ASIA/SOUTH KOREA - “Families in Asia can be the Church’s most effective agents of evangelisation” Archbishop Sarah, Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples told FABC assembly

Monday, 30 August 2004

Daejon (Agenzia Fides) - Addressing the 8th plenary assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences in Daejon, South Korea, 17-23 August, Archbishop Robert Sarah, Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, stressed the important role of the family in promoting a culture of life, and he said: “The Catholic Church and the Asian and African societies must stand firm in presenting marriage and family life as something precious…The Christian family, seen through Christian eyes, as the “domestic Church”, should be a place where the truth of the Gospel is the rule of life and the gift which the family members bring to the wider community. Families are not simply the object of the Church’s pastoral care; they are also the Church’s most effective agents of evangelisation.”.
Some 186 delegates discussed the theme “The Asian Family Towards a Culture of Life”, examining the situation of families in the different countries of Asia in the light of the Gospel and Catholic teaching and identifying new pastoral approaches.
Archbishop Sarah told the Asian Bishops that the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples appreciates the efforts for evangelisation being made all over the vast continent of Asia and he said “The mission of the Church in Asia is none other than that which Christ entrusted to her, namely, to bring the salvific message of the Gospel to all peoples of good will. The message of Peace, Love and Brotherhood, especially in these times of hatred and violence.”.
Referring to the spread of materialism and secularism in the world today and speaking of the task facing the Church Archbishop Sarah mentioned a painting in the Basilica in Assisi depicting St Francis carrying the cathedral of Rome, the church of St John Lateran, on his shoulders. “Like St. Francis we are all called to do our part in upholding the world. This is our mission, the greatness of a Christian lies in this mission”, the said the Archbishop adding “.We can, like St. Francis, sustain this world from collapsing with our shoulders, by living in God and with God, and allowing him to fill us with his love”.
Recalling that the Christian mission is essentially a “a mission of love”, Archbishop Sarah said “However, there is no love without suffering” and he presented two women as models for this path of love: Saint Teresa of Lisieux who discovered “God as an extremely mysterious being, as a Father who has an unconditional love for us”, and Mother Teresa of Calcutta, for whom “Love was the basis for her evangelising mission”.
Archbishop Sarah, then addressed the subject of inculturation “Inculturation is therefore a complex and continuous process which involves the totality of life of the whole person. It is a process of relating the Gospel to life, to a given culture and to that of the human history. In this sense Inculturation is seen as the present and future greatest challenge of the Church.”. “Inculturation is not a canonisation of a culture, neither is it the crowning of a culture with all that it contains. Inculturation is an irruption, an epiphany of the Lord in the heart of a people and in a culture.(…). It transforms the heart of man towards God and towards his fellow men in order to love them and serve them totally without calculating the cost.”. Therefore, he said, “Inculturation of the Christian faith is a challenge to holiness”.
“This personal experience of a holy and loving God should be initiated in Christian families. The family must be considered as starting point of any human and Christian experience” the CEP Secretary concluded. “When a Christian family is a credible sign which recalls the love of God in history, it fulfils its vocation and essential mission, through its own life proclaiming the Gospel of love and contributing to the development of a civilisation of love.”.
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 30/8/2004 lines 48 words 497)


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