Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Madrid (Fides Service) - “Evangelising with authenticity means radical following of Christ crucified. It is here that we find the guarantee of ecclesial fecundity” said Archbishop Francisco Pérez, National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Spain in an address at a “Christus Splendor in Caritate” exhibition at the Diocesan Museum of Barcelona, as part of the Forum of Culture in that city open from 9 May to 25 September 2004.
In his address “Mission and Missionaries in the Church today”, Archbishop Pérez said that the Church is called to renew herself if she intends to give new impulse to her evangelising mission because “before evangelising we must be evangelised, converted by the Word, the sacraments, the Spirit, the faith. Only then can we bear authentic witness to that which we have seen and heard, otherwise our testimony would be enormously lacking”. We cannot be evangelisers unless we are united with the Church, the community of brothers: the evangeliser cannot work alone. “A missionary and evangeliser without the Church is without sense and everything is an illusion, a lie”.
In the evangelising mission of the Church the language which is best understood is witness, disinterested charity and service. Charity is the soul of the Church of each of its members and pastoral structures. Without this form of evangelisation offered through charity and Christian poverty the proclamation of the Gospel, although it is the first form of charity, is in danger of being misunderstood and to drown in the sea of words to which society is subjected every day by communications (cfr NMI 50).
Archbishop Perez said that the Holy Spirit leads the Church to put out into the deep because stagnation is not proper to the Spirit of Christ or to the authentic Christian. “Sadly in the Church there has always been a tendency to stop, to consider the difficulties, to measure one’s possibilities, to look back after putting hand to the plough”. “Our journey at the beginning of this new century must be speedier, more confident, optimistic, in the certainty of the continual presence and working of the Holy Spirit” the National Director said. Mission is not only for a few bold people it is a duty for everyone and therefore the Church of the Third Millennium must encourage baptised and confirmed Christians to realise their duty to be responsible and active in the life of the Church. “it is urgently necessary to organise vast and capillary vocation pastoral”. “We need a new apostolic impulse which must be lived as a daily commitment by individual Christians and communities”.
Lastly Archbishop Perez mentioned the many challenges which modern society poses to the Church’s evangelising work: interreligious dialogue, globalisation, bio-ethics, social justice, the institution of the family, the search for peace, inculturation, respect for human rights, respect for human life. To face these challenges the Church needs to contemplate the Face of Christ, it needs holiness and spirituality of communion: “In Christ, who died and is risen, we are convinced that all these challenges are graces which serve for the good of the Church and the good of humanity ” (R.Z.) (Agenzia Fides 9/7/2004 - Righe 38; Parole 515).
See address in Spanish
http://www.fides.org/spa/vita_chiesa/omp_spagna090704.html
