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ONGOING FORMATION PROJECT MONTHLY DOSSIER JANUARY 2011 – YEAR 2 – No. 13 |
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SECTION I: MONTHLY THEME |
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In her last Circular Letter, our General Minister, Encarnacion del Pozo, informed National Councils about the next General Chapter to be held in October 2011 in Sao Paolo (Brazil). The main theme for this Chapter will be: "Evangelized to evangelize". The Chapter will also address the particular mission of the Secular Franciscan Order in building up a more evangelical and fraternal world. The International Presidency has therefore decided that the central theme of the ongoing formation work during the year 2011 will be: "Evangelization". It is hoped that, by exploring this area, all brothers and sisters of the SFO will be better prepared to address the main theme of our General Chapter. To support the theme of “Evangelization” during 2011, the formation team will focus its work around the Apostolic Exhortation "Evangelii nuntiandi" of Pope Paul VI. Giving a new impetus to the important work of evangelization, this exhortation affirms the role of the Church and of every Christian (and not only ordained priests) in spreading the Gospel, the “Good News”, to people of our day. Pope Paul VI explained: “We wish to confirm once more that the task of evangelizing all people constitutes the essential mission of the Church. It is a task and mission which the vast and profound changes of present-day society make all the more urgent. Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists to evangelize.” (n. 14) The project team for ongoing formation wishes to offer again during 2011 the "Monthly Dossiers" on our international website (www.ciofs.org). The feedback received from many fraternities has encouraged our team to continue publishing these dossiers during 2011. Each month, a dossier will be presented with two sections. In Section 1, edited by Ewald Kreuzer, SFO, a summary will be provided of "Evangelii nuntiandi" with some comments and questions for reflection within your fraternities. Section 2, written by Fr. Amando Trujillo-Cano TOR, will provide supporting information on important aspects of Spirituality and Social Doctrine of the Church. Topic 1: Introduction to the Apostolic Exhortation On Evangelization in the Modern World EVANGELII NUNTIANDI Summary and comments by Ewald Kreuzer, SFO “Evangelii nuntiandi” is an Apostolic Exhortation published on 8 December 1975 by Pope Paul VI. It derives its name from the first words of the text: Evangelii nuntiandi studium nostrae aetatis hominibus (The effort to proclaim the Gospel to the men and women of our time). The contents of “Evangelii nuntiandi” follow the work of the Assembly of the Synod of Bishops which took place between September 27 and October 26, 1974. Among those who participated in the preparation of the Assembly was Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, later Pope John Paul II. Of the themes proposed, Pope Paul VI chose that of the evangelization of the world. The reason for the choice was made explicit in a circular letter informing that the Synod would take place: "the subject of evangelization touches closely upon the serious difficulties the Church is faced with in the fulfillment of Her mission, owing to the multiplicity and speed of the changes spreading throughout civil society and the Church itself, therefore occasioning the need of a consultation in order to see how, in this new world in transformation, and in the present circumstances, She must carry out Her salvific mission of proclaiming the Gospel." Evangelization was an issue of priority for the Holy Father as he himself pointed out: "Social conditions oblige us, therefore, to revise methods, to search through all available means for the manner of bringing to modern man the Christian message, uniquely in which he will be able to find the answer to his questions and strength for his commitment to human solidarity." On September 27, 1974 the Solemn Mass for the opening of the Synodal Assembly oriented to evangelization in the contemporary world was celebrated. The Pope prayed to the Divine Master during his homily: "Lord Jesus! The fact of evangelization itself is born of You Lord, like a river; a river which has its source, and You, Christ Jesus, are precisely that source. You are the historical cause; You are the efficient cause, transcending this prodigious phenomenon: from You, Master, the apostolate was born; from You, Savior; from You, principle and model." The Assembly was inaugurated a little later in the Synodal Hall. It was on that occasion that Pope Paul VI asked those three famous questions: "Who are we?", "What are we doing?", "What should we do?" In his inaugural discourse the Pope revised the nature and end of evangelization, as well as methods and means in harmony with the proclamation of the Good News. Reference: http://www.nccbuscc.org/evangelization/apostolic.shtml or http://www.vatican.va/ Questions for reflection and discussing in fraternity 1. What does “evangelization” mean for you and your fraternity? To what does it call us? 2. Search out the articles in the Rule and General Constitutions of the Secular Franciscan Order which speak – directly or indirectly - of “Evangelization”. 3. To support your work with the Apostolic Exhortation “Evangelii nuntiandi” during this year, obtain a copy of it. |
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SECTION II: Spirituality and Social Doctrine of the Church |
