VATICAN - The Pope addresses the plenary assembly of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: “May the evangelising activity of the whole Church never falter before a world which has still to meet Christ or before those who have met him but still live far from him ”.

Vatican City (Fides Service) – “Today’s cultural context, marked both by widespread relativism and the temptation of facile pragmatism, demands more than ever courageous proclamation of the truths which save mankind as well as a new surge of evangelisation.” Pope John Paul II said this when he addressed participants of a plenary session of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on February 6, in the Vatican. “The traditio evangelii is the first and fundamental duty of the Church – the Pope continued - . All her activity must be inseparable from commitment to help all men and women encounter Christ in the faith. For this reason it is my dearest wish that the evangelising activity of the whole Church may never falter before a world which has still to meet Christ and before those who have met him but still live far from him.”
Besides witness of life, there must also be bold proclamation of the Gospel, the Pope said, “certainly, the Gospel requires man’s free adhesion. But for the latter to be expressed the Gospel must be presented... Full adhesion to Catholic truths rather than diminishing human freedom, increases it and leads it to completion in gratuitous love and filled with concern for the good of all men and women.”
The Pope then reflected on three themes: the reception of magisterial documents by the Catholic faithful, “often disorientated rather than informed by immediate reactions and interpretations on the part of the means of social communications”; natural moral law ever today ever more widely unrecognised; the formation of seminarians and clergy. The Holy Father said “the reception of a document, rather than a media factor, should be lived as an ecclesial event of accepting the magisterium in communion and most cordial sharing of the doctrine of the Church” and he stressed to need to “provide opportune means of transmission and diffusion of these documents to ensure full knowledge first of all on the part of the Bishops of the Church, the first to be responsible for the acceptance and valorisation of papal teaching”.
With regard to natural moral law John Paul II said that papal teaching which helps to rediscover the existence of a natural moral law, seems unfortunately so far not to have received the desired reception. He called on those present to “promote opportune initiatives to foster constructive renewal of the doctrine on natural moral law seeking also convergence with representatives of different confessions, religions and cultures.”
Lastly the Pope called for “adequate and balanced formation of future priests called explicitly to embrace with joy and generosity the humble, modest and chaste style of life which is the concrete foundation of ecclesiastical celibacy” and he urged the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to collaborate with the other departments of the Roman Curia responsible for the formation of seminarians and clergy.
(S.L.) (Fides Service 6/2/2004 – lines 37; words 508)