By Carl Anderson

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut, FEB. 15, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Among the many things Pope John Paul II will certainly be remembered for is his outreach to youth. The establishment of World Youth Day, a tradition that has been embraced by Benedict XVI, has proven a visionary teaching opportunity, a way to reach the next generation of Catholic parents, priests and religious.

A new Knights of Columbus/Marist poll shows just how important reaching the next generation of Catholics really is. The results of the recent survey of younger Millennial Americans (birth years 1978-2000) revealed a combination of hopeful news and areas of concern for the Catholic Church, which could be helpful to Catholic evangelists — lay, clerical and religious — especially those who deal with young people.

Encouraging is that the survey found that among Millennials who identify themselves as Catholic — not just practicing Catholics — 85% believe in God. Their top priorities are getting married and being close to God. About 82% think marriage is undervalued, and well over 60% think abortion and euthanasia are morally wrong.

That’s the good news. But what’s truly worrisome is that 61% believe it’s all right for Catholics to practice more than one religion. Nearly 2 in 3 think of themselves as more spiritual than religious, and 82% see morals as relative.

These problems aren’t just speculation — they are fact. And they are a fact that Benedict XVI had the incredible foresight to speak out about five years ago.

Speaking at John Paul II’s funeral, just days before being elected Pope, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger warned the world that a “dictatorship of relativism” was taking hold.

He said: “Today, having a clear faith based on the Creed of the Church is often labeled as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, that is, letting oneself be ‘tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine,’ seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times. We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one’s own ego and desires.”

A different goal

In contrast to that distorted vision of the world, he offered something else: “A different goal: the Son of God, the true man. He is the measure of true humanism. An ‘adult’ faith is not a faith that follows the trends of fashion and the latest novelty; a mature adult faith is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ. It is this friendship that opens us up to all that is good and gives us a criterion by which to distinguish the true from the false, and deceit from truth.”

He also gave us a solution: “We must develop this adult faith; we must guide the flock of Christ to this faith. And it is this faith — only faith — that creates unity and is fulfilled in love.”

This generation seeks love. They want marriage — that is, true love – more than anything else. They see that marital love as undervalued.

In a 2006 interview with the German media, Benedict XVI presented exactly the manner in which to implement the solution needed. What is needed, he said, is a presentation of the positive, of the happiness that living Christianity offers.

He said then: “Christianity, Catholicism, isn’t a collection of prohibitions: it’s a positive option. It’s very important that we look at it again because this idea has almost completely disappeared today. We’ve heard so much about what is not allowed that now it’s time to say: we have a positive idea to offer, that man and woman are made for each other, that the scale of sexuality, eros, agape, indicates the level of love and it’s in this way that marriage develops, first of all, as a joyful and blessing-filled encounter between a man and a woman, and then the family, that guarantees continuity among generations and through which generations are reconciled to each other and even cultures can meet. So, firstly it’s important to stress what we want.”

This month he reiterated this message to the bishops of Scotland, and added this: “Be sure to present this teaching in such a way that it is recognized for the message of hope that it is.”

To a group that has marriage as its top priority, and sees marriage as undervalued by society, a Church that supports and proclaims the beauty of the Christian meaning of marriage is a Church that will present a resonating message to the next generation of Catholic parents.

The path charted by Benedict XVI is exactly the one that will resonate with this generation.

There will be some who believe that they won’t listen. But consider this: nearly 2 in 3 are very or somewhat interested in learning more about their faith.

This is the reason that the work on the marriage document being prepared by the Pontifical Council on the Family — which can now benefit from the theology and pastoral approach of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI is so important.

It’s up to us to present the faith in a way that is meaningful to the lives of young Catholics, and there is no better place to start than — drawing on the great wealth of theology and pastoral approach of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI — to show these young men and women how to build happy, healthy, and ultimately holy marriages.

* * *

Carl Anderson is the supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus and a New York Times bestselling author.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas, FEB. 15, 2010 (Zenit.org).- For the new evangelization to become a reality, laypeople have to step up.

