The Sodalit Family comprises individual persons who discover a personal sympathy with the sodalit style and spirituality. It also includes the members of the institutions and projects that participate in this spiritual family. Amongst these institutions, you will find Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), the Christian Life Movement , the Marian Community (or Sisterhood) of Reconciliation , the Servants of the Plan of God , the Association of Mary Immaculate and the Our Lady of Reconciliation Brotherhood .

The seeking of answers to the existential questions of life and to challenges of the contemporary epoch, was "baptized" on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 1971. Since then, the maturation of the new religious foundation has been accompanied by the Shepherds of the Church. The path we have walked has been trying to fully respond to the breath and impulse of the Holy Spirit. We arrive at July 8th 1997 when Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV) was given the pontifical approval by Pope John Paul II as a Society of Apostolic Life for consecrated laymen and priests.

At the invitation of the Archbishop of Santiago, Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz in 1999, a Sodalitium community (SCV) was established in the district of Nuñoa, in the capital of Chile. Today its members work in several areas of the great megalopolis that is Santiago. They have especially dedicated themselves to work in Maipú. That is a quite poor district. We hope to establish there another Sodalitium community in the near future.

As consecrated persons, the members of the Sodalitium feel called to walk the path of perfection in charity through the apostolic way. They feel called to give priority to some areas that are considered fundamental: evangelizing the youth, committed solidarity with the poor, the proclamation of the Gospel to the very roots of the culture and cultures, and service to the families. Together with these areas of special attention, other very important fields in the life of the People of God remain a fundamental concern.

Two associations of consecrated life for women exist as well. One is the Marian Community of Reconciliation (whose members are known as fraternas ). It received diocesan approval in 1991. The other community is the Servants of the Plan of God (whose members are known as servants ). They were approved in the Archdiocese of Lima in 1998. The fraternas and the servants are working in God's vineyard in Chile as well. Both communities of consecrated women have houses in other countries.

The Christian Life Movement ( CLM ) is a response to God's call that started around the work of the members of the SCV in 1985. German Doig Klinge (1957-2001) was appointed as the first General Coordinator. He served the CLM with wisdom and prudence until God called him to his presence. In 1994, the CLM received pontifical approval as an International Association of Faithful of Pontifical Right. The current General Coordinator of the CLM is Eduardo Regal Villa.

The Christian Life Movement is constituted by men and women of different states of life in the Church. Its members have different yet complementary missions and share the same spirit and apostolic vision. Their charisma arises out of the giftedness of Baptism, the Sacrament whereby each is made a member of the Body of Christ, and conformed to the Lord Jesus. This baptismal reality seals the person's inner self in an indelible way, and invites each of us to participate in the Lord's mission.

The Holy Father has repeatedly said that ecclesial movements are a gift of the Holy Spirit for the Church. They constitute a milieu in which the Christifideles meet to deepen their faith, especially in the vast deserts made of cement, steel, concrete, asphalt, and glass that are our era's megalopolis. The human person is assailed by various forces which pull him or her back and forth. That tension constitutes a danger to the person's inner unity, and reveals the growing ruptures in the personal existence of the human being.

The ecclesial movements, such as CLM -each with own traits and style- offer ambits of Christian life where people deepen their adhesion to the Lord Jesus. Therefore, in the CLM one can: deepen, live and celebrate one's faith, discover the wonders and gifts of God, express charitable solidarity, strive to give glory to God with one's everyday life, share paths and faith experiences with their peers who are searching -hungry for the Bread of Life, thirsting for the Living Water that satisfies the deepest longings of the human being. In the center of the CLM member's faith experience lies the aspiration (I) to live holiness, (II) to commit with ardor to the apostolate, and (III) to serve God and fellow brothers and sisters with generous and fraternal donation. These three dimensions are an expression of the vision of the Christian Life Movement for its way of living the faith of the Church, and its contribution to the construction of a Civilization of Love in the world.

