Therefore the entire
ministry of the Pope, a son of the Council, has been marked by this
powerful ecclesial experience. We could say that the life of Pope
John Paul II, both in Poland and on the Chair of Peter, is faithful
daily implementation of the Council. The importance that the Pontiff
attributes to the Council is evident from the repeated quotations
made in homilies, audiences, and speeches. How could we forget the
special Synod for Bishops convoked in 1985 twenty years after the
conclusion of the Council to reflect on this "gift of God to
the Church and to the world"? Moreover, preparation for the
Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, an event which oriented the pontificate,
was we might say, illuminated by the Council. Already in the Tertio
Millennio Adveniente, the Pope wrote: " An examination of conscience
must also consider the reception given to the Council, this great
gift of the Spirit to the Church at the end of the second millennium".
(TMA 36)
During an international study conference on the implementation of
the Council, in February 2000, the Pope recalled that the little
seed (the Council) "has already produced many fruits in its
35 years of life, and it will produce many more in the years to
come. A new season is dawning before our eyes: it is time for deep
reflection on the Council's teaching, time to harvest all that the
Council Fathers sowed and the generation of recent years has tended
and awaited." (Speech to participants on February 27 2000).
Also the new millennium, just opened, has been set by the Pope in
the light of that great event. At the end of his apostolic letter
Novo Millennium Adveniente the Pope says: "Now that the Jubilee
has ended, I feel more than ever in duty bound to point to the Council
as the great grace bestowed on the Church in the twentieth century:
there we find a sure compass by which to take our bearings in the
century now beginning". (NMI 57).
It is difficult to express briefly the profound change brought about
by the Council in our understanding of missionary activity; it would
require countless quotations. Beginning with the Constitution Lumen
Gentium which underlined the missionary nature of the entire Church:
"The obligation of spreading the faith is imposed on every
disciple of Christ, according to his ability." (LG 17). The
Decree specially devoted to the Church's missionary activity Ad
Gentes, placed mission, which for some appeared to be almost completed,
at the heart of the Church's activity and of the commitment of every
baptised Christian: the whole Church is missionary and the work
of evangelisation is a fundamental duty of the people of God. Concepts
to which we are used to today, but which at the time resounded for
the first time and in such a solemn context. In the new page opened
by the Council in the history of missionary activity first place
is given to of the Word of God: "The specific purpose of missionary
activity is evangelisation and the planting of the Church among
those peoples and groups where she had not yet taken root…The
chief means of this implantation is to preach of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. The Lord sent forth his disciples into the whole world to
preach the Gospel". (AG 6).
It is this very message of salvation that John Paul II has carried
in person, in these 24 years of pontificate, undertaking 98 apostolic
journeys, going as a missionary to the peoples and nations of the
whole world. His pontificate has been a continual going out to the
nations as the first in the Church to be responsible for her universal
mission. A responsibility which the Pope feels as a duty which involves
all the faithful, an urgency which challenges the entire ecclesial
community. However John Paul II is a missionary Pope not only because
he preaches the Gospel himself and urges everyone to do the same,
in every human or social context, but also because the theme of
missionary activity has been the subject of many significant pages
of his teaching. We think immediately of Redemptoris Missio, dated
1990, rightly referred to as the magna charta of mission. The necessity
of inculturating the Gospel, to make it understood by so many different
categories of people, dialogue in truth and charity without distinction
of creed or culture, joyous proclamation that humanity is loved
by God and wants every person to be saved, are aspects of the missionary
activity of the Pope who presents the Church of the third millennium
with a new approach to evangelisation based on guidelines issued
by the Council.
Fides Service: In his message for World Mission
Sunday this year, John Paul II emphasises the connection between
Announcing the Gospel and Forgiveness. Can evangelisation contribute
to building relations of brotherhood among peoples and build a
culture of peace?
Cardinal Sepe: The Pope's message for World Mission
Sunday follows ideally his address for this year's World Day of
Peace, January 1. The world appears to be moving ever closer to
terror, fratricidal hatred, self-destruction. But we must not
let ourselves be influenced by fear and desire for revenge, on
the contrary we must strive even harder to build a culture of
harmonious co-existence. "Forgiveness is in no way opposed
to justice" the Pope says in his message for Peace and in
his missionary message he says: "The evangelising mission
of the Church is essentially the announcement of God's love, mercy
and forgiveness revealed to mankind through the life, death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord." (Mission Sunday Message
2002).
The gift of the Risen Christ is peace and ever timely is his command
to spread his peace. "Through evangelisation - the Pope writes
- believers help people to realise that we are all brothers and
sisters and as pilgrims on this earth, although on different paths,
we are all on our way to the common Homeland which God, through
ways known only to him, does not cease to indicate to us."
