"In the Kingdom of God, there is no disproportion between investment and result, as it happens instead in the banking world of man". This was said by card. Godfried Danneels, archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels and president of the Belgian Bishops Conference, as he spoke today at the XII General Congregation of the Episcopal Synod. "Problems in communication, a secularised culture and environment, the listeners’ resistance and ignorance": these are, according to the cardinal, "the obstacles that are found in the announcement of the Word". "But perhaps he added the greatest obstacle lies in the heart of the evangeliser: his lack of confidence in and his lack of knowledge of the laws of the announcement of the Gospel, which are different from those of the world". Mgr. Christo Proykov, apostolic exarch of Sofia (Bulgaria), spoke instead of "the excessive use of God’s Word", pointing out that "in Bulgaria, since the fall of the atheist regime in 1989, people have been really longing for God", but, because of the spreading of consumerism, "the Scriptures are often used improperly, for instance in Parliament sessions for political purposes: this creates confusion and emptiness, which are easily exploited by the cults". Schools too "lack a religious education based on authentic sources. Non-authentic sources are used, such as the apocrypha, in which Jesus is shown in an offensive and grotesque light".