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Topic I of III: World Day of Peace – 1 January 2011 RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, THE PATH TO PEACE (n.1-5) [1] Reflection, summary and questions by Fr. Amando Trujillo Cano, TOR A new year usually awakes in us many expectations and desires as we thank the Lord for the year just ended and his many blessings, with the lessons learned and the opportunities and challenges ahead of us. Right at the beginning of each civil year, the Church solemnly celebrates Mary as the mother of God. The liturgy of the day invites us to follow the example of the shepherds who “went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger” (Lk 2:16). It also invites us to learn from Mary who kept all things happening around the child Jesus and reflected “on them in her heart” (Lk 2:19). Seeking tirelessly for Jesus in our lives and meditating on the signs of his presence enables us to see the countless blessings we have already received and welcome those to come. In Jesus each one of us is “no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then also an heir, through God” (Gal 4:7). This lofty dignity cannot be understood without both individual and social implications. In his message for the celebration of the World Day of Peace, 1 January 2011, Pope Benedict XVI reflects on a critical topic for our present world which is directly connected with this dignity as human beings and our deepest identity and highest aspirations as children of God: Religious Freedom, the Path to Peace. In the first number of the message, Benedict XVI offers good wishes for serenity, prosperity and peace as he deplores last years’ climate of persecution, discrimination, violence and religious intolerance. He touches in a particular way on the situation of Iraq, where violence and strife are obstacles to “a future of stability and reconciliation.” He mentions the series of violent attacks which started on October 31 when “two priests and over fifty faithful were killed as they gathered for the celebration of Holy Mass” in a Cathedral of Baghdad. He also assures the threatened Christian community of his “own closeness and that of the entire Church, a closeness which found concrete expression in the recent Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops.” The Pope also thanks those “Governments which are working to alleviate the sufferings of these, our brothers and sisters in the human family,” and asks “all Catholics for their prayers and support for their brethren in the faith who are victims of violence and intolerance.” He then states: “Many Christians experience daily affronts and often live in fear because of their pursuit of truth, their faith in Jesus Christ and their heartfelt plea for respect for religious freedom. This situation is unacceptable, since it represents an insult to God and to human dignity; furthermore, it is a threat to security and peace, and an obstacle to the achievement of authentic and integral human development.” Benedict XVI affirms that to deny or arbitrarily restrict religious freedom “is to foster a reductive vision of the human person; to eclipse the public role of religion is to create a society which is unjust, inasmuch as it fails to take account of the true nature of the human person.” Consequently he implores “all men and women of good will to renew their commitment to building a world where all are free to profess their religion or faith, and to express their love of God with all their heart, with all their soul and with all their mind (cf. Mt 22:37).” In the second point of the Message, the pope states that right to religious freedom is rooted in the dignity of the human person, which has a transcendent nature. In this sense, he adds: “without openness to the transcendent, the human person withdraws within himself, fails to find answers to the heart’s deepest questions about life’s meaning, fails to appropriate lasting ethical values and principles, and fails even to experience authentic freedom and to build a just society.” Benedict XVI then affirms that the value of human dignity is revealed by “Sacred Scripture, in harmony with our own experience,” and thus quotes: “…what is man that you are mindful of him…? Yet you have made him little less than God, and crowned him with glory and honour. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet” (Ps 8:3-6). Following his reasoning he later says: “The transcendent dignity of the person is an essential value of Judeo-Christian wisdom, yet thanks to the use of reason, it can be recognized by all.… Respect for essential elements of human dignity, such as the right to life and the right to religious freedom, is a condition for the moral legitimacy of every social and legal norm.” In the third point of his message, the pope says that religious freedom is at the origin of moral freedom and “should be understood, then, not merely as immunity from coercion, but even more fundamentally as an ability to order one’s own choices in accordance with truth.” In addition to this, he affirms that a “freedom which is hostile or indifferent to God becomes self-negating and does not guarantee full respect for others.” And he goes on to say that the “illusion that moral relativism provides the key for peaceful coexistence is actually the origin of divisions and the denial of the dignity of human beings… In this regard, «it is inconceivable that believers should have to suppress a part of themselves – their faith – in order to be active citizens. It should never be necessary to deny God in order to enjoy one’s rights»”. The fourth point of his message explains that “religious education is the highway which leads new generations to see others as their brothers and sisters, with whom they are called to journey and work together so that all will feel that they are living members of the one human family, from which no one is to be excluded.” Then he highlights the central and fundamental role of the family, founded on marriage between a man and a woman, “as the first school for the social, cultural, moral and spiritual formation and growth of children”. And, in the fifth point of his message, Benedict XVI affirms that religious freedom is “also an achievement of a sound political and juridical culture. It is an essential good: each person must be able freely to exercise the right to profess and manifest, individually or in community, his or her own religion or faith, in public and in private, in teaching, in practice, in publications, in worship and in ritual observances…The international order thus recognizes that rights of a religious nature have the same status as the right to life and to personal freedom, as proof of the fact that they belong to the essential core of human rights, to those universal and natural rights which human law can never deny.” Thus religious freedom is presented as “the litmus test for the respect of all the other human rights”. Questions for reflection and discussion in fraternity 1. What does the incarnation of the Son of God have to say to the climate of persecution, discrimination, violence and religious intolerance reigning in some parts of the world? 2. How can you as Secular Franciscan help in developing a greater sense of religious freedom and peace in your city and country? |