This is the affirmation made by Archbishop José Gomez of San Antonio in a pastoral letter released today, the fifth anniversary of his installation as archbishop.

“The proclamation of Christ is not an option or an obligation reserved for bishops, priests, deacons and religious. It is the duty of every believer,” the archbishop wrote.

He asserted evangelization begins “in the heart that has been evangelized, the heart that has heard the Good News and been converted.”

“We cannot be silent about what we have seen and heard and felt,” the 58-year-old archbishop declared. “We cannot help but to proclaim and testify to the great difference that Jesus Christ has made in our lives.”

Evangelization is a duty, the Texas prelate affirmed, but it is a “duty of delight, a duty we carry out with joy and thanksgiving.”

“We want the world, beginning with those nearest to us, to share in what we have been given — the free gift of God’s grace and the joy that comes with knowing the truth that sets us free,” he said.

Priestly souls

The duty to proclaim Christ falls upon every member of the Church, he recalled. But, he said, today’s pastoral letter is addressed particularly to the laity.

“I want to speak especially to you who live out your faith in the midst of the world and all its secular affairs,” he wrote. “As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, lay people are given the ‘duty … to work so that the divine message of salvation may be known and accepted by all men throughout the earth. This duty is all the more pressing when it is only through them that men can hear the Gospel and know Christ.’”

Archbishop Gomez noted how laypeople have been fundamental for the process of evangelization since the very beginning of the Church.

“The primary apostolate of lay people, since the early Church, has always been to spread and defend the faith among their families and neighbors and to bring the teachings of Christ to bear on the issues facing their communities,” he said.

And lay believers have a “priestly soul,” with a primary mission in the world, “not inside the sanctuary of the church or inside a Church office.”

“Your first duty,” he stated, “remains to heed the commission every one of us receives at the end of every Mass — to go out into the world to love and serve our Lord.

“Nourished by the gift of his Body and Blood, you are called to bear witness to this gift by making your lives a form of worship to God. Your evangelization must always be profoundly ecclesial and intensely Eucharistic. You are calling people to Christ and to his Church — and to the heart of the Church, which is the Eucharist.”

Archbishop Gomez urged the faithful to have a renewed awareness of their priestly souls and to “seek to serve God and your brothers and sisters every day, through all that you do and say, through the way that you live your life.”

“People respond more to example than to ‘teaching,’” he acknowledged. “Testify to your faith through your daily habits and actions. You will find that your witness to the Christian life will be attractive to others and will afford you regular chances to talk about the ’source’ of your happiness in Jesus Christ and your Catholic faith.”

Particular concerns

The San Antonio archbishop said that he is particularly concerned about two groups in the Church: Hispanics and fallen-away Catholics.

“Our Hispanic brothers and sisters are in danger of drifting from the Catholic faith to other religions or to no religion at all,” the Mexico native cautioned.

“There are many complicated reasons for this situation,” the prelate proposed. “It is very difficult under any circumstances to begin a new life in a foreign country. It is even harder for Hispanics, who often come here in poverty and under great personal stress and facing other pressures. More often than not, they experience discrimination and misunderstanding as they try to assimilate into American society. It is not easy for them to ‘fit in’ to our parishes, and their lack of faith formation can make it difficult for them to distinguish between the Catholic Church and other ecclesial communities that aggressively try to reach out to them.

“To my mind, however, the deepest problem we face is the ’secularization’ that I talked about earlier. The tendency under secularism is to reduce religious identity to a kind of ‘cultural Catholicism.’”

And for those who have left the Catholic Church, Archbishop Gomez recommended an active approach.

“Let us talk to our brothers and sisters about what is keeping them from the Church,” he said. “Let us talk to them of Christ’s living presence in his Church and in his sacraments. The happiness we all seek is found only in communion with Christ in his Church. Let us then issue a compassionate call for our lapsed Catholic brethren to return to the sacrament of penance and reconciliation and welcome them back to the Eucharistic table.”

The prelate asserted that lay evangelizers must “be convinced of the truth that the Apostles knew, that everyone in some way is searching for Christ.”

