Vatican
City, 25 January 2013
(VIS) – With the Motu Proprio “Fides per doctrinam” that was
signed 16 January and published today, the Holy Father modifies the
apostolic constitution "Pastor bonus", transferring
responsibility for catechesis from the Congregation for the Clergy to
the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelisation. Following
are ample extracts from the document.
"Faith,"
the Pope writes, "needs to be supported by doctrine that is
capable of illuminating the minds and hearts of believers. This
particular historical moment in which we are living, marked among
other things by a dramatic crisis of faith, requires an awareness
that is able to respond to the high expectations that arise in the
hearts of believers when facing the new questions that challenge the
world and the Church. Understanding faith, therefore, always requires
that its content be expressed in a new language, one capable of
presenting the living hope of believers to those inquiring into its
purpose."
"On
the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Vatican Council II, while
the Church continues to reflect on the richness of the teaching
contained its documents and to find new ways of putting it into
practice, it is possible to see the long path travelled over these
decades in the area of catechesis. It has been a path, however, that
in the years following the Council has not been without mistakes,
even serious ones, both in method and in content. All of this has
brought about profound reflection and led to the development of
post-conciliar documents that represent a new wealth in catechesis."
"The
Council's teachings and the subsequent Magisterium, as interpreters
of the Church's great tradition in this field, have connected the
Catechism ever more closely to the process of evangelisation. The
Catechism, therefore, represents a significant step in the daily life
of the Church, announcing and communicating the Word of God in a
living and effective manner, so that it might reach all and that
believers might be trained and educated in Christ to build His body,
which is the Church."
"In
the Apostolic Letter, formulated as a Motu Proprio, 'Ubicumque et
sempter' of 21 September, 2010, I instituted the Pontifical Council
for Promoting New Evangelisation to pursue 'its own ends both by
encouraging reflection on topics of the new evangelisation, and by
identifying and promoting suitable ways and means to accomplish it'.
In particular, I wanted to assign the task of promoting 'the use of
the Catechism of the Catholic Church as an essential and complete
formulation of the content of the faith for the people of our time'
to the new dicastery."
"Given
all this, I believe it opportune that that dicastery assume as part
of its institutional tasks the one of caring for, on behalf of the
Roman Pontiff, the relevant instrument of evangelisation that the
Catechism, along with catechetical teaching in all its diverse forms,
represents for the Church in order to bring about a more organic and
effective pastoral outreach. This new pontifical council will be able
to provide the local churches and the diocesan bishops an appropriate
service in this area."
"Accepting
the agreement proposed by the heads of the dicasteries concerned,
therefore, I have decided to transfer the competency for catechesis
that the Apostolic Constitution 'Pastor bonus' had entrusted to the
Congregation for the Clergy on 28 June 1988, to the Pontifical
Council for Promoting New Evangelisation, with the same jurisdiction
in the matter as previously exercised by the Congregation as required
by canon law."
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