In his Discourse to the General Assembly of the Italian Episcopal Conference Benedict XVI points out the pastoral approach for our time
Let us start afresh from God
To continue together in the renewal of the Church begun by the Second Vatican Council
The “ancient and new mission” that the Pope announced to participants in the
General Assembly of the Italian Episcopal Conference at the Audience on Thursday
morning, 24 May, in the Vatican's Synod Hall, is to speak to the world once
again of a God who “for many people has become the great Unknown”. To do this,
the Pontiff said, what we need above all is a determined “renewal of the quality
of our faith and of our prayer”. In fact, the first condition for “speaking of
God” is “speaking with God”, devoting the whole of our life “to what is truly
trustworthy, necessary and essential”. In other words we must aim “for the
essence of faith” if we are “to offer a meaningful response to the great social
and cultural transformations of our time”.
In this perspective the Pope invited the prelates to continue together in the
“ecclesial renewal that the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council entrusted to us”.
Its “authoritative instructions”, he recommended, should be received
“dynamically and faithfully” in the perspective of the “hermeneutic of
continuity and of reform” that he himself suggested in his discourse to the
Roman Curia on 22 December 2005.
Moreover, for Benedict XVI “the crisis that is injuring Europe” today is
essentially “spiritual and moral, for which reason “new methods of Gospel
proclamation and pastoral action do not suffice”. Rather, just as the Council
Fathers did 50 years ago – it is necessary “to start afresh from God”, letting
ourselves be found and grasped by him so that we may “help every person we
encounter to be reached by the Truth”. This is the very goal that the Year of
Faith – which will begin next 11 October – is aiming for: a period in which to
lead men and women back to “a renewed encounter with Jesus”, showing them that
“God is the guarantee and not the rival of our happiness”.
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