“People used to seek out the Apostles and say to them: ‘We wish to see Jesus,’” he reflected. “The men and women of today still want to see Jesus. You are the disciples they will come to with their questions and doubts, interests and needs. You are the ones who must lead them to our Lord.”

VATICAN CITY, JAN. 20, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Being a witness to Christ presupposes knowing him firsthand, not just being told of him by others, Benedict XVI says.

The Pope made this reflection today during the general audience in Paul VI Hall. He took up the theme of ecumenism, as the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is under way.

This year’s theme for the prayer week is “You are witnesses of these things,” taken from the Gospel of Luke.

The Holy Father considered what is referred to with the phrase “these things.”

“If we look at the context of the chapter [of Luke], ‘these things’ means above all the cross and resurrection,” he explained. “The disciples have seen the Lord’s crucifixion, they see the Risen One and thus begin to understand all the Scriptures that speak of the mystery of the passion and of the gift of the resurrection. ‘These things,’ therefore, is the mystery of Christ, of the Son of God made man.”

However, the Pontiff continued, the essential point here is that by knowing Christ, “we know the face of God.”

“Christ is above all the revelation of God. In all times, men have perceived the existence of God, an only God, but who is far away and does not show himself. In Christ this God shows himself; the distant God becomes close. ‘These things,’ therefore, above all with the mystery of Christ, is that God has become close to us,” he explained.

And he continued: “This implies another dimension: Christ is never alone; he came in our midst, died alone, but resurrected to attract everyone to himself. As Scripture says, Christ created a body for himself, gathers the whole of humanity in his reality of immortal life. [...] All this, therefore, is very simple, in the last instance: We know God by knowing Christ, his body, the mystery of the Church and the promise of eternal life.”

Witnessing

A second question arises, Benedict XVI suggested: “How can we be witnesses of ‘these things’?”

The answer, he affirmed, is that we can be witnesses only by knowing Christ, “and, knowing Christ, also knowing God.”

The Pontiff contended that “we can be witnesses only if we know Christ first hand, and not only through others — from our own life, from our personal encounter with Christ. Finding him really in our life of faith, we become witnesses and can contribute to the novelty of the world, to eternal life.”

God-made

To proclaim this message of God-made-close, Christians need to be united, the Pope affirmed.

However, he said, the path of ecumenism — though under way for more than a century — is not linear.

“Old problems, born in the context of another time, lose their weight, while in the present context new problems and new difficulties arise,” the Bishop of Rome observed. “Therefore, we must always be ready for a process of purification, in which the Lord will make us capable of being united.”

And unity, he acknowledged, is something that will come about in God’s time,

“Only God can give unity to the Church,” he said. “A ’self-made’ unity would be human, but we want the Church of God, made by God, who — when he wishes and when we are prepared — will create unity.”

Hence, the Holy Father urged prayer: “Because of the complex ecumenical reality, because of the promotion of dialogue, and also so that Christians of our time can give a new common witness of fidelity to Christ before this world of ours, I ask for everyone’s prayer. May the Lord hear our invocation and that of all Christians, which in this week is raised to him with particular intensity.”

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, JAN. 14, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Catholic Relief Services, the international humanitarian agency of the U.S. bishops’ conference, was asked by the Pontifical Council Cor Unum to coordinate aid for earthquake victims in Haiti.

The country’s capital, Port-au-Prince, was destroyed Tuesday in an earthquake that measured 7.0 on the Richter scale.

Although the number of casualties is unknown, it is estimated that 50,000 were killed, and 3 million others injured or homeless.

The country, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, is having trouble responding to the needs on its own.

A Vatican communiqué affirmed today that “as with other tragedies, Catholics are already being zealous in providing tangible aid.”

“Several Catholic agencies are at work and are sending manpower, which is especially urgent,” it added.

The council, “in direct contact with Catholic Relief Services,” asked it to “coordinate the relief efforts at this stage,” the communiqué stated.

