can disseminate it”. IN THE WORLD OF THE YOUNG. According to TIMOTHY RADCLIFFE , former Master General of the Dominicans, “evangelising means especially going towards people”. Referring to the young in particular, Radcliffe said “we need to enter their world, even if that world does not share our values”. Today the young “are satisfied with living from day to day; if they reject religion, they do not do so in any aggressive way, but because they think they have no need for transcendence” and “are attached to three essential values: happiness, freedom and authenticity”. In response to the epidemic of suicides among the young, we need, according to Father Radcliffe, to “invite adolescents to the happiness that has its source in Jesus Christ, who alone is able to make them genuinely free”. We also need “to show ourselves faithful mouthpieces and witnesses of our own convictions but, at the same time, humble and attentive to any traces of truth present in non-believers”. PROJECT “JOIE DE VIVRE”. “The only vocation that deserves to be lived is that of love”, declared MAGGY BARANKITSÉ, founder of the Shalom Home for child victims of war and Aids in Burundi. “The objective we pursue in our work – she explained – is that the children of the world should all have the same rights, and the strategy is that of love”. “At times – continued Barankitsé – I’m tired of proposing projects to the countries of the northern hemisphere. Could not our roles be reversed? Why do you Europeans never have a project to submit to us? For example a project entitled Joie de vivre. Finally it would be we who could then reply to you: yes, your project is approved. We are rich in love, so come to us. We have nothing but poverty to offer you, but our hearts are full of hope we would like to share”. According to the founder of the Shalom Home, the children of Burundi, who “have been able to forgive the assassins of their parents”, could “light up the lamp of forgiveness in our continent and in yours”.