We say to all of them: our evangelizing zeal must spring from true holiness of life, and, as the Second Vatican Council suggests, preaching must in its turn make the preacher grow in holiness, which is nourished by prayer and above all by love for the Eucharist.[121]. We shall briefly recall these tasks. In a word, adherence to the kingdom, that is to say, to the "new world," to the new state of things, to the new manner of being, of living, of living in community, which the Gospel inaugurates. Cf. The faithful assembled as a Paschal Church, celebrating the feast of the Lord present in their midst, expect much from this preaching, and will greatly benefit from it provided that it is simple, clear, direct, well-adapted, profoundly dependent on Gospel teaching and faithful to the magisterium, animated by a balanced apostolic ardor coming from its own characteristic nature, full of hope, fostering belief, and productive of peace and unity. Eph 4:24, 2:15; Col 3:10; Gal 3:27; Rom 13:114; 2 Cor 5:17. In fact there are innumerable events in life and human situations which offer the opportunity for a discreet but incisive statement of what the Lord has to say in this or that particular circumstance. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 47-52: AAS 58 (1966): pp. On these conditions, which are certainly demanding but also uplifting, the ecclesial communautes de base will correspond to their most fundamental vocation: as hearers of the Gospel which is proclaimed to them and privileged beneficiaries of evangelization, they will soon become proclaimers of the Gospel themselves. Is she firmly established in the midst of the world and yet free and independent enough to call for the world's attention? 75. Yet another sign of love will be the effort to transmit to Christians not doubts and uncertainties born of an erudition poorly assimilated but certainties that are solid because they are anchored in the Word of God. It suffices to have true spiritual sensitivity for reading God's message in events. The Good News proclaimed by the witness of life sooner or later has to be proclaimed by the word of life. 46, 1-4: PG 6, II Apol. This preaching, inserted in a unique way into the Eucharistic celebration, from which it receives special force and vigor, certainly has a particular role in evangelization, to the extent that it expresses the profound faith of the sacred minister and is impregnated with love. 1060-1061, 1065-1066; Decree on the Church's Missionary Activity Ad Gentes, 1, 5: AAS 58 (1966), pp. 60. The most perfect preparation of the evangelizer has no effect without the Holy Spirit. And He proclaims: "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled. These facts should certainly impel us to employ, for the purpose of transmitting the Gospel message, the modern means which this civilization has produced. 40. 53. 49. The whole of the New Testament, and in a special way the Acts of the Apostles, bears witness to a privileged and in a sense exemplary moment of this missionary effort which will subsequently leave its mark on the whole history of the Church. Evangelii nuntiandi (Evangelization in the Modern World; abbreviation: EN) is an apostolic exhortation issued on 8 December 1975 by Pope Paul VI on the theme of Catholic evangelization. She is providing these Christian "liberators" with the inspiration of faith, the motivation of fraternal love, a social teaching which the true Christian cannot ignore and which he must make the foundation of his wisdom and of his experience in order to translate it concretely into forms of action, participation and commitment. We have remarked that the Church is entirely and completely evangelizing. The preaching likewise - and this is always urgent - of the search for God Himself through prayer which is principally that of adoration and thanksgiving, but also through communion with the visible sign of the encounter with God which is the Church of Jesus Christ; and this communion in its turn is expressed by the application of those other signs of Christ living and acting in the Church which are the sacraments. Cf. He never betrays or hides truth out of a desire to please men, in order to astonish or to shock, nor for the sake of originality or a desire to make an impression. 124. 118. The Church would feel guilty before the Lord if she did not utilize these powerful means that human skill is daily rendering more perfect. Pope Paul VI’s 1974 Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, on evangelization in the modern world, commemorates the 10th anniversary of the closing of Vatican II.He wrote it at the request of the 1974 Synod of Bishops. Lay people, whose particular vocation places them in the midst of the world and in charge of the most varied temporal tasks, must for this very reason exercise a very special form of evangelization. And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Cf. The more Gospel-inspired lay people there are engaged in these realities, clearly involved in them, competent to promote them and conscious that they must exercise to the full their Christian powers which are often buried and suffocated, the more these realities will be at the service of the kingdom of God and therefore of salvation in Jesus Christ, without in any way losing or sacrificing their human content but rather pointing to a transcendent dimension which is often disregarded. 