It explained: “The 300 plus on-the-ground personnel, who have long been active in Haiti, and the past experience, expertise and resources of [Catholic Relief Services] will enable prompt and effective coordination of the Church’s efforts, which, in the words of Pope Benedict, must be generous and concrete to meet the pressing needs of our Haitian brothers and sisters.”

Wednesday in his general audience, Benedict XVI appealed to the “generosity of all people so that these our brothers and sisters who are experiencing a moment of need and suffering may not lack our concrete solidarity and the effective support of the international community.”

He affirmed that the “Catholic Church will not fail to move immediately, through her charitable institutions, to meet the most immediate needs of the population.”

Catholic Relief Services has set up a special Web site to respond to increased online traffic after the disaster.

Through the Web page, it offers a way to send donations by mobile phone to the earthquake victims.

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 18, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The Christmas tree — with its journey from a dark forest to the brilliance of decorative lights — represents every Christian, called to share the message that the Light of the world has become man.

This was a comparison made by Benedict XVI today when he addressed a delegation from Belgium, which provided the Christmas tree for St. Peter’s Square this year.

“In the forest,” the Holy Father said, “the trees are close together and each one of them contributes to making the forest a shadowy, sometimes dark, place.”

“But here,” he continued, “chosen from among this multitude, the majestic tree that you offered us is today lit up and covered with brilliant decorations that are like so many marvelous fruits.”

“Leaving aside its dark garments for a brilliant explosion, it has been transfigured, becoming a beacon of light that is not its own, but rather gives testimony to the true Light that comes to this world,” the Pope suggested.

He compared the tree’s destiny with that of the shepherds, who “keeping watch in the darkness of the night, are illumined by the message of the angels.”

“The luck of this tree is also comparable to our own, we who are called to give good fruits to manifest that the world has truly been visited and rescued by the Lord,” the Pontiff continued.

Child-God

Benedict XVI said the Christmas tree, in its spot beside the Nativity scene, “shows in its own way the presence of the great mystery present in the simple and poor site of Bethlehem.”

“To the inhabitants of Rome, to all the pilgrims, to all who will go to St. Peter’s Square by way of the televisions of the whole world, it proclaims the coming of the Son of God.”

“Through it,” he told the Belgian pilgrims, “the sun of your lands and the faith of the Christian communities of your region greet the Child-God, he who has come to make new all things and to call all creatures, from the smallest to the greatest, to enter into the mystery of Redemption and be united to it.”

The tree is decorated in gold and white — the colors of the Vatican.

It is a fir from the Ardennes forest of Belgium.  The 30-meter (about 100-foot) tree is 100 years old, has a 7-meter (22-foot) diameter and weighs 14 tons.

The tree was to be felled, along with others of the same forest, to allow for the growth of other nearby trees and plants.

By Karna Swanson

TRENTON, New Jersey, DEC. 14, 2009 (Zenit.org).- It is often said that to sing is to pray twice. A diocesan initiative in New Jersey this Advent is showing that singing — particularly Christmas carols — can also be a very effective tool for evangelization.

Christmas carols “contain the kernel of the Gospel message,” says John Boucher, the director of the Office of Evangelization and Parish Development for the Diocese of Trenton. “Singing them opens up hearts to the good news about Jesus, what he has done for us, and what he wants to do in our lives right here, right now.”

To this end, Boucher, along with his wife, Therese, created the Christmas Carol Festival (CCF), which aims to reintroduce faithful and non-practicing Catholics to the message of Christmas through singing traditional, relgious Christmas carols.

Last year, CCF was held in six locations around the diocese and drew about 1,800 people. This year nine events were organized in Trenton and the surrounding counties, and organizers anticipate some 2,500 participants.

In this interview with ZENIT, Boucher talks about why he and his wife began the Christmas Carol Festival, and how it is helping to restore the true message of Christmas to the holiday season.

ZENIT: When was the first festival? What led you to begin them?