(ib. 5). Only the love God has for each and every person can dissipate
division, conflict and disparity and unite the human family in
brotherhood of peace. It is this Love that the Church is called
to proclaim, it is this Love, and this Love alone, that can build
a society based on peace and reciprocal respect.
Fides Service: Very often emphasis is given
to the social work of missionaries, likened by many to the activity
of aid agencies. It is true missionaries are among the first to
care for the material needs of people, but what qualities are
required for the missionary who sets out to proclaims the Word
of Christ in this third millennium?
Cardinal Sepe: The first quality of the missionary of the third
millennium is holiness of life. Not by chance in Novo Millennio
ineunte the Pope makes a call "to place pastoral planning
under the heading of holiness". Holiness of life means for
each of us - and for missionaries in particular- knowing Jesus
Christ, loving him, contemplating his face, following in his footsteps,
imitating him in order to live, as the Apostle of the Gentiles
teaches, "a life hidden with Christ in God", to become
part of the intimacy of the Most Holy Trinity perfect communion
of love. This life of holiness will give strength to the words
and signs of the missionary as he carries out his task to announce
the Kingdom of God. Jesus was a tireless preacher of whom people
said, "No one has ever spoken like this man!"…
"This is a new doctrine, taught with authority!" His
preaching gushed forth from his intimacy with the Father: the
gospels tell that many times he withdrew to a solitary place to
pray, and sometimes spent the whole night in prayer. But mission,
especially mission ad gentes, is made up of words and signs: preaching
which is born of contemplation (contemplata aliis tradere) with
words which are a reflection of life hidden with Christ in God.
Preaching - like that of Jesus - made up of many signs which stir
wonder in the crowds and at the same time draw them to see him,
to listen to him, to let themselves be changed by him: the sick
are cured, water is changed into wine, loaves are multiplied,
the dead are brought back to life. Among all these signs the one
to which Jesus gives most importance is that of his love for the
poor: the poor are evangelised, they become his disciples, they
meet in his name in the community of believers. In this context
we can understand the many efforts made by missionaries in the
field of health care, education, human development, the transformation
of the situations to which they are sent in the name of Christ.
In this viewpoint, missionaries' efforts in social fields are
of no little importance, indeed they are the signs of God's love
for mankind which accompany the announcement of the King of God.
The great temptation in recent decades, due also to the influence
of certain ideologies, has been to neglect explicit proclamation
of Christ and the spiritual dimension of mission ad gentes. This
has led some missionaries to reduce their work to a sort of philanthropy
void of spirit, a sort of social activity which, although useful,
lacks that apostolic dimension which the Acts of the Apostles
make resound in the Church of every era: "It is not good
that we neglect the word of God to serve at table" (Acts
6,2). Here we can apply the words of our Redeemer: "These
things must be done without neglecting the others" (Lk 11,42).
Fides Service: In your many pastoral journeys
you have witnessed the suffering and hopes of faithful and missionaries
who live the faith under difficult conditions. From your direct
experience what must Catholics in other parts of the world do
to alleviate these difficulties and to ensure that these Christians
do not feel alone in their daily witness?
Cardinal Sepe: First of all we should remember that in the plan
of faith and charity there is no room for solitude. In fact in
the Creed we profess our faith in the "communion of saints".
This article of faith has a profound effect on the life of the
Church. Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus, patron of the Missions,
based her love on this spiritual reality which allowed her to
be Love at the heart of the Church, to send love to missionaries
working in remote regions. The first gift that every Catholic
can give to missionary activity is continual prayer - for example,
prayer according to the different missionary intentions chosen
by the Pope for the Apostleship of Prayer. Then we can offer fruits
of personal sacrifices, however small and insignificant they may
appear, we can and should put them in communion. How many sick
persons offer their suffering, and some even their last agony
for the missions! Material help is also an expression of the communion
of saints if it is the fruit of fasting or little sacrifices,
so dear to the people of our parishes - made with love and faith
for this purpose.
Besides this spiritual union, missionaries need the comfort of
loyal and authentic friendship. This friendship is expressed in
solidarity with the tasks proper to their mission, exchange of
letters, experience…
Other material help must not be neglected: immediate help to the
missionary passing through the parish; collections organised by
the parish for a mission twinned with the local community; also
broad range assistance organised by the respective national offices
of the Pontifical Mission Societies. In this sense, on World Mission
Sunday Catholic communities all over the world make collections
for distribution to support missionary projects in many different
countries. These are only a few examples of concrete acts which
express a truth which the Pope does not cease to underline in
his teaching: the missionary vocation of every baptised person.
