Donald William Kardinaal Wuerl - 8 oktober 2012
The dramatically changing societal background for the reception, appropriation and living of the faith is the context of this Synod. The call to repropose the Catholic faith, to repropose the Gospel message, to repropose the teaching of Christ, is needed precisely because we encounter so many who initially heard this saving proclamation and for whom the message has become stale. The vision has faded. The promises seem empty or unconnected to real life. Vgl. Bisschoppensynodes, fragment, Instrumentum laboris "Nieuwe evangelisatie voor het overdragen van het christelijk geloof" (27 mei 2012), 41-44
Across the Church we deal in many instances, but particularly in most of the so-called first world countries, with a dramatic reduction in the practice of the faith among those who are already baptized. Our Holy Father has further specified the work of the New Evangelization as the reproposal of Jesus Christ and his Gospel “in the countries where the first proclamation of the faith has already resonated and where churches with an ancient foundation exist, but are experiencing the progressive secularization of society and a sort of ‘eclipse of the sense of God’…” Paus Benedictus XVI, Homilie, Sint Paulus buiten de Muren, Eerste Vespers van het Hoogfeest van de Heilige Apostelen Petrus en Paulus (28 juni 2010). Vgl. Bisschoppensynodes, fragment, Instrumentum laboris "Nieuwe evangelisatie voor het overdragen van het christelijk geloof" (27 mei 2012), 12.52-53.94
The responses from bishops in the so-called third world – more recently evangelized societies – indicate the same experience in their own local churches. Vgl. Bisschoppensynodes, fragment, Instrumentum laboris "Nieuwe evangelisatie voor het overdragen van het christelijk geloof" (27 mei 2012), 87-89
This current situation is rooted in the upheavals of the 1970s and 80s, decades in which there was manifest poor catechesis or miscatechesis at so many levels of education. We faced the hermeneutic of discontinuity that permeated so much of the milieu of centers of higher education and was also reflected in aberrational liturgical practice. Entire generations have become disassociated from the support systems that facilitated the transmission of faith. It is as if a tsunami of secular influence has swept across the cultural landscape, taking with it such societal markers as marriage, family, the concept of the common good and objective right and wrong. Tragically, the sins of a few have encouraged a distrust in some of the very structures of the Church herself. Vgl. Bisschoppensynodes, fragment, Instrumentum laboris "Nieuwe evangelisatie voor het overdragen van het christelijk geloof" (27 mei 2012), 69.95.104
Secularization has fashioned two generations of Catholics who do not know the Church’s foundational prayers. Many do not sense a value in Mass attendance, fail to receive the sacrament of penance and have often lost a sense of mystery or the transcendent as having any real and verifiable meaning.
All of the above resulted in a large segment of the faithful being ill-prepared to deal with a culture that, as our Holy Father has pointed out on his many visits around the world, is characterized by secularism, materialism and individualism.
But the circumstances of our day are not all bleak. Just as it is possible to identify the causes or at least occasions for the negative situation today, so it is also possible to identify an increasingly recognized positive response. Many people, especially the young, who have been alienated from the Church are finding that the secular world does not offer adequate responses to the perennial and demanding questions of the human heart. Vgl. Bisschoppensynodes, fragment, Instrumentum laboris "Nieuwe evangelisatie voor het overdragen van het christelijk geloof" (27 mei 2012), 63-64.70-71
Many pastors have noted that the New Evangelization is unfolding on two levels simultaneously, the introduction into the faith of young children, and the instruction of their parents. For many teachers and those catechized, this is a particularly enriching moment because this time around, the young adults approach the faith with a great deal more openness out of their own need to know more.
Points of contact for many young adults today are found in campus ministry programs at secular universities and colleges, parish or diocesan programs with a focus on current issues of concern today, as well as family orientated events for those with children who seek both spiritual and social support.
Today special mention should also be made of the family itself as the Model – Place of the New Evangelization and related life issues. While contemporary society downplays, and at times even ridicules traditional family life, it remains a natural reality and the first building block of community. The family presents the natural and ordinary context for the transmission of both faith and values, and the reality we so often turn to for support throughout our lives. Vgl. Bisschoppensynodes, fragment, Instrumentum laboris "Nieuwe evangelisatie voor het overdragen van het christelijk geloof" (27 mei 2012), 110-113
A quality of the New Evangelization that is increasingly evident is that our efforts to spread the Gospel no longer necessarily take us to foreign lands and distant peoples. Those who need to hear of Christ, all over again, are with us in our neighborhoods and parishes even if they are distant from us in their hearts and minds. Immigration and widespread migration has created a new neighborhood environment for evangelization that too often is really an exercise in the New Evangelization.
The missionaries in the first evangelization covered immense geographic distances to spread the Good News. We, the missionaries of the New Evangelization, must surmount ideological distances just as immense, oftentimes before we ever journey beyond our own neighborhood or family.
