Proclaiming freedom

“Contemporary world, most notably secularized and laicised Europe, need evangelisers” who choose to devote their life “to proclaiming Christ” since “the force of the Gospel doesn’t wear out”. But “our faith and our evangelising efforts” have weakened. Thus stated Cardinal Claudio Hummes, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy in his homily for the Mass celebrated during the European Congress of bishops and those responsible in the Bishops’ Conferences for catechesis in Europe promoted by the Council of European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE), which closed in Rome on May 7.The future of the Church in Europe. In his address to the over 80 participants, (representing 30 Bishops’ Conferences), Cardinal Hummes declared: “It is necessary to opt for a fundamental evangelization, even within the flock of baptised faithful”, since “a large number of Christians have drifted apart” from our church communities “due to a want or lack of evangelisation”. Hence, the “first evangelisation” was often missing. “Even those who define themselves as post-Christians can be touched again”, added the prelate. However, more than a “doctrinal formulation” or a “moral code” what is needed is the experience of a “true encounter” with Christ. It is therefore necessary to find “the missionary path that will reach out to everyone”. “The future of the Church in Europe – he concluded – largely depends on the positive outcome of this commitment”. With equal approach Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, claimed, “Europe has become a Country of mission” to which “the redeeming and joyous news of Jesus ought to be proclaimed once again”. A “renewed Pentecost”. This proclamation is not “indoctrination but spiritual testimony through word and action, and throughout the entire Church”. It ought to be implemented in Europe, which is marked by “strong anti-clerical atheism and articulated atheism at political level”. This is an “ambivalent” process often leading to “an indistinct form of religiosity that is at the same time flexible and widespread, namely a self-made form religiosity”. “To the pathology of religion corresponds a pathological form of religiosity”, added the prelate, who defined the situation as a “schism separating God from the world, faith from thought, and that needs to be solved in the very interest of religion and the world”. According to His Eminence the new evangelisation entails “missionary renewal in parishes”, more “receptive” Christian communities and transmitting the message that “the Word of God” encompasses “the answers to man’s major questions”. However, only a “Church that has evangelised herself is capable of evangelising” others, he warned. “Thus, it isn’t a question of creating new organizations and institutions”, rather it is a matter of “giving new impetus to the fire of the Pentecost” that would then spread on its own. The new evangelisation of Europe “starts from a renewed Pentecost that begins with ourselves”. Surprising others with a gift. “With the first proclamation we will surprise others with a gift they didn’t know they needed”, claimed Jesuit priest Michael Paul Gallagher, dean of the Faculty of Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University. “The challenge of the first proclamation – the theologian explained – focused more on visual communication than on ideas”. Accordingly, it is necessary to identify which “forms” are “useful to the transmission of faith and which no longer are”. Furthermore, we must identify “the recipients of this proclamation” in a post-modern era marked by “fragile identities but also by a renewed lack of hostility towards faith”, Professor Gallangher claimed. In this framework, people “ought to be encouraged to imagine their lives differently, to the light of Christ”. Being in the aeropagus, he added, “means to perceive what is happening in people’s lives beyond the exterior appearance”. Acknowledging that we are loved. Father Gallagher encourages reflection. “As Hans Urs von Balthasar taught to reflect on the first smile of a child. The newborn baby who still is unable to talk but who expresses with a smile the awareness that he is being loved”. This, he claims, is the point of departure. Since “the first thing that must be done is to help people acknowledge that they are loved”. “Faith – he said – is our first yes to the first major yes”. Follow several practical suggestions. First of all, it is necessary “to recover the Word of God and the lectio divina”; then “people must be initiated to ‘abilità spirituali’ within a community”, since only through others do we find the way”. Fr. Gallagher also proposes “the sacramental way” and “the service to those suffering in the world”, in the awareness that “the Spirit is the fountainhead conveying strength to our catechesis”.