It is not my personal experience that the Church's proclamation of the Gospel does not reach the youth. Moreover, in fact, the contrary has proved to be the case. From a broader perspective, for example, since the great Youth Jubilee in Rome in 1984 up to the present millions of young people have participated in numerous youth gatherings all over the world. Focusing, in a closer perspective, on the sphere of the sodalit's everyday life, we see the spreading of groups and faith communities integrated by young people who hope to grow and mature in their personal Christian commitment and are not apathetic in the face of the apostolic challenges of our time.

There is clear evidence that after the meetings with the Pope a significant number of youngsters are proclaiming to the world that the faith in Lord Jesus is the only answer to the inner hunger, the desire for happiness, and the deepest yearnings for human fulfillment. Those who meet with the Pope are common young people.. Their everyday lives, in the different places where they come from, are immersed in a materialistic, superficial and consumerist world. They are aggressively bombarded by the sensual and agnostic messages of mass media. They are the children of the information and technological era.

Certainly today's language does not sound much like it did in the past. Vatican II has been a decisive council in that regard. We are living its process of renewal. John Paul II has been developing an evangelization program that responds to the unique characteristics of today's world. In our days, we talk of the "New Evangelization". This new effort in evangelization has as an objective: to make the Gospel accessible to the men and women of today. The Pope has described this as new in expression , methods and zeal .

This renewed apostolic approach does not mean that the central nucleus of the evangelization of the Church has changed. On the contrary, the proclamation of the fullness of revelation is found in the Deposit of the Faith of the Church. The New Evangelization has to be a very clear proclamation of the absolute singularity of the Eternal Word, incarnated in the womb of the Virgin Mary. This truth is the same today as it was yesterday, as the Lord Jesus is the same today and always. It is the proclamation of His name, His life, His mysteries, and His promises. By embracing the Incarnate Word the human person learns the language of God, allowing one to have a dialogue with his or her own interiority. This bears the seal of the Divine. That is why it is fundamental to learn the language of the Eternal Word made man and so be able to decode the human inner language.

There are central passages, such as Gaudium et spes 22 or Ecclesia in America 10 that speak precisely of this intimate relationship of the Lord Jesus with the identity and fulfillment of the human person. Such teachings of the Magisterium, like these mentioned above, make clearer the message of the Good News to the men and women of the third millennium. They are directed in a special way to the personal identity of every human person, and constitute the perspective of the New Evangelization.

Let me refer to the example of the encounter of more than two million youth in Tor Vergata, Rome. Advancing amidst overwhelming youthful enthusiasm, once again the Pope offered a great catechesis to the world. "What have you come to search? Or better, who have you come to search for?" Little by little one began to hear from several places of the multitude a growing murmur which became a blasting shout of faith: Jesus! Christ! In several languages the same clamor! The voice of John Paul II arose through the loudspeakers recognizing what the young pilgrims were saying: "The answer cannot be more than one: you have come to seek Jesus Christ!" The message of these and so many more millions of young people is: We have come to seek Christ! We are here to follow the footprints of the sweet Lord Jesus, together with Peter, his Vicar on earth! We are here to be confirmed in the Faith!

I thus do not see a problem in the language itself in which the "aggiornamento", in what by its nature can be brought up to date, happens to have been expressed and is being done. However, there are other factors troubling the evangelization, particularly of the youth. Young people must live in a world that has many Christian categories, but that is wounded by secularization, and by relativism. These situations weaken in many the understanding of what it implies to confess Christ, the coherence in following the Lord, and the relationship between Christ and the Church. Likewise, there are other factors being affected such as the perseverance, the generosity in the giving of one's self, the overcoming of fear. There is so much fear of serious commitment in today's world! The witness dimension of evangelization is therefore of immense importance. The issues of the identity of a member of the Church and the coherence between Faith and daily life are crucial.

