Vatican
City, 14 October 2013 (VIS) – This morning in the Vatican Apostolic
Palace the Holy Father received in audience the participants in the
Plenary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelisation.
“In our time we often encounter an attitude of indifference towards
faith, which is no longer considered relevant to human life”, he
said. “It is important that we Christians demonstrate that we live
faith in a concrete way, through love, harmony, joy, suffering,
because this gives rise to questions, as at the beginning of the
Church's path: why live like this? What is the impetus for our
actions? These are questions which lead us to the heart of
evangelisation, which is the witness of faith and charity”.
Pope
Francis remarked that many people have drifted away from the Church,
and in this situation “there is a need for Christians who help show
God's mercy and tenderness towards every creature”. He went on to
emphasise the importance of encounter, of seeking out and going
towards “those who have lost their faith and the deeper meaning of
life. … The Church”, he emphasised, “is sent to reawaken
everywhere this hope, especially where it is suffocated by difficult
and at times inhuman existential conditions, where hope cannot
breathe. … We need the oxygen of the Gospel, the breath of the
Spirit of the Risen Christ, to reignite [hope] in our hearts. The
Church is the house where the doors are always open not only to
welcome everyone in to breathe love and hope, but also so we can take
this love and hope outside”.
The
Pope, in this way, explained that “in the Church, this is not left
to chance or improvisation”. Commitment is necessary in the diocese
and in the parish to catechesis as a moment of evangelisation. He
recalled that many times, for instance, he has encountered children
who do not know how to make the sign of the Cross, and remarked that
the work of catechists is a valuable service to new evangelisation,
while emphasising that parents should be “the first catechists, the
first educators in faith in their own families, by their witness and
by their words”.
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