A New Evangelization

Synod Working Paper

April/May 1998

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Fifteen months prior to the Synod for America, a lineamenta (outline of topics and questions) was issued to bishops and cardinals throughout North and South America and the Caribbean. Drawing from their responses a working paper was prepared for the synod. The following is taken from this working paper. (Reprinted from Origins, September 11, 1997, issue.)

YES! Much still needs to be done in the Church in the American hemisphere to foster knowledge and application of the Church.s social doctrine.this situation results from the little account given in some cases to the social implications of the faith, which in turn is reflected in an incomplete formation in both laity and clergy.

YES! The subject of the essential unity between worship and Christian living, between the spiritual life and putting into practice the gospel principle of love of neighbour still needs to be more deeply rooted in the consciences of many members of the people of God.

YES! The gospel cannot be proclaimed as if it were separated from the problems of the human condition.Human promotion is intimately united to evangelization, since the person to whom the gospel is addressed is not an abstract concept but a subject affected by concrete social and economic problems.

YES! The Church sees in the poor the image of her Divine founder, poor and humble, and she seeks to alleviate the suffering of the poor as a service to Christ. The call to action in response to poverty continues with insistence. Paul VI, speaking to the farmers in Colombia, spoke of the poor as a .sacrament of Christ. and in the apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, confirmed the link between the gospel of Christ and the liberation from misery as a demand of justice and Christian charity.

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