It's essential to present the Faith to young people in a youthful manner. We should respect young people and their freedom, by taking them seriously, helping them discover that each one is a human being invited to the communion with God and with his fellow brothers and sisters. It is very important for everyone to be conscious of his personhood. As well, each person has a mission in this world. That is one more reason to show the importance of grasping the plan that God has for him or her, of comprehending that all that is experienced as an existential void is in reality only a yearning for God. This inner longing cannot be dampened by substitutes, they will finally show their meagerness. We should help young people to discover how fascinating Christian life is. But we must also be aware that evangelization is always God's concern, in which we human beings just cooperate with His grace, putting all means we can to work for His glory. Let us not forget that it is Jesus Christ himself who says: "No one comes to me unless my Father draws him." To evangelize is to announce Christ and to accompany respectfully all persons who open their hearts to Him.

Certainly the members of the Sodalitium seek to announce the Lord Jesus in the first person, such as the Pope has asked for. Each one does it in the perspective of the New Evangelization and by praying a great deal. If the youth, like all other human beings, open their hearts they will finally discover in their interior the yearnings for the infinite, for reconciliation, for communion. The language that should be used is one in which with today's words one can help understand that for the inner longings there is only one answer: Lord Jesus.

There are very many problems that today affect the existence of truth, the encounter with truth and also the consequences of this encounter. The Pope speaks of the "crisis encircling truth". He has awarded this issue constant attention in his Magisterium.

First of all, it is important to clarify that this crisis has not arisen as a surprise. It is the consequence of a process that has been building up for some centuries. We can think in Rene Descartes' mathematical reductionism and rationalist approach to reality in the XVII century. We can also think in David Hume's nominalist skepticism and reductionism of reality to the empiric, in the XVIII century. In the same century we have the curious duality postulated by Immanuel Kant between pure reason and practical reason with consequent breakdown between faith and reason. I think it can be said of him, and of those who follow him, that such divorce carries them towards a gnostic subjectivism that today is rampant.

All this was accompanied by the triumph of the so-called illustrated rationalism that found its emblematic momentum in the French Revolution. For many people who had formerly idolized reason, it has fallen dramatically from its pedestal. Not few people have assumed a nihilistic attitude and not only discredit reason but also deny the possibility of knowing the truth, or even of the possibility that it exists. Nowadays subjectivism and relativism are widely diffused.

Sixty years ago, Blessed Alberto Hurtado identified agnostic materialism, pragmatism or utilitarianism, and relativism as the elements that were "shaping the mentality of the modern generation". It is important to observe that the advent of this forma mentis (mental construct) identified by the Chilean Blessed has now been diffused further. An unexplainable ignorance of the ideas and proposals of Catholic intellectuals and philosophers belonging to the last centuries has contributed to such an increase of that kind of specific mindset. Even in Catholic schools and universities they are broadly disregarded, as though they had never existed.

All of this has helped to bring about the contemporary expansion of irrationalism together with an increasing relativism. Subjectivism -which is a mistake and an abuse of valid subjectivity- functions both as a support and as a breeding ground for relativism. All sorts of reductionisms tend to render as absolutes only partial views of the whole of reality. From a fragmented and unsound optic they build an umbrella under whose protection new ideologies that militate against the human being arise. This obfuscation of reality, by rendering a part as the whole, is one of the paths through which relativism advances.

The Church, and most recently John Paul II, have steadfastly defended reason and truth. Facing the third millennium the Pope has been pointing out the central importance for humanity of the harmony between faith and reason. "Faith and Reason -according to Fides et Ratio - are like two wings by means of which the human spirit rises towards the contemplation of truth."

Through an open questioning of truth, or through a subtle functional agnosticism which also has deleterious effects, populations which received the first evangelization (and to which they owe their identity), see it weaken. This is because the aforementioned phenomena take an approach whereby the truth looses its value to other priorities, namely: personal likings, dislikes or prejudices, and an insatiable search for pleasure, material goods and power. The intervening period has transported many to an immense insensibility towards truth, which is thus easily set aside as soon as it becomes uncomfortable or interferes with projects or ambitions.

