Close to non-churchgoers

“The idea was the brainchild of John Paul II, who spoke of the new evangelization, and it was then taken up by a group of European bishops, including Cardinals Lustiger in Paris and Schoenborn in Vienna”. SirEurope’s recent meeting with the Patriarch of Lisbon, Cardinal JOSÉ DA CRUZ POLICARPO, in the Vatican, during the cardinal’s “ad limina” visit with the Portuguese bishops, began by tracing the birth of the international Congresses for the new evangelization, in other words, the experience of the city missions in major European capitals: in Vienna in 2003, Paris in 2004, Lisbon in 2005, Brussels in 2006 and Budapest in 2007. “One day – reminisced the Portuguese cardinal – I happened to meet Lustiger in the Vatican; he invited me to participate in this mission project. I accepted the proposal and the result was that the city mission was held in Lisbon in 2005”. With the mission held in Budapest in September this year, the first phase of this experiment can be said to be completed. In our interview with the Patriarch we tried to sum up the project’s achievements and to look to the future.Why hold a city mission in a European capital?“To respond to the cultural transformation of our society, which has ideological but also social motivations, such as the urbanization of the rural context, which has caused a growing abandonment of faith and religious practice among the population. The big cities have problems related to personal identity; the sense of religious belonging has been weakened. In particular in Lisbon we realized that people, in spite of their great hunger for spirituality, were seeking answers outside the Church, not so much from priests as from psychiatrists and analysts. That’s why, during the Great Jubilee of the year 2000, we, as the Church of Lisbon, had the intuition of setting up a large centre for spiritual reception outside a church environment; we installed it in an office building lent to us by a bank in the city centre. We received thousands of visits. It was a success”.Is there more yearning for Christ than there is for the Church?“There’s enormous yearning for Christ and this came as a surprise. The Church must take it on board and satisfy it. She must put into play all her charisms. She must hold out a welcoming hand to people, using the right language. She must rise to the challenge. The mission in Lisbon was characterized by a strong dialogue with the world of culture and with the city that responded positively to the appeal. TV too showed an interest. We spent two years preparing the parishes with a kind of examination of conscience on Christian life, its seriousness and profundity, and the life-changing impulse of faith. A cross sculpted by a local artist made the rounds of the parishes. During the mission we also held art exhibitions, and a week of films on Christ, with the movie house always full. The theme of man and Christ was proposed in a variety of languages. We cannot wait for non-believers to come to Church; that’s why street evangelization was simultaneously promoted, thanks to the involvement of the movements and the parishes: the results were undoubtedly positive”.How do you plan to continue?“By living as Christians in the city. There’s no need to be catechists, but those who want to do so can be prepared and formed to live as Christians, and learn to reflect on present-day problems in the light of the social doctrine of the Church. The cultural dimension today has lost, also among Christians, the sense of the supernatural. There’s enthusiasm only for nature, and that limits individual freedom and freedom of thought by preventing each person from finding the Truth. Christianity cannot be understood without the supernatural perspective, without grace. Today people no longer count on God in their daily life. God must be an everyday companion of life. There is no secularism that can substitute faith in God. That’s why as Christians we cannot refuse cultural exchange in the world of education, work and politics. We also need to dialogue through the media which enable us to enter into contact with people who don’t go to the church and who say they don’t understand us”. By doing so is the idea to go towards a mission for Europe?“It’s possible. At Budapest we realized there are other bishops willing to propose the mission in their cities. By enlarging the city missions, we will eventually arrive at a European mission. We are keen to continue because we have faith in the Christian future of Europe. If Europe has a future it can only be Christian, for its very soul is Judaeo-Christian. There can be no Europe without Christianity”. Unfortunately the Christian roots of Europe were not mentioned in the recent Treaty defined just in Lisbon in recent days…“The European Treaty, which reached its definition under the six months’ Portuguese Presidency of the EU, was nonetheless a success, because of the sheer urgency of bringing this task to fulfilment. It’s true there’s no mention of the Christian roots: the ideals of the founding fathers have been lost, but the great humanistic values remain and that’s a good thing. The Portuguese government worked well, we have to admit it. But the same would have happened in another country…”.