PRESS OFFICE BRIEFING ON MORNING SESSION OF CONSISTORY

VATICAN CITY, MAY 21, 2001 (VIS) - Holy See Press Office Director, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, early this afternoon briefed journalists on the individual speeches given by 16 cardinals in the morning session of the extraordinary consistory. He said that he would highlight the themes which emerged the most frequently today rather than summarize the individual speeches.

According to Navarro-Valls, the most repeated themes were: 1. Unity within the Church: unity with the Pope and the role of the Pope; 2. Mass Media and Evangelization, especially the new evangelization; 3. Globalization; 4 Holiness; 5. The need to reinforce the Christian identity in all cultures though catechesis; 6. The dialogue between faith and culture; 7. The Family; 8. Missionary Nature of the Church.

The press office director stressed that nearly all, if not all of the 16 speeches this morning emphasized the concept of holiness. The cardinals said there must be "a globalization of holiness." Holiness, and the search to attain it, they said, must be part of a Christian's everyday life: It must be an ordinary, not an extraordinary, fact of life. "We need," they said, "a true, audacious pastoral ministry of holiness."

The speeches which touched upon the media and evangelization focussed on the new evangelization, making the point that it is not just a question of the Church using the media but of her participating in the culture of the media. "The dialectic with the media is the new areopagus," said one cardinal. To assist in the new evangelization, the media must help in making the person of Jesus Christ better known. Another cardinal, referring to the Catechetical Directory which the Holy See sends to dioceses periodically as a tool for catechesis, suggested that a similar directory be prepared for the new evangelization.

On the subject of globalization, there was major consensus on the importance of this issue "and its internal dialectic" in the world today. The cardinals said that, intrinsically, globalization is neither good nor bad but they insisted that it must include the concept of social solidarity.

At one point, said Navarro-Valls, Cardinal Francisco Alvarez Martinez, archbishop of Toledo, pointed out that, whereas in the past labor had been a major thrust of the Church's social doctrine (employer/employee relationship, just wages and working conditions), today that major issue, "the major challenge," is the family.

Concluding his summary of the dominant themes which emerged this morning, the director noted Cardinal Jozef Tomko's statement concerning the missionary nature of the Church. He quoted the former prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples as saying: "We do not need a maintenance Church today. We need missionary mobilization."

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