This brings us directly to the theme of Evangelization of Culture , a core dimension of the process of the New Evangelization to which we all have been invited. The importance accorded to truth by the Holy Father in the encyclicals mentioned in your question, as well as in other of his teachings, seems to suffice for a clear understanding. We can easily comprehend that the truth and all that refers to it, is a priority issue in the evangelization, and consequently, in the fulfillment of the human being.

The bishops at the general meeting of the Latin American Episcopal Conference in Santo Domingo (1992) highlighted the increasing religious problems of our people. It is a real phenomenon that manifests itself in a weakened identity and coherence. The possibility of a campaign that seeks such a breakdown cannot be discarded, together with long term consequences in which the people will become increasingly alienated from their identity and loose meaning and cohesion. These interests would seek to discredit leaders of the Catholic Church, of the hierarchy and of many other Catholic institutions. We can see a pursuit of different ways and objectives pertinent to each country. This apparent diversity does not conceal the fact that we are facing a campaign of intense propaganda with strong international support, seemingly aimed at downgrading and undermining the authority of the Church, and accordingly to silence her voice.

In the Archdiocese of Santiago, in the "Pastoral Guidelines advancing towards 2005", there is a clear denounce of this campaign to disparage the Church and the Gospel influence in the lives and traditions of the people. We should ask ourselves if all this has something to do with the ambiguity of certain globalization schemes. What we can be sure of, is that there is a rapid expansion of foreign visions, contrary to those that formed our national identities. These visions certainly clash with the principles and reality of the first evangelization that gave our people its identity. Likewise, lobby groups and anti-catholic bigotry have arisen in several places. They have either a political or a religious stance, or both. This is increasing in Latin America, where more than half of the Catholics in the world currently live. Its dramatic proportions were mentioned by Latin American Bishops in Santo Domingo more than ten years ago.

Undoubtedly this process affects some countries more than others. The alarming reduction of the number of Catholics in Chile to 70 percent of the general population is painful in itself. This is moreover worrying as there has been a decrease of 10 percent in the past ten years. This is all the worse when one analyses the social, economical and cultural strata. Members of the Catholic Church in Chile would do well to remember the words of the famous Blessed Father Hurtado, sixty years ago! "Will the Catholics in Chile react? What attitude will the youth take in the face of the horrible spiritual tragedy of their country?"

The New Evangelization to which the Pope invites us is a call to the conscience of all the baptized. Everyone should commit to his or her own personal evangelization, understanding that "the first field of apostolate is oneself". This stems from a firm conviction of having experienced the Lord Jesus, acknowledging His life, mysteries and doctrine, through which we are launched to witness and announce the Good News from a heart that feels with the Church and loves her.

The Marian devotion of our countries is invaluable for everything related to this commitment of faith and to evangelization. Therefore, the New Evangelization has to be developed in rhythm with the heartbeat of Mary's Immaculate Heart. She as Mother of the Church is always bringing forth new sons and daughters.

The influx exerted nowadays by mass media cannot be minimized, especially cinema, television, Internet and others. They usually contribute to the development of a secularized vision consisting of reductionist and naturalist criteria of existence, a relativism towards the truth, the conception of reality as a human creation, anti-Catholic prejudices, a subtle and pernicious functional agnosticism, a distortion of the reality of God, a cosmic vision in which good and evil are confused or are considered an expression of subjectivism, i.e. they are deprived of any objectivity.

But it must be clear that the communication media in themselves could be well used. In fact, in not a few cases the instruments of social communications are used in a good way for good ends. Unfortunately, the use of mass media to promote proper values is not as diffused as one would wish. This phenomenon is partly related to a process of globalization that seeks a certain cultural homogenization. Thus it promotes currents such as pensiero debole (weak thought) and attempts to transmit contra-values which favor an ongoing process of producing a non-Christian culture. I would like to point out that the actions generated by the people who run the media have influence on individual persons, families, and society. The nature of the instruments and their use is more complex than just a problem of morality per se.

