October 28, 2012 – Angelus Message – Closing of the Synod of Bishops

 

            Sunday, October 28, 2012 marked the end of a three-week journey of meetings and discussions for the Synod of Bishops, called by Pope Benedict XVI, on the New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith.  Throughout this time, the streets have been bustling with visitors from all over the world who have been involved with the meetings in some fashion or another.  Bishops, priests, and lay faithful came together to present the needs of the Church in our contemporary era and to reflect on the reality facing the Church, as well as ways and avenues of presenting the faith to the faithful and today's secularized socieities.   Pope Benedict XVI reflected,

 

 “...the whole Church was represented and, thus, involved in this work, which will not fail to bear its fruits with the Lord’s grace. First of all, however, the Synod is always a moment of vibrant ecclesial communion, and I would to thank God for this together with all of you. He has once again made us experience the beauty of being Church, and to be it precisely today, in this world as it is, in the midst of this humanity with its toils and its hopes.”

 

He once again acknowledged and stressed the importance of the Second Vatican Council, as well as the beginning of the Year of Faith, relating how it helpful it was during these past few weeks to be thinking and meditating upon Blessed John Paul II, Servant of God Paul VI, and the Council.  The Holy Father believes that this thrust for new evangelization was a dynamism beginning in the 1950s with the emphasis to evangelize traditionally Christian countries that had become “mission territories”.  Offering these thoughts, Pope Benedict stated,

 

“Thus there emerged the need for a renewed proclamation of the Gospel in the secularized societies, with the twofold certainty that, on the one hand, it is only he, Jesus Christ, the one who is truly new, who answers to the expectations of the men of every age, and, on the other hand, that his message must be transmitted in changed social and cultural contexts.”

 

Following, the Holy Father said he would try to order and elaborate a teaching from all the information he personally listened to and all the information that he gathered and was given through collaborators.  Summarizing, he stated,

 

“From this moment we can say that there has emerged from this Synod a strengthened commitment to the spiritual renewal of the Church herself so as to spiritually renew the secularized world; and this renewal will come from the rediscovery of Jesus Christ, of his truth and of his grace, of his 'countenance' so human and so divine upon which the mystery of God’s transcendence shines.”

 

He concluded, entrusting all the fruits and labor of the Synod meetings to the Blessed Mother, Mary Star of the New Evangelization, asking her intercession to bring all to Christ with courage and joy. 

 

After praying the Angelus, he asked a prayer request for all the victims of the hurricane that had hit at that time in the Caribbean islands, especially Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, and the Bahamas.  He stated, “I invite everyone to prayer and solidarity, to alleviate the grief of the families of the victims and to offer help to the thousands who have been injured.”  May we join together in prayer with our Holy Father for all those who have been affected by the devastating effects of the hurricane weather in the Caribbean islands and on the East Coast of the United States of America. 

 

May we also pray that these meetings will continue to bear much fruit in the Church, and that we each may know and rediscover Christ, His truth, His grace, and His countenance.  Blessed Mother, pray for us!