Remembering Evangelii nuntiandi

Various events are celebrated throughout this year in which the universal Church celebrates the Great Jubilee, remembering the anniversary of the Incarnation of the Eternal Word in the most pure womb of the ever Virgin Mary. First among these is the irruption of God into human history. Every other marvel pales before the extraordinariness of this mystery of love. Alongside it we celebrate the anniversary of the Church. Mary is the Mother of Jesus. Mary is also Mater Ecclesiae, the Mother of the Church. As Mother of Christ, the Head, She is also Mother of His Mystical Body, the Church. It's evident, therefore, that an enormous distance exists between these anniversaries that we celebrate and any other. But the human heart is large enough to shelter a multitude of joys of differing magnitudes.

Vatican II

We do well, in this sense, to remember the closure of the Second Vatican Council. 35 years ago, on December 8, 1965, Pope Paul VI declared the Council closed. Within the history of the Church it appears that we can compare the historical transcendence of Vatican II with that of the Council of Trent in the 16th century and with that of Vatican I which took place in 1870 but remained incomplete. It wasn't only with an eye to the end of the 20th century that Vatican II began the process of the Church's aggiornamento; it did so looking towards the 21st century as well.

Little by little the opportunity of holding a new council was looked at. Already in the pontificate of Pope Pius XII the first steps were taken towards its convocation. The issue remained quiet until the now beatified John XXIII assumed the papacy and announced the realization of a new Council thus re-launching the project of his illustrious predecessor with new vigor.

Vatican II has been of decisive importance for the Church in Her pilgrimage towards the third millennium. As after other councils, Vatican II brought about a period of adjustment in its wake. Some wanted to read it in their own way, with particular, ideologically biased optics. Others manifested a sense of vertigo and clung on to a past which they believed was more secure. The greater part of the Church, however, has been receiving and applying the Council under the guidance of the Popes of this final third of the 20th century. The time of Vatican II has been one of great hope. One of the council's messages, the one directed to young people, said: "the Church, by means of the Council, has lit a light: a light that illumines the future, your future."

That there have been certain problems and imbalances is undeniable, but these were not caused by the Council. In any case it seems that the intensity of the light experienced with Vatican II may have evidenced certain critical processes already under way and generated in and around them an acceleration of what already existed.

Vatican II deeply penetrated and influenced the progress of the Church in the final years of the century. Anyone attuned to its spirit will recognize that its correct application opens up promising and hope-filled horizons. There is still much in the Council teachings to help those who journey in the 21st century. The process of renovation continues under the horizon of the New Evangelization and the ideal of the Civilization of Love.

Third Assembly

Years later, history would grant the Council's second Pope, His Holiness Paul VI, the occasion to prepare a document that turned out to be fundamental in view of the pilgrimage of the People of God. They were the times of the Holy Year of 1975 in which the Church had intensified the proclamation of the Good News and had centered in, following the Pope, on two great messages: "Put on the new man" and "Be reconciled with God". The Third General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops had been gathered at that time to address the issue of Evangelization. On concluding, the Bishops didn't publish their own document but initiated instead the custom of entrusting the documents of their reflections to the Universal Pastor in order that he draw up an apostolic exhortation. It was thus, then, at the end of the Holy Year and on the tenth anniversary of the Closure of the Second Vatican Council, that Pope Paul VI promulgated an apostolic exhortation dedicated "to the proclamation of the Gospel."

The Assembly of the Synod of Bishops had taken place between September 27 and October 26, 1974, following a two-year gestation period begun in 1972. Among those who participated in the preparation of the Assembly was Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, today Pope John Paul II. Of the themes proposed, Pope Paul VI chose that of the evangelization of the world. The reason for the choice was made explicit in a circular letter informing that the Synod would take place: "the subject of evangelization touches closely upon the serious difficulties the Church is faced with in the fulfillment of Her mission, owing to the multiplicity and speed of the changes spreading throughout civil society and the Church itself, therefore occasioning the need of a consultation in order to see how, in this new world in transformation, and in the present circumstances, She must carry out Her salvific mission of proclaiming the Gospel."