A long time before the end of the Cold War, a society of information was already developing. In those times it was a field of diverse cultural visions. Today the policy parameters have changed, but the nucleus of the problem is still the same: the good or evil use of communication instruments. Many today use them to spread in a growingly hegemonic way a cultural vision foreign or even opposed to Christianity. It is necessary for us to inform ourselves about these realities. This will take us to a first level of ascertaining the actual message received through the mass media. And then, a second step will be to evaluate the extent it will affect Christian values. Not long ago John Paul II said to the Bishops of Chile: "We can expect that the efforts the Chilean people are undertaking to insert themselves into a global world will not make them lose their cultural identity." Obviously, these words rest on an analysis of what is happening, not only in the field of communications, but also in other aspects of modern world.

With this I am attempting to answer what I perceive to be the bottom-line in this issue. It is true that it is quite amazing just how many hours the youth seem to devote to television or the Internet, to chat, surf and other pursuits. The impact of the media can hardly be exaggerated. Therefore it is very important to be informed about the significance of the mass media, the values they bring, as well as to be aware of the underlying perils. In this, like in so many other things, the family and especially parents have an irreplaceable responsibility.

Many studies exist about these pervasive phenomena. The central issue appears to be to understand what is really going on. We are taking a step into a new dimension in which the mass media assume a role that would formerly have been unheard-of, save in science fiction. The media are used many times as a tool of control and indoctrination. But this threat of ideology is not all. According to many experts communication instruments involve problems that go beyond the message offending against truth they might transmit. Hence, without being negative nor naïve, for a proper use of media it is vital to educate in a keen clarification of the message, as well as in considering the medium in itself, be it the Internet or television.

Education seems to be the key to understand the instrumental nature of these technologies and the quality of their communications. To learn to be sharp observers and to conduct oneself according to the virtue of prudence should help to responsibly and freely discern according to healthy criteria.

There are other situations that call for our attention too. One of them, for instance, is the setting aside of reading. The recent phenomenon, notwithstanding the debated value of its contents, of the widespread reading of J.K. Rowling's books by young people, is clearly an exception. The proliferation of attractive books and training in the habit of good reading are ever recommended objectives. Certainly there are some keen young readers.

On the other hand, we observe with serious alarm that the attention of young people appears to be dependent on what dazzles, this is to say on special effects. Many times when asking for comments on a film in evaluation groups, most young people have hardly grasped the plot at all. Youngsters seem to focus solely on the special effects that isolate their attention. That such a means of thought should dominate signifies that thinking and logic has taken second place to the spectacle.

Although it can constitute a vice, Internet chat as a means of communication can be well used -for instance in the world of business or corporate institutions, to facilitate communication.

It remains a real threat, however, that communication instruments often result in confusion and problems. Primary amongst these is a type of behavior or a dominant process of thought that finds its nourishment in subjectivism, fantasy and virtual reality. They are all based in the distance from what is real and objective.

The generation of habits of illogical thought is related to the previous question on the crisis of truth and the explosion of subjectivism and emotionalism in today's world. These habits are signs of a society which is being built in opposition to the dignity of the human being, and in which humanity is abdicating its own nature.

One can see the progression from the oral tradition to the era of copying, then to the printing press, radio, television, and ultimately now into cyberspace. In a certain sense this cyberspace is real, and not only "virtual" as is commonly believed. This reality comprises machines, programs, and people. It also includes the ability to manage these instruments, and the messages which are sent through them. This becomes a new environment wherein the Word of Life must be proclaimed. It seems essential to strive to understand thoroughly the possible anthropological effects of the development of these instruments of communication and new technologies. The goal would be to celebrate its rich potentialities and contribute towards their orientation in serving as vehicles for announcing the liberating and reconciling truth of the Gospel, seeking the fulfillment of community members. The acute risk of subordinating the proclamation to parameters of the multimedia cannot remain unaddressed. But as John Paul II teaches: evangelization through media is a priority that cannot be abandoned without betraying the motions of the Holy Spirit. Cyberspace has real inhabitants who could be called its citizens. Thus it is urgent for us to provide cyber-apostles to assist in the visible and audible presentation of the Living Word.