Boucher: Christmas Carol Festival (CCF) is an annual evangelization project that encourages parishes, families or groups (retreat houses, Knights of Columbus, ministries, etc.) to use our rich tradition of Christmas carols and hymns to reach out to inactive Catholics and the unchurched. The goal of this nine-month process is to help people encounter Jesus within the community of the Catholic Church through invitations to sing, through the festivals and through follow-up events.

My wife Therese and I noticed that our diocese, like many in the United States, has a growing number of inactive Catholics, and the biggest single subgroup is young adults in their 20s and 30s. Only 8-11% of this age group is connected to parish life. However, many of them have told us that they wish they could sing religious Christmas carols in a relaxed setting during December. Such events are part of their most cherished childhood memories.

We also noticed that during December, more than 70% of all religious searches on the Internet are for the words of Christmas carols. We began to wonder, “Could we put together a resource for parishes who would like to respond to this interest in religious Christmas carols? Could carols become a stepping stone to evangelizing inactive Catholics?”

The result is the process called, Christmas Carol Festival.

So in 2007, Therese and I put together a draft guidebook and trained about 150 parish leaders to conduct local festivals. That first year, about 350 people in our diocese participated in festivals. In 2008, 1,500-1,800 people participated. And during this current year, a conservative estimate is that 2,000-2,500 will come to festivals.

ZENIT: What happens during a Christmas Carol Festival?

Boucher: The CCF event (45-90 minutes long) involves singing religious carols together in non-liturgical space during the pre-Christmas season (Thanksgiving through Christmas), because inactive and unchurched people are unfamiliar with Advent. At this event carol singing is the most important activity. But there are also short witnesses (two or three people sharing ways that Jesus has come alive for them), prayers before the empty manger, the reading of one of the Christmas stories from Luke or Matthew, while the Baby Jesus is placed in the manger.
 
At the end of the festival everyone receives printed invitations to Christmas Day Mass, Advent offerings, upcoming Bible studies, parish programs such as “Catholics Returning Home” or “Awakening Faith” (for those who have been away from the Church for a while) and/or a “Jesus in January” evening that includes the blessing of calendars, brief teachings, prayer and small group sharing.

One parish experienced a significant increase in Bible studies and parish retreats because of the festival. Another noted several people who chose to participate in the RCIA or in inactive Catholics programs.   

The festival event itself is just the tip of the iceberg. Other important features include training Catholics in how to invite their inactive and unchurched families, relatives, and friends to such a parish gathering. The whole process includes a six-month preparation phase that runs from July to December and a Post-CCF three-month follow-up phase, designed for those who come and want to know more about our Catholic faith. The whole process is described at www.christmascarolfestival.com and on several video sharing websites, like our own diocesan video sharing site, www.dottube.org.

ZENIT: Why is it important for people to learn Christmas carols?

Boucher: For the past two generations religious Christmas carols have been dropped from use in schools and at civic celebrations in the United States. So it is up to us as regular church-goers to step in and let God’s voice be heard. These carols are important because they transport us back to Bethlehem and teach about the life of Jesus Christ in a non-threatening way. Carols contain the kernel of the Gospel message. They proclaim Jesus through his scriptural titles, like Christ, king, word, God-with-us, messiah, savior, Mary’s child and Emanuel. Singing them opens up hearts to the good news about Jesus, what he has done for us, and what he wants to do in our lives right here, right now. People also experience a shared faith, and a new unity with God and with the community.

ZENIT: Which Christmas carol seems to have the biggest impact, and why?

Boucher: Certainly, one that has the biggest impact is “Silent Night.” It is the most loved, sung, recorded, and translated religious song in history. We use it during the festivals as doorway to prayer centered on the infant Jesus. Its promise of peace is a very healing experience for many people who come.

Perhaps the biggest miracle of all is that carols give parishes new confidence in the message of the Incarnation and in their own capacity to awaken new faith. Benedict XVI describes what is possible when we find ways to share faith through carols when he wrote “Advent’s intention is to awaken the most profound and basic emotional memory within us, namely, the memory of the God who became a child. This is a healing memory; it brings hope” (”Seek That Which Is Above,” Ignatius Press, 2007).