21. pp. 48. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, 4: AAS 58 (1966), pp. 14. The split between the Gospel and culture is without a doubt the drama of our time, just as it was of other times. "[83], We have already mentioned this intimate connection between the Church and evangelization. It is a faith exposed to trials and threats, and even more, a faith besieged and actively opposed. "[7] And we added that in order to give a valid answer to the demands of the Council which call for our attention, it is absolutely necessary for us to take into account a heritage of faith that the Church has the duty of preserving in its untouchable purity, and of presenting it to the people of our time, in a way that is as understandable and persuasive as possible. May it be the great joy of our consecrated lives. 259. But above all each individual gains them through a total interior renewal which the Gospel calls metanoia; it is a radical conversion, a profound change of mind and heart.[25]. And all the aspects of His mystery - the Incarnation itself, His miracles, His teaching, the gathering together of the disciples, the sending out of the Twelve, the cross and the resurrection, the permanence of His presence in the midst of His own - were components of His evangelizing activity. To all creation! Cf. This message is indeed necessary. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the name of the Apostles Peter and Paul, we wish to exhort all those who, thanks to the charisms of the Holy Spirit and to the mandate of the Church, are true evangelizers to be worthy of this vocation, to exercise it without the reticence of doubt or fear, and not to neglect the conditions that will make this evangelization not only possible but also active and fruitful. Associated with the bishops in the ministry of evangelization and responsible by a special title are those who through priestly ordination "act in the person of Christ. Paul VI, Address for the closing of the Third General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (26 October 1974): AAS 66 (1974), p. 636. The term, although ancient, was and is ambiguous for many. The full, supreme and universal power"[102] which Christ gives to His Vicar for the pastoral government of His Church is this especially exercised by the Pope in the activity of preaching and causing to be preached the Good News of salvation. Decree on the Church's Missionary Activity Ad Gentes, 35: AAS 58 (1966), p. 983. 53-58. She did this once more at the last Synod, as an appeal not to imprison the proclamation of the Gospel by limiting it to one sector of mankind or to one class of people or to a single type of civilization. 100. Evangelii Nuntiandi was written in 1975, close to the end of Pope Paul VI's fifteen year reign. Evangelii Nuntiandi Evangelization In The Modern World. The liberation which evangelization proclaims and prepares is the one which Christ Himself announced and gave to man by His sacrifice. The respectful presentation of Christ and His kingdom is more than the evangelizer's right; it is his duty. What identifies our priestly service, gives a profound unity to the thousand and one tasks which claim our attention day by day and throughout our lives, and confers a distinct character on our activities, is this aim, ever present in all our action: to proclaim the Gospel of God.[104]. This is not foreign to evangelization. Furthermore, the family, like the Church, ought to be a place where the Gospel is transmitted and from which the Gospel radiates. Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests Presbyterorum Ordinis, 13: AAS 58 (1966), p. 1011. In the Church's evangelizing activity there are of course certain elements and aspects to be specially insisted on. 80. The Weekly Edition in English is published for the US by. It is to be hoped that all these considerations will help to remove the ambiguity which the word "liberation" very often takes on in ideologies, political systems or groups. This includes ourself as Pastor of the universal Church, our brother bishops at the head of the individual Churches, priests and deacons united with their bishops and whose assistants they are, by a communion which has its source in the sacrament of Orders and in the charity of the Church. Thus it is the whole Church that receives the mission to evangelize, and the work of each individual member is important for the whole. [132] And why should only falsehood and error, debasement and pornography