A conference on the New Evangelization will be held from October 16-18, 2013 at the University of Santo Tomas. You can find all the details of this event on their website including online registration. Don't forget to like their Facebook account to stay updated. Register ASAP and avail of their early bird promo.
The changed social, cultural, economic, civil and religious scenarios call us to something new: to live our communitarian experience of faith in a renewed way and to proclaim it through an evangelization that is “new in its ardor, in its methods, in its expressions”, as John Paul II said (Discourse to the XIX Assembly of CELAM, Port-au-Prince, 9 March 1983, n. 3).
This is the call of the Church through the XIII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization for the Transmission of Faith.
Twenty-two years ago, the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines (PCP II) envisioned a renewed integral evangelization in the Church in the Philippines. Today, this Church in South East Asia, in particular the Archdiocese of Manila, joins the journey of the universal Church towards new evangelization. This Philippine Conference on the New Evangelization (PCNE) is a milestone in the Church’s journey and a concrete response to her call as well as a reawakening to PCP II’s vision of renewed integral evangelization.
The Synod Fathers recognize that in heeding the call for new evangelization, “we cannot remain indifferent to the process of secularization.” Moreover, “ the proclamation of the good news in different contexts of the world – marked by the processes of globalization and secularism – places different challenges before the Church: at times in an outright religious persecution, at other times in a widespread indifference, interference, restriction or harassment.”
Today, we Filipino Catholics find our country and the Church not far from the contexts described by the Synod Fathers as PCP II already observed. Urbanization, globalization and communication technologies are bringing changes in Philippine society. We are still challenged by pluralism, burdened by much graft and corruption in politics and governance, saddled in economics with “inequalities of the grossest kind” and widespread poverty resulting in the poor becoming poorer and the rich becoming richer, and confronted with increasing imbalances in the educational sector. We cannot ignore the emergent powerful culture developed by developments in information technologies, new media and social networking that influence our way of thinking, feeling and relating with others.
However, one with the Synod Fathers’ optimism and trust in the Lord, we still strive to preserve the culture and faith of our ancestors; many of us still anchor ourselves on basic faith and trust in God’s mercy. Our religiosity is even more heightened among overseas workers who have migrated in Europe and America.
Thus, for us Filipino Catholics, the call for new evangelization is both “entering into the long path of proclaiming the Gospel with the apostolic courage of Paul who would go so far as to say ‘Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!’ (1 Corinthians 9:16)” and making the spirit of PCP II come alive and rekindle this in the hearts of the clergy, those in the consecrated life and the lay faithful to move forward.
The Synod Fathers declared: “We need not invent new strategies as if the Gospel were a product to be placed in the market of religions. We need to rediscover the ways in which Jesus approached persons and called them, in order to put these approaches into practice in today’s circumstances.” Applying this basic approach in new evangelization, three events in the life of Jesus serve as inspiration and framework in organizing the PCNE. These three events point to the phases of the conference.
Phase One: "Come and See" - A Personal Encounter with Jesus: The Beginning of All Evangelization
Phase Two: "Stay With Us" - We Encounter Jesus in The Church Through The Word and The Eucharist
Phase Three: "Duc In Altum" - Go and Preach The Gospel to The Whole Creation (Mission and Spirituality)
(Reposted from the PCNE website)
"Behold, I make all things new." - Rev 21:5
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