Ubicumque et Semper

The Holy Father has promulgated a new Motu Proprio establishing the new Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation.  At a press conference at 11.30 this morning (Roman time), Archbishop Rino Fisichella presented the new document to the press.

I have had a quick look at it, and it is a beautiful document.  Pope Benedict begins by reflecting on the first great Evangelist, Christ himself, who commanded his disciples to go out into the whole world and preach the Good News, which the Church has sought to do since that day, helped and inspired by the Holy Spirit.  The mission has taken on various forms in order to respond to different needs and situations in the world down the centuries.   Recent social transformations have created new challenges and changed our perception of the world.  This has had an effect on the religious dimensions of human life.  There has been "a disturbing loss of the sense of the sacred" and issues which were once indisputable have been affected. 

Drawing on the thoughts, writings and initiatives of Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul, Benedict reflects on how we might the new challenges in the light of the Second Vatican Council and the particular needs and situation of the Church in various parts of the world.  The challenge is to find appropriate ways to enable our contemporaries to hear the living Word of God.  He sees a need for a rekindling of faith in the ancient Christian lands through a new missionary endeavour.  While there is still lively faith, the process of secularisation has helped to almost de-Christianize many areas.  Meeting this challenge requires careful discernment, so people can come to encounter Christ for themselves.  The new Pontifical Council will take up this challenge.

The Holy Father then lays down a number of points regarding the new council.

Article 1.
§ 1. It consists of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, which will be part of the Roman Curia, and subject to the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus.
§ 2. The Council's purpose is to stimulate reflection on the themes of the new evangelization, and to identify and promote ways to achieve it.

Article 2.
The action of the Council, held in collaboration with other departments and agencies of the Roman Curia, in accordance with the relevant skills, is to serve the particular Churches, especiallythose territories where Christian tradition most clearly manifests the phenomenon of secularization.

Article 3.
Among the specific tasks of the Council include:
1. to deepen the theological and pastoral significance of the new evangelization;
2 °. to promote and encourage, in close collaboration with the Episcopal Conferences concerned, to be a ad hoc body, to study, dissemination and implement the papal magisterium on matters related to the new evangelization;
3 °. to raise awareness and support activities related to the new evangelization which are being applied in various particular Churches and to promote the realization of new, actively involving the resources of the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, as well as in associations of the faithful and new community;
4 °. to study and promote the use of modern forms of communication, as tools for the new evangelization;
5 °. to promote the use of the Catechism of the Catholic Church as an essential and comprehensive formulation of the content of faith to the people of our time.

Art.4
§ 1. The Council is headed by an archbishop President, assisted by a Secretary, one Under-Secretary and a large number of officials, under regulations established by the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus and the General Regulations of the Roman Curia.
§ 2. The Council and its Members may have their own Consultants.

Here is the text of the document, in Italian for the moment.

This is important for our Fraternity, since we see ourselves as part of the New Evangelisation and we look to the new Pontifical Council as our own.   If I get time, more later.