“We cannot conduct a new evangelisation without new
evangelizers”, said Archbishop Rino Fisichella Thursday as he opened a three
day conference on New Evangelisation in down town Sydney, Australia.
As keynote speaker at Proclaim 2012, the President of the
Vatican Council for New Evangelisation spoke of the decline of the faith in
Europe and western societies, which, he said, cannot be stemmed by a “reform of
structures” but only by a personal encounter with the Risen Christ. He also
urged “new relationships of esteem, of trust and of welcome of people’s various
gifts” within the Church.
“To be an evangelizer is a vocation
so that all people may be able to hear the Gospel of Jesus, believe in him and
call upon him. That vocation is born on the very day of our baptism and it is a
vocation to every believer in Christ to make of himself or herself a credible
bearer of the good news encapsulated in his teaching. To be sent, then, is
intrinsic to the baptismal vocation; this implies for all Christians that they
assume this responsibility, each one in their own person, without any
possibility of delegating it to others. The proclamation of the Gospel cannot
be delegated to others; rather, it requires the awareness specific to the
believer that he or she is to be a bearer of Christ wherever they go”.
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