8-December-2004 -- EWTNews Brief
LIMA, Peru, December 8 (CNA) - Archbishop
Estanislaw Rylko, President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, said this
week during the II Assembly of the Christian Life Movement in Lima, Peru, that
the Church needs radical commitment to the Gospel at the dawn of the Third
Millennium.
Archbishop Rylko, who traveled to Lima to meet with delegates participating
in the gathering of members of the movement founded by Peruvian layman Luis
Fernando Figaro, stated, "The Church has entered this new millennium with
the awareness of the gravity of the problems and challenges that await her, but
she is also filled with hope." He likewise recalled the words of Pope John
Paul II: "One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to our times is most
certainly the flourishing of the ecclesial movements which, since the beginning
of my pontificate, I have been singled out as a reason for hope for the
Church."
"Today," the archbishop continued, "it is impossible to speak
of the New Evangelization without making reference to the ecclesial
movements." "Already as bishop of Krakow, John Paul II discovered the
enormous evangelizing potential of the movements and he continues to do so now
as Pope. Not only does he encourage, sustain and promote them in the Church but
at the same time he is very demanding with them and he lays out significant
goals for them."
Archbishop Rylko also pointed out that, "Today more than ever, the
Christian formation of the laity is the most urgent task, a formation that
begins with a profound conversion of heart."
Christian formation, he added, "should always have a strong missionary
aspect, as the Christian vocation is by its very nature a vocation to the
apostolate. This is why the ecclesial maturity of the movements finds its
fullest expression in the work of evangelization."
The novelty of the movements
Archbishop Rylko also mentioned that one of the most serious problems in the
area of evangelization is that of falling into a routine, which "strips the
Christian proclamation and witness of their freshness and persuasive
strength."
In this sense, he pointed out that the ecclesial movements go beyond the
traditional forms of the apostolate in order to develop and propose "new
methods and forms", which "are not limited to the parish
environment" but rather penetrate the culture, media, economy and politics
of our day.
"Where is the source of this evangelical impulse of the ecclesial
movements?" the archbishop asked. "It is because of the teachings of
the II Vatican Council that the awareness of the charismatic dimensions, whether
of the Church herself or of the Christian life, has notably increased."