SIXTEENTH GENERAL CONGREGATION

VATICAN CITY, 15 OCT 2008 (VIS) - The Sixteenth General Congregation of the Twelfth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops took place this morning in the presence of 238 Synod Fathers. The president delegate on duty was Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer, archbishop of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

  Following are excerpts from the speeches given:

CARDINAL ANGELO BAGNASCO, ARCHBISHOP OF GENOA AND PRESIDENT OF THE ITALIAN EPISCOPAL CONFERENCE. "As for forming people in an informed and conscious faith, one capable of giving reason to our hope, it seems opportune to me to recall that, if it is necessary to follow the path of documented, prayerful and shared knowledge of the written word of God, it is equally necessary to follow the path of reason. Sacred Scripture includes not only supernatural truths but also natural ones, which it absorbs confirms and fulfils. There is a renewed and urgent need to maintain the unity of Scripture, Tradition and Magisterium, so that believers may achieve a better understanding of the great questions of birth and death, family and freedom, love and natural law, euthanasia, fertilisation, etc., and know also how to present them to non-believers for whom the Bible is valid only for the force of its arguments. When the Church speaks of these themes she is not meddling, she is not going beyond her evangelising mission. ... At the same time, she serves cultures and societies so that they may become more human".

CARDINAL GIOVANNI LAJOLO, PRESIDENT OF THE PONTIFICAL COMMISSION FOR VATICAN CITY STATE AND OF THE GOVERNORATE OF VATICAN CITY STATE. "The problem is how to bring the Word of God in a convincing manner to three categories of persons: (1) The illiterate and those who, even though they can read, do not do so. They can be easily tempted by absurd beliefs and superstitions. Ways should be studied to reach them personally, or through easily-understandable and widely-publicised audio-visual media. (2) People of a certain cultural level, sometimes a very high level, who are upset by certain parts of the Bible where, they feel, fundamental human rights are violated by the order or with the consent of God. For them the concept of inspiration in Holy Scripture should be further developed. (3) Believers in the Old Testament. For them, no purpose will be served by presenting the fulfilment of prophecies as something recognisable 'post fidem'. They need to be shown the Christian meaning of prophecies realised in Jesus the Messiah, as something recognisable 'ante fidem'".

ARCHBISHOP PAUL CREMONA O.P., OF MALTA, PRESIDENT OF THE MALTESE EPISCOPAL CONFERENCE. "I shall be speaking in the context of traditionally Catholic countries like Malta. Whenever we speak of a new evangelisation, we find a stumbling block. Many of our faithful still live in nostalgia of, and compare the present situation, with the model of the Church that was present 30 to 40 years ago. Since the Catholic Church has not remained in a privileged position as it was then, they live in an atmosphere of shock when the Church, or its pastors, are challenged. Many times they stand in fear of speaking openly before this, many times, hostile culture. We need to go out of this traumatic experience to enter into a new evangelisation. We have to help the faithful recognise that that kind of Church does not exist anymore, and it cannot be proposed again in this changed world. We cannot continue comparing our reality to that reality. We have to propose a new model of being Church and the model which corresponds most to today's reality is the primitive Christian community as it is described in chapters two and four of the Acts of the Apostles, and brought to life in the other writings of the New Testament. We have to compare the Church today to, and shape it on, that community".

BISHOP AUGUSTIN TRAORE OF SEGOU, MALI. "Christians in Mali are a small minority in numerical terms, but they are appreciated and respected for the witness they bear to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The quality of the life-witness of Catholics and Protestants in Mali arouses the admiration of their Muslim brothers and sisters, who often say that serious matters must be managed by Christians because the Gospel they announce brings justice and peace. Coherent witness must be promoted through increasingly fruitful collaboration between Catholic and Protestant Christian communities. The secretariat of the biblical apostolate of the Episcopal Conference of Mali decided, following its creation, to favour ecumenical dialogue in Mali ... in a spirit of ecumenism. Good relations [between Catholics and Protestants] have enabled fruitful collaboration in the formation of Bible translators, in spreading the Bible, in increasing literacy. ... Inter-religious dialogue presupposes a good knowledge of the Word of God, which is also dialogue, and favours the conditions for fruitful dialogue between the different confessions".

CARDINAL ANTONIO CANIZARES LLOVERA, ARCHBISHOP OF TOLEDO, SPAIN. "My talk refers to catechesis as one aspect of the ministry of the Word. My aim is to highlight the essential and fundamental role of catechesis in the transmission of the Word of God. The peculiarity of catechesis lies in its being a period of teaching and maturity, of living reflection on the ministry of Christ, of integral initiation (living, ordered and systematic) to the Revelation that God Himself made to man in Jesus Christ, a revelation neither isolated from life nor artificially imposed upon it, but safeguarded in the profound memory of the living Tradition of the Church. Catechesis introduces and initiates people to listening to and accepting the Word and the teachings of the Apostles in liturgy, in a moral evangelical life of charity, and in prayer. Without catechesis the majority of Christians would not be able to adapt and express the Gospel in their lives, nor to act in a missionary and apostolic way, nor to successfully face up to the spiritual and cultural tendencies of our time. Only by starting with a serious, authentic and renewed catechesis, is the Church able to explain the range of the elements and functions of her evangelising mission".

BISHOP FRANGHISKOS PAPAMANOLIS, O.F.M. CAP., OF SYROS AND MILOS, SANTORINI, PRESIDENT OF THE GREEK EPISCOPAL CONFERENCE. "I am aware of the need for institutions and of the good that can be done through diplomacy. However, it is also true that they should be re-examined and verified in the light of the Word of God, because the end does not justify the means. Studying history we find emergency decisions in the life of the Church and structural ways of behaving that could be justified in the light of a particular historical moment, but I ask myself if those decisions, remaining within the structures of the Church will continue to indicate the path of the Church forever? Especially when such structures do not stand up in the light of theological principles? For the Catholic Church, the ecumenical commitment is the main commitment for the third millennium. A commitment that cannot be limited to an exchange of invitations, visits and gifts, or all those gestures that express our desire to create unity. Desire is not enough. We have to be willing to sacrifice laws and structures to prepare for the blessed day we Christians will be united".
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