Challege of Evangelization & St Paul

Blessed Alberione took up the Challenge of the New Evangelization

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “There are regions in the world that still wait for a first evangelization; others that received it but need more profound work; others still in which the Gospel put down roots a long time ago, giving place to a true Christian tradition, but where in the last centuries -- with complex dynamics -- the process of secularization has produced a grave crisis of the sense of the Christian faith and of belonging to the Church.” These were the words of the Holy Father Benedict XVI during the Celebration of First Vespers for the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, which he presided in the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls on the afternoon of June 28.

Near the sepulcher of St. Paul I repeat: The Church is an immense force of renewal in the world, not because of her strength, but because of the force of the Gospel, in which the Holy Spirit of God breathes, the God Creator and Redeemer of the world. The challenges of the present age are certainly beyond human capacities; they are the historical and social challenges, and with greater reason, the spiritual challenges...Man of the third millennium also desires an authentic and full life, he has need of truth, of profound liberty, of gratuitous love.

Also in the deserts of the secularized world, man's soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Because of this John Paul II wrote: 'The mission of Christ the Redeemer, entrusted to the Church, is still very far from its fulfillment,' and he added: 'a look on the whole of humanity demonstrates that such a mission is still at the beginning and that we must commit ourselves with all our strength to its service' (Redemptoris Missio,1).”