have the right to be put before people and often unfortunately imposed on them by the destructive propaganda of the mass media, by the tolerance of legislation, the timidity of the good and the impudence of the wicked? It also springs from the fact that Christians live in close proximity with non-believers and constantly experience the effects of unbelief. Cyrila a Metoda, Rím 1978 Many parochial or other communities live and are held together thanks to the Sunday homily, when it possesses these qualities. They have known how to overcome many obstacles to evangelization. May the light of the Holy Year, which has shone in the local Churches and in Rome for millions of consciences reconciled with God, continue to shine in the same way after the Jubilee through a program of pastoral action with evangelization as its basic feature, for these years which mark the eve of a new century, the eve also of the third millennium of Christianity. Yet, one can never sufficiently stress the fact that evangelization does not consist only of the preaching and teaching of a doctrine. The difference is already notable: the communities which by their spirit of opposition cut themselves off from the Church, and whose unity they wound, can well be called communautes de base, but in this case it is a strictly sociological name. But if this were so, the Church would lose her fundamental meaning. The Bishops' Synod of 1974, which insisted strongly on the place of the Holy Spirit in evangelization, also expressed the desire that pastors and theologians- and we would also say the faithful marked by the seal of the Spirit by Baptism- should study more thoroughly the nature and manner of the Holy Spirit's action in evangelization today. Tertullian Apologeticum, 39: CCL, I, PP. Such obstacles are also present today, and we shall limit ourself to mentioning the lack of fervor. Hence, when preaching liberation and associating herself with those who are working and suffering for it, the Church is certainly not willing to restrict her mission only to the religious field and dissociate herself from man's temporal problems. in Evangelia 19, 1: PL 76, 1154. Cf. 529-530. The first danger is that of a withering isolationism, and then, before long, of a crumbling away, with each of its cells breaking away from it just as it itself has broken away from the central nucleus. 78. It is impossible to grasp the concept of evangelization unless one tries to keep in view all its essential elements. Preaching, the verbal proclamation of a message, is indeed always indispensable. Truly the Church owes them much. 1. We rejoice in the fact that these elements basically follow the lines of those transmitted to us by the Second Vatican Council, especially in "Lumen gentium," "Gaudium et spes" and "Ad gentes.". 6. We owe also our special esteem to all the lay people who accept to consecrate a part of their time, their energies, and sometimes their entire lives, to the service of the missions. 50-52; 58-66; 258-260; 268. The more an individual Church is attached to the universal Church by solid bonds of communion, in charity and loyalty, in receptiveness to the Magisterium of Peter, in the unity of the lex orandi which is also the lex credendi, in the desire for unity with all the other Churches which make up the whole- the more such a Church will be capable of translating the treasure of faith into the legitimate variety of expressions of the profession of faith, of prayer and worship, of Christian life and conduct and of the spiritual influence on the people among which it dwells. In the celebration of the liturgy, in their witness before judges and executioners and in their apologetical texts, the first Christians readily expressed their deep faith in the Church by describing her as being spread throughout the universe. Declaration on Religious Liberty Dignitatis Humanae, 13: AAS 58 (1966), p 939; cf. By following these lines their main inspiration very quickly becomes ideological, and it rarely happens that they do not quickly fall victim to some political option or current of thought, and then to a system, even a party, with all the attendant risks of becoming its instrument. 39. 84. The latter plan touches the very concrete situations of injustice to be combated and of justice to be restored. Spirit-filled evangelizers means evangelizers fearlessly open to … The first section highlights the connection between Christ the evangelizer and his Church which imitates his example. It is well known in what terms numerous bishops from all the continents spoke of this at the last Synod, especially the bishops from the Third World, with a pastoral accent resonant with the voice of the millions of sons and daughters of the Church who make up those peoples. Evangelii nuntiandi : apostolic exhortation of His Holiness Pope Paul VI to the episcopate, to the clergy and to all the faithful of the entire world, on evangelization in the modern world.