From: [d]@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, August 26, 2011 9:23 AM
To: Eric
Subject: Article
of interest...
Professor/ Pope Benedict Leads the School of the New Evangelization
o By
Deacon Keith Fournier
o 8/26/2011
o Catholic
Online (www.catholic.org)
As a part of its mission,
Catholic Online is committed to providing news, views and resources which can inform, inspire and ignite Catholics in order to enlist and
equip them for this New Evangelization
After returning from Madrid
where Two Million young people gathered with him to be instructed in the faith
and enlisted into the mission of the Church, Pope Benedict XVI gathered his
former doctoral students together in Castel Gandolfo to reflect on the New
Evangelization. The Lord is calling workers to the New Evangelization of His
Church. Then, as loyal sons and daughters of that Church, He is calling us into
the fields of contemporary culture which are ripe and ready for harvest.
To belong to Christ means to
belong to His Body, the Church and to stand with the successor of Peter in the
New Evangelization
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (Catholic
Online) - After returning
from Madrid where Two Million young people gathered with him to be instructed
in the faith and enlisted into the mission of the Church, Pope Benedict XVI
gathered his former doctoral students together in Castel Gandolfo to reflect on
the theme of the New Evangelization.
The first meeting of the "Schulerkreis" or "student circle" of doctoral
candidates advised by Professor Joseph Ratzinger occurred in 1977. Back then,
Fr. Joseph Ratzinger was still a professor in Regensburg. Once he was appointed
Archbishop of Munich his students asked him to continue. The Ratzinger
Students' Circle includes many of the theologians and servant/leaders of the
increasingly resurgent Catholic Church.
When Archbishop Ratzinger became
the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome he
continued the circle every year. The students were delighted when their
Professor was elected to assume the Chair of Peter as Pope Benedict XVI in the
spring of 2005. They were equally delighted, when the Pope continued the
circle.
Forty students are meeting with
Professor/Pope Benedict XVI at Castel Gandolfo through Sunday. The theme of all
of the lectures and discussions will be the New Evangelization. This is being
held in anticipation of an October meeting which the Pope will hold in Rome
with the leaders of the New Evangelization in the West. That will be followed
by an October Synod on the same theme. Clearly, the School of the new
Evangelization is in session.
Throughout the pontificate of
Blessed John Paul II he called for such a "New Evangelization." Pope
Benedict XVI has made this New Evangelization a central pillar of his
pontificate. He erected a Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization tasked
with evangelizing countries where the Gospel was announced centuries ago, but
where its presence in peoples' daily life seems to be all but lost.
The call to a New Evangelization
invites each of us to live our baptismal vocation, no matter what our state in
life, completely given over to the work of the Lord in this crucial
hour. We do that when we choose to live at the heart of the Church for the sake
of the world.
Since the Second Vatican Council in the Catholic Church we have been
constantly reminded that the Church is by nature missionary and that every
baptized Christian participates in her missionary activity. The New
Evangelization means taking this truth to heart and living differently. It
requires an authentic renewal of the Church so that she can undertake a new
missionary outreach.
I believe that we are at the beginning of a great resurgence in the
Catholic Church precisely for this mission. Just when her opponents are ready
to count the Catholic Church out, the sleeping giant is rising. The Church is
Christ's plan for the entire world.
The early Fathers called her the "world reconciled." There is
no "plan B" through which He will save this world. She is a universal
sign, sacrament and seed of the kingdom of God. The early Christians would have
never understood the notion in some contemporary Christian circles that anyone
could follow Jesus and not "need" the Church.
Saint Cyprian (A.D. 258) wrote, "He who has turned his back on the
Church of Christ shall not come to the rewards of Christ; he is an alien, a worldling, an enemy. You cannot have God for your Father if
you have not the Church for your mother. Our Lord warns us when He says: `he
that is not with Me is against Me, and he that
gathereth not with Me scattereth.' Whosoever breaks
the peace and harmony of Christ acts against Christ; whoever gathers elsewhere
than in the Church scatters the Church of Christ." (On The Unity of the
Catholic Church)
We are called to love the Church with the affection of sons and
daughters; she is our "mother." We were reborn in the fount of
Baptism as through a second womb. We live our Christian life now always as a
part of the Church. To belong to the Head means to be a member of His Body. The
Church is not some-thing, but Some-One, in whom we now live and breathe and
have our being.
As members of the Church we are passing through a time of purification
and preparation. Hopefully, it is bringing us to our knees in repentance and
leading us back to the heart of the Church. It is only there we will find what
we truly need, the fullness of Jesus Christ. The Church has undergone similar
purifications and reform many times over two thousand years. Her hull may be
battered but she is still the Ark of Salvation.
Church history demonstrates that such seasons of purification are
followed by times of great restoration and revival for the Church. So it will
be in our day. This Church called Catholic is not a mere human institution. If
it were, it would have shipwrecked long ago. The contemporary culture has lost
its way, throwing off almost every ...
remnant of Christian influence. It has
embraced a new paganism. What Pope Benedict calls the "Dictatorship of
Relativism" is the bad fruit of a rejection of truth.
Given the current state of moral decline in Western Culture we need to
view the entirety of the American continent as missionary territory, ripe for
the New Evangelization. We also need to view the once Christian Nations of the
European continent as mission territory. Most importantly, we need to view
ourselves as missionaries in a new missionary age. We are also students and
disciples, called to the New Evangelization.
The Lord of the harvest is calling workers to the New Evangelization of
His Church. Then, as loyal sons and daughters of that Church, He is calling us
into the fields of contemporary culture which are ripe and ready for harvest.
He is enlisting us in a new missionary age of His Church.
Through our Baptism the Church
became the privileged place in which we live our lives in Christ. To perceive,
receive and live this reality requires ongoing conversion and continual
instruction in the Christian way of life. In its treatment of this
"mystery" called the Church, the Catechism of the Catholic Church
states:
"To reunite all his
children, scattered and led astray by sin, the Father willed to call the whole
of humanity together into his Son's Church. The Church is the place where
humanity must rediscover its unity and salvation. The Church is "the world
reconciled."
"She is that bark which
"in the full sail of the Lord's cross, by the breath of the Holy Spirit,
navigates safely in this world." According to another image dear to the
Church Fathers, she is prefigured by Noah's ark, which alone saves from the
flood." (CCC#845).
To belong to Christ means to
belong to His Body, the Church and to stand with the successor of Peter in the
New Evangelization. As a part of its mission, Catholic Online is committed to
providing news, views and resources which can inform,
inspire and ignite Catholics in order to enlist and equip them for this New
Evangelization.