I think it is possible for the youth to develop a mature and cautiously critical approximation to tell apart values from contra-values, and to discern the Christian message and its truth about human being amidst the universe of meaning found in films and media otherwise opposed to it.

Well prepared and devoted parents, by means of so-called Parental Guidance , can assist children and adolescents to learn how to distinguish and discern what is good for them. The school, video or cinema clubs with a Catholic orientation and workshops may all help. In the absence, however, of a critical mediation and mentoring to help them discern the values of the Gospel, a different vision of reality creeps through the insidiousness of certain entertainment and amusement, which ultimately undermines essential traits of our human reality and leads gradually to unawareness, incoherence and existential confusion.

Globalization is an ambiguous reality. Some sociologists will even argue that it is misleading to speak of "globalization". This is so because the term comprises not just a single factor but a concurrence of elements such as the evolution of the economy, new business organizations and philosophies, the internationalization of finance, and the amazing advances in communication technology, among others. Cultural globalization, too, is often listed as one of these elements.

Globalization is hardly a deniable phenomenon. Its ambiguous sense, or to use John Naisbitt's expression, its "paradoxical" sense, is no justification to deny it. "Homogenization" is a tendency that accompanies certain approaches to globalization. A very large number of people resist cultural homogenization. They feel threatened by it, by the peril of the domination of a different cultural model, by the imposition of a vision opposed to their own hierarchy of values. This is why people hold onto what is proper to them and reinforce their particularities. This same reason moves individuals and whole national groups to stand for their singularity against the danger of being, so to say, culturally engulfed by a global homogenizing process.

We can not approach globalization and homogenization in a simplistic way. George Ritzer has written about the dynamics of " McDonaldization of Society ", seeking a metaphor or a symbol to better understand these phenomena. Naisbitt points out the opposition between the "universal" and what he calls the "tribal", that is to say, particular idiosyncrasy. Castells says that globalization urges people to affirm their own identity more in terms of "being" than of "doing". Barber and Alain Touraine recognize an impulse to defend one's own identity against the danger of uniformity.

Homogenization understood as uniformity implies a preexisting process of weakening the identities. And so we have "pensiero debole" (weak thought), on one hand, and the self-censure of "political correctness", on the other. Both these tendencies are based on the supposition that truth is either inaccessible or non-existent. Everything is assumed to be "doxa", that is to say, a mere opinion. In this way relativism serves as the seed for a subjective vision which can be formed in absolute or relative terms, depending on the concurrence of a variety of factors. At the same time due to the dilution of truth, rather than spawning respectful tolerance or pluralism, what arises is a culture of indifference, of functional agnosticism, and of a pseudo-respect for other's opinion. This is caused because the core value centered on the truth is diminished, taking as a substitute a radical or moderate epistemological and ethical skepticism.

To defend and cultivate one's own identity remaining open to reality and to the accessibility of truth is in contradiction with the homogenizing process founded in any of those relativisms and their accompanying globalization.

The first reference to "neolanguage" or newspeak, which I know about, is that of George Orwell. He drew attention to subtle changes in the meaning of some words with the introduction of a meaning diverse to the apparent one. This, he contended, would be an able way to apply a totalitarian regime under disguise. He was referring to one of the key elements used by publicity and propaganda. Today some seek to mislead and manipulate people using ambiguous words, or making them banal through intentional mistake, or depreciating some which have a clear and precise meaning. For example, it is not infrequent to hear activists of anti-Catholic campaigns use the contradictory term "catholic sect". What a strange phenomenon could be that of a "sect" that is "catholic"? Illogicality is not an obstacle for them. Their objective is to do damage, to disparage, to intimidate, and ultimately to impose themselves.

