From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14, 2013

From Thursday August 15 to Sunday 18 I shall be with Blessed John Paul II Evangelizing Parish Team at Ukarimu Centre in Molo, Nakuru Diocese for annual national workshop.

This is the Maryknoll Fathers apostolate cordinated by Rev Fr Richard Dick Quinn. The apostolate whose main focus is evangelization with images follows the call by blessed John Paul II new evangelization.

Blessed John Paul II first used the term in 1983 in an address to Latin American Bishops. He would later bring this term to the attention of the entire Church. The term is drawn from his encyclical, Redemptoris Missio.

In section 33 of this encyclical, Blessed John Paul II describes three different situations for evangelization: mission ad gentes, Christian communities, and the new evangelization.

Mission ad gentes: Latin for “to the nations.” This is a situation where “Christ and his Gospel are not known.” Christian communities: “In these communities the Church carries out her activity and pastoral care.” This is the ongoing evangelization of those “fervent in the faith.” The key word here is fervent faith.

Pope Francis has emphasized this call in his recent encyclical, “Lumen Fidei (“The Light of Faith”) released July 5, and is the first encyclical promulgated by Pope Francis, even though much of the rough draft was prepared by Benedict XVI, who was not able to finish it before resigning from the office of Pope.

The faith he explains must not be kept to ourselves but must bring light to the building of human life, the person, the family, and the Church. This encyclical completes the series on the three great virtues: faith, hope and charity.

Pope Francis believes that the new evangelization presumes apostolic zeal. And one must go out towards those in need, to proclaim the Gospel in the suburbs. As Christians therefore, we must engage in the work of evangelization.

Pope Emeritus Benedict always emphasized the need for the new evangelization in his pontificate. In 2010 he established The Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization. In 2012, he declared a Bishops’ Synod to discuss the New Evangelization.

The new evangelization in which the whole continent is engaged means that faith cannot be taken for granted, but must be explicitly proposed in all its breadth and richness.

For John Paul II, the new evangelization is the “great re-launching” of the age-old call to “preach the gospel” (1 Cor 9:16). It means that the task of new evangelization is constantly faced with the mission of presenting herself “anew” to man in every age.

To evangelize the world in its “generational evolutions” therefore, is to evangelize man where the spirit of the world is strongest. This is a news world made up of the sciences, politics, media, and culture as a whole.

At the end of all these, the new evangelization has, as its end goal, the salvation of souls. It explains why an instrumental aspect of that is to bring the culture to bear witness to the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

For this reason, individuals are called to convert; and, as a result, cultures will be transformed in truth. The process by which this takes place is called “enculturation.” In the words of John Paul II, enculturation is “the intimate transformation of authentic cultural values through the integration in Christianity, and the insertion of Christianity in the various human cultures”.

The proclamation of Christ is at the very heart of this integration and insertion, and “is the permanent priority of mission”. In this way, the new evangelization has, as its offering to the world, a “civilization of love”, which is the fruit of the new evangelization.

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
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Twitter-@8000accomole

Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.

-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ UN Disarmament Conference, 2002