Letter from Card. Hollerich
“In the first century of our Diocese, the number of inhabitants was equal to the number of the faithful”. Today “Christians have become a minority”, but “qualified minorities have often given new impetus to society”. The Archbishop of Luxembourg, Card. Jean Claude Hollerich, wrote this to mark the 150th anniversary of foundation of the Archdiocese, an event that will be celebrated with a Diocesan Jubilee Year in 2020. The theme will be “Building the Church Together”. The history of the Archdiocese has been marked by ups and downs, heroic achievements and failures, peaceful times and times of unrest between the Church and society”; it “has had a huge impact on the life of the country”; it has been “a powerful and influential force, one that will not be seen in the future”, the Cardinal wrote. “Should we regret all this?”. The answer lies in our belief that “we are truly strong only if we, as a pilgrim Church, take part with determination in the great history of love between God and humanity”, only if we are a “Church capable of radiating God’s love”. The Jubilee, the Cardinal went on to write, “invites us to broaden our vision of the Church, for the Church does not exist for herself, but is called to sow faith in the fields of the future”, sharing in the lives of men and women of our own time. “Should not the ecclesial community become a lab for the future, starting from the questions of people and their interaction with the ever-young message of the Gospel?”.