ZENIT: What do you hope people will carry away from this event?

Boucher: We hope that the Christmas Carol Festival process will become a successful attempt at evangelizing friends, family and co-workers. And we pray that many people, parishes, and groups will be stirred to a new zeal, a new passion for sharing the Good News. Granted, it is just one opportunity for helping others meet Jesus Christ in the Catholic community, but it is a very appealing and successful new first step for those who have used it.

VATICAN CITY, NOV. 22, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The world needs authentic beauty, Benedict XVI is affirming, and artists have the responsibility of bringing it to people through their art.

The Pope affirmed this Saturday during an audience held in the Sistine Chapel with some 250 artists of various countries, cultures and religions. The group included singers, musicians, writers, painters, architects, sculptors, actors and film producers.

The event was sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Culture to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s Letter to Artists, and the 45th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s similar meeting with artists in the Sistine Chapel.

Benedict XVI affirmed “the Church’s friendship with the world of art, a friendship that has been strengthened over time.”

“Christianity from its earliest days has recognized the value of the arts and has made wise use of their varied language to express her unvarying message of salvation,” he added.

The reason for this meeting, the Pope said, is to help this friendship “be continually promoted and supported so that it may be authentic and fruitful, adapted to different historical periods and attentive to social and cultural variations.”

“Dear friends,” he said, “as artists you know well that the experience of beauty, beauty that is authentic, not merely transient or artificial, is by no means a supplementary or secondary factor in our search for meaning and happiness.”

The Pontiff continued, “The experience of beauty does not remove us from reality, on the contrary, it leads to a direct encounter with the daily reality of our lives, liberating it from darkness, transfiguring it, making it radiant and beautiful.”

Shock value

He explained that “an essential function of genuine beauty” is “that it gives man a healthy ’shock,’ it draws him out of himself, wrenches him away from resignation and from being content with the humdrum.”

In this, the Holy Father observed, it may even make him suffer, “piercing him like a dart, but in so doing it ‘reawakens’ him, opening afresh the eyes of his heart and mind, giving him wings, carrying him aloft.”

“Beauty pulls us up short, but in so doing it reminds us of our final destiny, it sets us back on our path, fills us with new hope, gives us the courage to live to the full the unique gift of life,” he affirmed.

Benedict XVI added, “The quest for beauty that I am describing here is clearly not about escaping into the irrational or into mere aestheticism.”

He affirmed: “Too often, though, the beauty that is thrust upon us is illusory and deceitful, superficial and blinding, leaving the onlooker dazed; instead of bringing him out of himself and opening him up to horizons of true freedom as it draws him aloft, it imprisons him within himself and further enslaves him, depriving him of hope and joy.

“It is a seductive but hypocritical beauty that rekindles desire, the will to power, to possess, and to dominate others, it is a beauty which soon turns into its opposite, taking on the guise of indecency, transgression or gratuitous provocation.”

On the contrary, the Pope said, authentic beauty “unlocks the yearning of the human heart, the profound desire to know, to love, to go towards the Other, to reach for the Beyond.”

“If we acknowledge that beauty touches us intimately,” he said, “that it wounds us, that it opens our eyes, then we rediscover the joy of seeing, of being able to grasp the profound meaning of our existence, the Mystery of which we are part; from this Mystery we can draw fullness, happiness, the passion to engage with it every day.”

Transcendence

The Pontiff continued, “Beauty, whether that of the natural universe or that expressed in art, precisely because it opens up and broadens the horizons of human awareness, pointing us beyond ourselves, bringing us face to face with the abyss of Infinity, can become a path towards the transcendent, towards the ultimate Mystery, towards God.”

Thus, art in all its forms “can take on a religious quality, thereby turning into a path of profound inner reflection and spirituality,” he said.

The Holy Father encouraged the artists, “You are the custodians of beauty.”

He continued: “Thanks to your talent, you have the opportunity to speak to the heart of humanity, to touch individual and collective sensibilities, to call forth dreams and hopes, to broaden the horizons of knowledge and of human engagement.

