VATICAN - Cardinal Sepe meets the clergy in Tarahumara, Mexico: “Have trust in Jesus Christ who called you and trust the Church our Mother; offer your trust also to the new Bishop, who is the foundation of your own ministry”

Guachochi (Fides Service) - Before presiding the Eucharistic concelebration for the Ordination of the new Bishop of Tarahumara, in the morning of Wednesday 9 March, Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, had a meeting with the clergy of the diocese during which he thanked them for their dedication and encouraged them as they face new challenges. He brought them the greetings of the Pope John Paul II: “Take courage, face with hope old and new pastoral challenges which you encounter. As the Magisterium teaches us, they are new and wonderful opportunities for evangelisation.” The Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples underlined that in Tarahumara the priests care for “peoples with a specific and rich cultural identity, communities which require the maternal care of the Church”. Cardinal Sepe said the priests are helped in their ministry by the closeness of the Holy Father who has always shown concrete concern for the indigenous peoples and he recalled Pope John Paul II’s first visit to Mexico in January 1979 and his meeting with indigenous peoples at Cuilapán.
After speaking about evangelisation, “the first service the Church offers to every individual and to the whole of humanity” as the Redemptoris missio encyclical says, Cardinal Sepe reflected on inculturation: “The Gospel is able to impregnate all cultures transforming them from within, integrating them with the Christian faith. Indeed when a culture closes in on itself it is impoverished. Progress, instead, is a fruit of interrelation, an encounter, not always free of difficulties. The encounter with the divine person of Christ “will not happen unless the Good News is proclaimed.” Evangelisation which tends to simplify this process and fails to develop Christian Initiation correctly will remain at the superficial level; it will never take deep root.”
“My dearly Beloved Brothers, may God bless your steps and the steps of all the priests in the world -Cardinal Sepe said as he ended his address-, and through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary may you grow and advance along the path of holiness and the full realisation of your vocation, in unconditioned consecration to the Father and the Son and his mission.” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 10/3/2005; righe 26, parole 351)