In my column last week on The Pauline Year, I noted that personal and corporate renewal in the Church is an intrinsic element of Church life which has been given new emphasis in the pontificate of John Paul II and during the pontificate of the present Vicar of Christ, Benedict XVI.

In my column this week, I want to link the opportunity of personal and corporate renewal found in the invitation of Pope Benedict XVI to celebrate the Pauline Year well with the call for Discipleship and Missionary Ministry that he made to the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean during the Fifth General Conference held in Brazil last year.

Background information

Pope Benedict XVI met with the Bishops of Brazil prior to the opening of the Fifth Conference of the Bishops of Latin America which includes the Caribbean (CELAM). His addresses were significant.

They are not found in the final document of the conference but they can be found in the English edition of L’ Osservatore Romano in May of 2007. The addresses are a substantial source of insightful material for pastoral reflection.

In his address to the Bishops of Brazil, the Holy Father made the following important pastoral observations:

The present time is a difficult time for the Church. Society is experiencing moments of worrying disorientation: the sanctity of marriage and family are being attacked along with the dignity of the human person and extramarital unions are widespread.

Within the Church priestly consecration as total entrustment to God through apostolic celibacy and as total openness to the service of people is being questioned so that the structure of total consecration to God is beginning to lose its deepest meaning.

Catholics have abandoned the faith and the life of the Church. The principal cause of this problem is the lack of evangelisation completely centered on Christ and his Church.

The most vulnerable are those who cannot resist the onslaught of relativism and secularisation. They are the baptised who are insufficiently evangelised and are easily influenced because their faith is weak, confused, easily shaken and naïve even though they are innately religious.

What is required is a mission of evangelisation that welcomes people and helps them realise that the Church is the privileged place of encounter with God. What is needed is a continuous process of catechesis that aims at personal and communal fidelity to Christ.

The conference theme

The theme of the conference itself was, Disciples and missionaries of Jesus Christ so that our people may have life in him.  

The Holy Father had some specific pastoral recommendations on the theme for the conference:
Missionaries must be sent to the homes of the people to begin dialogue in a spirit of understanding and sensitivity.

The poor must be helped with their poverty and must experience that the Church is close to them by meeting their needs and defending their rights. “The Church cannot neglect the service of charity anymore than she can neglect the sacraments and the word.”

Faith is a journey led by the Holy Spirit that can be summed up in two words: conversion and discipleship. It is a way of living based on love of God and neighbour.

Truth presupposes a clear understanding of Jesus’ message transmitted by means of an intelligible, inculturated language. There is an urgent need for an adequate knowledge of the faith through catechesis based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church and for training in the personal and social virtues.

The Church must find ways to complete the spiritual, psychological and affective, intellectual and pastoral formation of people to prepare them, especially the young, for mature and generous service to the Church.

The responsibility of bishops is to facilitate dialogue to discern God’s saving will and to develop a pastoral plan capable of responding to the reality in which the people you serve live their lives.

Application to the archdiocese

Many of the issues listed above and other issues found in the other addresses given by Pope Benedict XVI in Brazil pertain to the archdiocese and must be faced by the archdiocese.

The process of facing the agenda can be a source of renewal because it will test the love of the people for the Lord and the zeal of the people for the Church and its ministry. Secularisation is a worldwide problem and many people, without even realising it, have been affected by its subtle influence.     

The dialogue called for by the Holy Father has been encouraged in the archdiocese since 2002 when preparations were being made for the Synod of 2003.

Many positive changes have resulted yet many significant challenges remain to be resolved. The dialogue has to deepen qualitatively and the number of people involved in the dialogue from all the vocations in the Church must increase.

From May 12-14, the priests of the Archdiocese will gather for a retreat/pastoral workshop (at present more than 70 priests have registered) during which some of the issues related to the mission of the Church in the archdiocese will be discussed prayerfully and unhurriedly.

I expect that the pastoral recommendations from the discussions will become part of the pre-Synod dialogue for the Synod delegates and the Vicariate and Parish Councils.

Conclusion

I request the prayers of the archdiocese for the priests during the Retreat/Pastoral Workshop.

May the efforts being made to name specifically the elements of mission for the Archdiocese during the next three years be linked to the celebration of the Pauline Year during which we will reflect on the missionary ministry of St. Paul.

May whatever pastoral plan, that will emerge from the Synod for the next three years, be a source of renewal for the archdiocese as we try to become, “Disciples and Missionaries for the Lord Jesus.”