Donald William Kardinaal Wuerl - 8 oktober 2012
It is a great honor for me to serve as the Relator General at this Synod and I am grateful to our Holy Father for this privilege. As we begin our deliberations on the New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith, I want to touch on a number of points that I hope will help focus our discussion and provide some themes for reflection.
None of us come to this Synod without previous preparation realized in our own pastoral ministry, but also supported by the work of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops that produced first the Lineamenta that resulted in suggestions and recommendations from episcopal conferences, synods of the Catholic churches sui iuris, the dicasteries of the Roman Curia, bishops without any episcopal conference and the Union of Superiors General. Observations also came from individual bishops, women and men in consecrated life and the laity, not to mention various Church movements and organizations. Most recently we are the beneficiaries of the Instrumentum laboris, which provides a carefully developed reflection on the New Evangelization. The Instrumentum is already a framework for much of the Synod’s discussion and I intend to highlight certain areas which can be more deeply developed. Throughout this presentation I make reference to the Instrumentum laboris.
In my observations, I include the following points:
1) What or Who it is we proclaim – the Word of God;
2) recent resources to help us in our task;
3) particular circumstances of our day that render this Synod necessary;
4) elements of the New Evangelization;
5) some theological principles for the New Evangelization;
6) qualities of the new evangelizers; and finally;
7) charisms of the Church today to assist in task of the New Evangelization.
