'New Evangelization' is natural outgrowth of Church mission, Pope says
October 17, 2011
At his midday public audience on Sunday, October 16, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about the importance of the “new evangelization,” especially during the coming Year of Faith.
The Holy Father told the crowd in St. Peter’s Square that he had announced the Year of Faith “to recall the beauty and importance of the faith, and the need to strengthen and intensify in individuals and communities.” He observed that Pope Paul VI had also proclaimed a Year of Faith in 1967, which was, like the present, “a period of great cultural upheaval.”
The Pope reminded his audience that Blessed John Paul II had frequently spoken of the need for a “new evangelization,” without prejudice to the unceasing campaign to bring the Gospel to new nations. His predecessor, Pope Benedict said, was “both a strong supporter of the mission ad gentes--that is, the mission to peoples and lands where the Gospel has not yet put down firm roots)--and a herald of the new evangelization.”
On Saturday evening the Pontiff had met with participants in a conference sponsored by the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization, and told them that “the world today needs people who announce and bear witness to the fact that it is Christ Who teaches us the art of living, Who shows us the path to true happiness, because He Himself is the path of life.” The Pope added: "The world today needs people who speak to God in order to be able to speak of God."
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