“Be grateful, then, for the gifts you have received and be fully conscious of your great responsibility to communicate beauty, to communicate in and through beauty!

“Through your art, you yourselves are to be heralds and witnesses of hope for humanity!”

Benedict XVI urged his listeners to “not be afraid to approach the first and last source of beauty, to enter into dialogue with believers, with those who, like yourselves, consider that they are pilgrims in this world and in history towards infinite Beauty!”

“Faith takes nothing away from your genius or your art,” he said. “On the contrary, it exalts them and nourishes them, it encourages them to cross the threshold and to contemplate with fascination and emotion the ultimate and definitive goal, the sun that does not set, the sun that illumines this present moment and makes it beautiful.”

VATICAN CITY, NOV. 16, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is cautioning evangelizers to be on guard against relativism, saying it infiltrates society and manipulates consciences.

The Pope offered this warning in a message dated Friday and released today, directed to Cardinal Ivan Dias, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. That dicastery is having its plenary assembly through Wednesday. The theme is “St. Paul and the New Areopagi.”

“The topic you are addressing in this meeting [...] assists in reliving an experience of the Apostle to the Gentiles while in Athens,” the Holy Father observed. “After having preached in many places, [Paul] addressed the Areopagus and there proclaimed the Gospel using a language that today we could describe as ‘inculturated.’
 
“That Areopagus, which at the time represented the center of culture for the refined Athenian people, today — as my venerated predecessor John Paul II would say — ‘can be taken as a symbol of the new sectors in which the Gospel must be proclaimed.’

“In fact, the reference to that event is an urgent invitation to know how to value the ‘Areopagi’ of today, where the great challenges of evangelization are addressed.”

The Pontiff reflected that under the influence of globalization, some areas of evangelization are common to various continents; others are specific to one.

“Therefore,” he encouraged, “the missionary activity of the Church must be directed to the vital centers of the society of the third millennium.”

Holy Spirit at work

In this context, he said relativism is “not to be underestimated.”

The relativistic culture “enters the sanctuary of the family, infiltrates the realm of education and other realms of society and contaminates them, manipulating consciences, especially those of the young,” he said.

“At the same time, however, despite these snares, the Church knows that the Holy Spirit is always acting,” the Pope affirmed. “New doors, in fact, are opened to the Gospel, and spreading in the world is the longing for authentic spiritual and apostolic renewal. As in other periods of change, the pastoral priority is to show the true face of Christ, lord of history and sole redeemer of man.”

The Bishop of Rome said that in this “missionary enterprise,” the Apostle Paul is a worthy model.

“With this complete adherence to the Lord,” he said, “Christians will more easily be able to transmit to future generations the heritage of faith, capable of transforming difficulties into possibilities of evangelization.”

VATICAN CITY, NOV. 10, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is telling Italian bishops that their biggest challenge today is “presenting God again” to a world that has forgotten about him.

The Pope affirmed this in a message to the prelates, who have gathered in Assisi for their 60th general assembly. The papal statement, made public today, was directed to Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, president of the episcopal conference.

The Holy Father took up two main themes: the educational crisis and the ongoing Year for Priests, relating both of them to the new evangelization.

Regarding education, the Pontiff classified it as a challenge that “concerns all sectors of the Church and means that the great questions of the modern age must be faced with decision: the question concerning the nature of man and his dignity — a decisive element in the complete formation of the person — and the ‘question of God’ which seems ever more pressing in our own times.”
 Taking up his exhortation from last July in Aosta, Italy, he continued: “If our fundamental relationship with God is not living, if it is not lived, then none of our other relationships can take their correct form. [...] If we do without God, if God is absent, we lack the compass [...] to show us the path, the direction we must follow.

“God! We must bring the truth of God back into the world, make him known, make him present,” the Holy Father declared.

And he urged the Italian bishops to “place the formation of new generations at the center of the attention and efforts of each one, according to each person’s respective responsibilities.”

“Education is a constitutive and permanent need in the life of the Church,” the Pope affirmed.