BOOK ON THE CHALLENGES OF NEW EVANGELISATION IN LATIN AMERICA

Vatican City, 10 March 2012 (VIS) - The Pontifical Commission for Latin America has recently published a work entitled "Reflections on New Evangelisation in Latin America: Challenges and Priorities". The book, 130 pages long, is the outcome of a study day organised by the commission which took place on 11 November 2011.

The book begins with an introduction by Cardinal Marc Ouellet P.S.S., prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, and includes the text of three lectures delivered during the course of the study day: "New Evangelisation in the Light of the Pontifical Magisterium" by Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelisation; "From the Evangelisation of Jesus Christ to the Continental Mission as New Evangelisation" by Bishop Santiago Jaime Silva Retamales, secretary of the Latin American Episcopal Council, and "New Evangelisation in Latin America Today: Challenges and Priorities" by Guzman Carriquiry Lecour, secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. There then follows a list of forty-one recommendations for new evangelisation on the American continent.

The work will be sent to all members and counsellors of the commission, to the bishops of Latin America and to the prefects and presidents of the various dicasteries and offices of the Roman Curia.

A communique from the pontifical commission accompanying today's publication states that the book contains "a number of useful contributions to that 'new evangelisation' which has been repeatedly invoked by John Paul II and by Benedict XVI, ... and which found a significant response in the 'continental mission' launched during the Fifth General Conference of the Episcopate of Latin America and the Caribbean held in 2007 in Aparecida, Brazil. That mission is in the process of being accomplished". The book also "aims to contribute to the many discussions and reflections which are taking place in view of the forthcoming General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October, ... and the subsequent Year of Faith".