Fides Service: The Holy Father in his modernity
continually exhorts the Church to use with courage and wisdom
the new means of communication for proclaiming the Gospel. You
yourself have always encouraged the Church not to lose this opportunity
and you have been a communicator, faithful interpreter of the
Magisterium. How can we sustain and promote the efforts that the
missionary world is making in this direction?
Cardinal Sepe: With the new information technology the Church
finds herself suddenly facing a new challenge: to evangelise modern
man using modern technology, handing on the Gospel message without
altering it, but using the language proper to the new means of
communication.
In his Redemptoris missio the Holy Father asked us to reflect
on the relationship between culture and modern communications,
calling the Church to be not merely a spectator but a user of
the modern systems of social communications.
"The means of social communication have become so important
as to be for many the chief means of information and education,
of guidance and inspiration in their behaviour as individuals,
families and within society at large. In particular, the younger
generation is growing up in a world conditioned by the mass media.
To some degree perhaps this Areopagus has been neglected…
the very evangelisation of modern culture depends to a great extent
on the influence of the media, it is not enough to use the media
simply to spread the Christian message and the Church's authentic
teaching. It is also necessary to integrate that message into
the "new culture" created by modern communications."
(RM 37).
The Church, we can say, beginning with the Holy Father himself,
has not shied away from this new challenge, she has accepted it:
without fear she has humbly set out on the path: her progress
is slow but it cannot be halted.
Pope John Paul II has given us the directions: "It is also
necessary to integrate that message into the "new culture"
created by modern communications" since the new generation
are growing up in a world conditioned by the mass media. (Redemptoris
missio 37).
Our own missionary Congregation has accepted this challenge and
does not hesitate to enter the new culture created by the modern
means of communication. To understand fully their potential we
must study their language, follow their development and use them
for the Gospel. I think for example that our Fides News Service
has a place in this proposal. It has many projects to put into
action the desires of His Holiness who already in 1984 speaking
to journalists said "greater circulation of ideas and information
in the ecclesial community, between the Apostolic See and the
local Churches, between local Churches themselves, which will
undoubtedly foster not only a deepening of spirit and collegiality
and strengthening of bonds of communion but also growth and maturation
of the individual and collection awareness of the members of the
People of God. <Each one of the faithful has the right to be
informed about what is necessary to take an active part in the
life of the Church>" says the pastoral instruction Communio
et progressio (119, 1971). Here I would say that the experience
of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 was very useful. During
that unforgettable Event, as nerve before in the history of the
Church, the means of communication were involved. We even had
an Internet office dedicated to his "circulation of ideas
and information in the ecclesial community", through which
we were able to pass on the world the many programmes and contents
of the jubilee in Rome and in the local Churches around the world,
translated in 11 languages. All this is of encouragement also
for the times to come, in which other projects will be launched
to enable the missionaries and the local Churches most in need
to benefit from this "circulation of ideas and information
in the ecclesial community". The Congregation de Propaganda
Fide feels itself to be in fact a great family, and in a real
family there must be first of all communication to reach communion.
Thinking of Fides Service and its service to the missions I like
to see it as a great laboratory of thought and projects for evangelisation
through the media. We cannot risk - and I say this with special
reference to missionary activity - losing the train of modern
social communications. Unfortunately we all see the ever more
aggressive phenomena of the affirmation of schools of thought
loned to merely secularise logic, which elaborate in their laboratories
cultures of consumerism, liberality etc and their spread them
through the media bringing man outside of himself and robbing
him of his dignity as child of God. These secularised cultures
quickly influence mentalities and customs because they are transmitted
at great speed from one part of the earth to the other, by means
of media of which the modern laboratories of power make massive
use. The early Church saw the roads of the Roman Empire, certainly
not built for the her, as a providential gift for embarking on
evangelisation.
The Apostles, who received from the Lord the command to "go
out into the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature"
(Mk 16,15) did not hesitate to use those imperial means of communication
to spread the Word of God. Today the modern technology offers
new roads, which we must all use since they will help us to launch
networks truly unprecedented: "Such a wide audience would
have been beyond the wildest imaginings of those who preached
the Gospel before us. What is therefore needed in our time is
an active and imaginative engagement of the media by the Church.
Catholics should not be afraid to throw open the doors of social
communications to Christ, so that his Good News may be heard from
the housetops of the world!" This was said by Pope John II
in his message for the 35th Day of Social Communications, 2001.
The Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples looks with
particular attention to this "ocean" of possibilities
offered by the media; we proceed with audacity - as the Pope says
in his call to "put out into the deep" (LK 5,4), and
we must ask the Lord to give us the strength and the courage of
pastoral and spiritual initiatives suited to modern times, which
allow us use to the maximum effect the tools offered by information
culture, strengthened by confidence in the word of Jesus.
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