POPE MAPS OUT MISSIONARY CHALLENGES FOR CHURCH IN NEW MILLENNIUM

VATICAN CITY, MAY 24, 2001 (VIS) - Pope John Paul and the 155 cardinals who came to Rome to participate in the three-day extraordinary consistory concelebrated Mass today, solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord, in St. Peter's Basilica. The Pope's homily centered on the Church's evangelizing mission in the new millennium and the challenges she faces including secularism, relativism, globalization, bioethical and related moral problems, social justice, the family and married life.

Recalling that the Church's nature has been missionary ever since Jesus told Peter 2,000 years ago "'duc in altum', put out into the deep," the Pope said that the "'altum' towards which the Church today must aim is not only a stronger missionary commitment but an even greater contemplative commitment."

John Paul II affirmed that he had called the extraordinary consistory so that he and the world's cardinals could meet "to face several of the more relevant themes of evangelization and the Christian witness in the world today."

The Holy Father underscored a number of times the missionary nature of the Church, saying that "it finds support in episcopal collegiality and is encouraged by the Successor of Peter, whose ministry aims at promoting communion in the Church, guaranteeing unity in Christ of all the faithful."

The Pope spoke of his recently-concluded pilgrimage to Greece, Syria and Malta and said: "I experienced the joy of sharing with affectionate admiration some aspects of the life of our beloved Oriental Catholic brothers and to see new ecumenical perspectives open with our equally loved Orthodox brothers. With God's help some significant steps have been taken towards the hoped-for goal of full communion." He added that "the encounters with Muslims were also beautiful" and "the moment of dialogue very intense."

Affirming that we live in an age "of an over-abundance of words," the Pope said that "the words we really need today are those rich in wisdom and holiness."

He then turned to some of the "enormous challenges" faced by the Church today. "It's not just a 'quantitative' problem," he said, "due to the fact that Christians are a minority, although secularization continues to erode the Christian tradition even of Christians which were evangelized in ancient times." He pointed out that the problems collateral to secularization are "a general change in cultural horizons, dominated by the primacy of experimental sciences inspired by criteria of scientific epistemology." Modern man, he said, can accept the idea of God, but cannot accept the idea of God Who became man, died, rose and ascended into heaven.

Other challenges, said the Holy Father, "derive from the phenomenon of globalization" and "in the sphere of moral questions. Never, as today, especially on the level of the great bioethical themes as well as those of social justice, the institution of the family and married life, has mankind been called to face such formidable problems, which place into question his very destiny."

He said that the extraordinary consistory faced these and other issues, "developing deeply-studied analyses and proposing deeply meditated solutions." Pope John Paul also said, as he concluded his homily, that he intends to draw upon the work of the consistory for "opportune operative indications."

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