Evangelization was an issue of priority for the Holy Father as he himself points out: "Societal conditions oblige us, therefore, to revise methods, to search through all available means for the manner of bringing to modern man the Christian message, uniquely in which he will be able to find the answer to his questions and strength for his commitment to human solidarity." With so clear a background, like an extension of the aggiornamento signaled by the Council, two lineamenta were prepared, whose final version was that of May 1973. The Instrument of Work was finally sent to the Bishops of the world.

On September 27, 1974 the Solemn Mass for the opening of the Synodal Assembly oriented to evangelization in the contemporary world was celebrated. The Pope said a prayer to the Divine Master in his homily. He began: "Lord Jesus! It is only in the form of supplication that we know how to express the subject of this reflection prior to the Episcopal Synod." Later, addressing the Lord, he added: "the fact of evangelization itself is born of You Lord, like a river; a river which has its source, and You, Christ Jesus, are precisely that source. You are the historical cause; You are the efficient cause, transcendening this prodigious phenomenon: from You, Master, the apostolate was born; from You, Savior; from You, principle and model."

The Assembly was inaugurated a little later in the Synodal Hall. It was on that occasion that the Pope asked those three famous questions: "Who are we?", "What are we doing?", "What should we do?" In his inaugural discourse the Pope revised the nature and end of evangelization, as well as methods and means in harmony with the proclamation of the Good News.

The Pope addressed the members of the Synodal Assembly two more times before giving his closing discourse on October 26, 1974 entitled "Clarifications and Orientations Concerning Evangelization."

In this address the Holy Father made a balance of the developments of the Synodal Assembly, highlighting, among other points, the distinctions between evangelization and human promotion, which had been somewhat confusing for some. He also emphasized the responsibility of evangelization, delving deeply into themes which we will see reiterating themselves in the following years and becoming explicit in documents of the utmost importance such as the recent declaration Dominus Iesus.

That same day, Pope Paul VI pointed out as positive aspects the fact of having "confirmed the priority of the duty to communicate to men the Word of God, the joyous proclamation of eternal life, introduced in the Paschal mystery", and that "today there exists an awareness in the Church, a fine and sharp sense of the duty to employ all the external means that art, life, and technology place at our reach today, in order to spread the joyful news."

Finally, the Pope was very energetic in relation to some points "about which we can in no way remain silent." He spoke with clarity about a deficient ecclesiology, about a particularism opposed to universality, about possible excess in the understanding of liberation, and about "the content of the faith (which) is either Catholic or is no longer such," emphasizing that "all of us have received the faith through an uninterrupted and always constant tradition." Paul VI was very clear in his exercise of the Petrine ministry and the energy with which he affirmed it always showed itself penetrated by the impulse of charity.

Evangelii nuntiandi

At the celebration of the Immaculate Conception of 1975, a little more than a year after the closure of the Synod, the Pope promulgated the apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi. He did so explicitly as the Successor of Peter, seeking "to confirm his brothers", what for him is "a program of life and [daily] action." The reading of the exhortation impresses intensely since it maintains a vigor and currency today that open toward tomorrow.

Conscious of what evangelization means as a duty for the Church and Her children, Pope Paul VI sums up what he will develop in the exhortation as follows: "After the Council, and thanks to the Council which has constituted for Her a time of God in this cycle of history, is the Church more or less apt to announce the Gospel and to insert it in the heart of man with conviction, freedom of spirit, and efficacy?" The Pope proceeds to make the beautiful affirmative answer explicit in the course of the following pages, showing how evangelization is the very vocation of the Church.

It isn't possible here to summarize the teachings of Evangelii nuntiandi. These lines have tried to exercise the historical memory of a text of prime importance in the face of the coming century. They have sought to be an invitation to the child of the Church in order that, 25 years since its promulgation, they may read this Magisterial text which invites us to be a evangelized and evangelizing community.

December 3, 2000

Notice: These articles have been translated by members of the Christian Life Movement and have not been revised by the author.

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