Lineamenta of the assembly of bishops to be held next year presented. A necessarily missionary church in the face of challenges posed by secularization, globalization, economic crisis, the decline of ideologies.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "The Christian and the church are missionary in their very being”, but to be as much today, means finding a way to proclaim the Gospel to a world marked by secularization, the blending of cultures - a consequence of increasing migration and the spread of the Internet - from the economic crisis - which is widening the gap between rich and poor - from the almost deification of science and technology, from the political crisis produced by the collapse of ideologies.

This the big question that the Church faces today and that will be the theme of the XIII General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, to be held in the Vatican 7 to 28 October 2012 on the theme "Nova evangelizatio to christianam fidem tradendam - New evangelization for the transmission of the Christian faith", the guidelines or Lineamenta of which was presented today. It is the first step of the Synod, the Linamenta are in fact the first working document, which contains analysis and above poses questions to the bishops of the world on the situation and how to answer them. The reflections from the bishops' conferences will serve as a basis for the Instrumentum laboris, the working document for the Assembly.

The urgency of a new evangelization, already established by the Vatican with the famous "The pilgrim Church is missionary by nature", was picked up by Paul VI, revived by John Paul II and most recently reaffirmed by Benedict XVI, closing work of the Special Synod of Bishops for the Middle East, when he clearly placed the theme of the new evangelization at the top of the Churches’ agenda.

But the Church which "recognizes it is the result of this evangelization, as well as an agent" finds itself "at a historical moment full of change and tensions, of increasing imbalance and a loss of points of reference. This era encourages us to live increasingly focused on the present and temporary, making our ability to listen, to transmit human memory and shared values on which to build the future of new generations increasingly difficult. In this context, the presence of Christians, the work of their institutions, is perceived as less natural and more suspect. In recent decades the critical questions facing the Church and Christians, in the face of God that we proclaim, have also increased. The task of evangelization is thus faced with new challenges. "

The first is "the cultural landscape of the background. We are in an era of profound secularization, which has lost the ability to listen and understand the words of the Gospel as a message alive and invigorating. Rooted in particular in the Western world, the result of episodes and thought and social movements that have profoundly marked the history and identity, secularization is today in our culture through the positive image of liberation, the ability to imagine life of the world and of humanity without reference to transcendence. "

The second scenario arises from the growing phenomenon of migration, from which "a meeting and mixing of cultures has come to pass that our society has not encountered for centuries”, which is linked to the phenomenon of globalization.

"This" mixture of cultures "is the backdrop to the challenge of social communications. "There is no place in the world today that can not be reached and therefore not subject to the influence of media and digital culture that is structured more like the 'place' of public life and social experience. The spread of this culture brings with it certain benefits, but also risks such as "the culture of the ephemeral, the immediate, appearance, or a society incapable of memory and the future."

Another scenario is the growing economic imbalances between North and South, exacerbated by the current economic crisis. There is an attitude that borders on the religious towards the results of science and technology which "risk becoming the new idols of the present."

The document finally points out the political landscape, created by the end of the division of the Western world and the emergence "of new economic, political and religious players on the world stage, such as the Islamic world, the Asian world," which "has created a totally new and unknown situation, full of potential, but also full of risks and new temptations to domination and power”.

In the face of all this, "it is natural that the first reaction is bewilderment and fear, compared to transformations that question our identity and our very faith at its foundations." But instead the Lineamenta recalls that "critical attitude of discernment repeatedly called for by Pope Benedict XVI, when he invites us to develop the ability to read the present from the perspective of hope that Christianity gifts."

There are, in fact, positive signs, such as a "promising a revival of religion", although "many positive aspects of the rediscovery of God and the sacred in many religions are obscured by the phenomena of fundamentalism which very often manipulates religion to justify violence and even terrorism. " In support there is hope above all trust in the Lord of history and there are many, even lay people who devote themselves to spreading the Gospel.

A task which concerns all believers today, individually and collectively. The "audacity" of the first Christians is needed, as is "the need to find new expressions of evangelization for the Church within the current ever changing social and cultural context".  And "even in situations of minority or discrimination, the Church can not lose its ability to stay close to people's daily lives, the place to announce the life-giving message of the Gospel."

In this work "the Eastern Catholic Churches can be of great help and all Christian communities that in their recent past have lived or are still living the experience of hiding, persecution, exclusion, intolerance of being victims of ethnic, ideological or religious intolerance. Their testimony of faith, their tenacity, their stamina, the strength of their hope, the intuition of some of their pastoral practices are a gift to share with those Christian communities which, while having glorious past, are experiencing a present of fatigue and dispersion. For Churches little accustomed to living their faith in a minority it is certainly a gift to hear their experiences that instill the confidence necessary for momentum required by the new evangelization. "

Because, as Paul VI said: "Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers it is because they are witnesses." "It is therefore primarily by her conduct and life that the Church will evangelize the world, namely through the living witness of fidelity to the Lord Jesus, poverty and detachment, free from the powers of this world. In a word, holiness". "Any project of a new evangelization, any plans to announce and transmit the faith can not ignore this need: to have men and women who by their way of life give strength to the evangelising commitment that they live. Their exemplary nature is the added value that confirms the truth of their dedication, from the content of what they teach and what they ask to live". (FP)

• Vatican
• synod
• of
• bishops
• new
• evangilisation
• lineamenta