The same thing happens with the alleged "right" of a mother to take away the life of the child that is in her womb. It is designated with euphemisms, trying to cover up what it really is. The undeniable difference between the mother and the child's DNA, the rights of the child to be born, all this is forgotten or deliberately confused, perhaps in an attempt to prevent the disclosure of truth. In any case, the blindness of many people resembles closely that of many others who once, under Nazi propaganda, were unable to realize the terrible acts it tried to disguise. Sometimes one asks oneself: are we facing collective amnesia?

Certain pacifism exists which is also a betrayal of truth. It uses terminology such as charity, love, peace, but only once they have been stripped of their true meaning, once they have become void words, deprived of their own meaning. For example, this process of manipulation of words includes the generalized use of the expression "making love" as a synonym for having sex. The importance of the content of words is lost and they are used in a devalued and even false sense.

We can see in our days an empty phraseology which is the result of a logophobic attitude. This situation does not seem accidental. Today's "newspeak" is the product of a cultural perspective in the search for domination. It is a process whereby humanity is abdicating its own nature. Euphemisms such as "reproductive health", "safe sex", "interruption of pregnancy", for the use of the abortive RU486, "plurality of family models", in order to promote same-sex unions, or "gender perspective", in a similar sense, are amongst others some examples of the linguistic hijacking going on in today's world.

Obviously the hierarchy and the other members of the Church try to expose this newspeak strategy together with all the attacks on the dignity and rights of the human being. How wonderful it would be if everyone understood that the manipulation of language offends seriously the dignity and freedom of the human being. It leads to a terrible future where human life, dignity and rights may be manipulated through a misleading game of words initially introduced through propaganda and finally sanctioned as coercive law.

It is important to stress that culture is not something abstract, ethereal. It is embodied in people. It consists of values or counter-values expressed in believes, ways of relating to oneself and to others, more or less organized expressions of thought, social institutions, economic mechanisms, laws, artistic creations, and so forth. All of this is included in an encompassing way when alluding to the Evangelization of Culture.

Precisely because of this it is necessary to consider the diverse realities in which the values and counter-values are expressed. These can be the human being as a person, as well as the family, social structures, civic life, politics, the economy, etc. It is a priority to know these realities and domains and develop apostolic programs for evangelizing those values in their concrete expressions in people's life.

To speak of Evangelization of Culture is to speak of comprehensive evangelization. Its goal is to meet each person as a whole with an utmost respect for her dignity and freedom. Her innermost categories and criteria, her concrete existence, her relationships, all of the person's life and activities should be considered and illuminated with the light and energy of the Good News of the Lord Jesus.

That faith should become culture is a teaching of the Church. Moreover, it is of pressing importance to understand that faith must deeply irradiate the diverse areas wherein culture is forged and manifested. Pope Paul VI said that the rupture between faith and culture is the great drama of our times.

I would like to add that it is not sufficient that a culture assimilate certain evangelical aspects, what is really important is that together with this internalization it always remain open to the Lord Jesus.

The key characteristic of today's world is indeed not change but the speed of change. It is that speed what really impresses us. The human being is somehow stunned by that much motion. His thought and work cannot escape the effects of accelerated change. He has been seized by its speed and now lives uneasily, unable to find peace for himself. Many feel an inner conflict and go after meager substitutes for the peace and reconciliation they need. Human beings in today's world face an ever more violent and aggressive society with hostile and inadequate structures -which do not promote personal fulfillment but otherwise diminish and oppress the individual- and with increasing crime, poverty, terrorism, repression and war.

Change deceitfully introduces the idea that progress equals novelty. Thus, by saying that everything changes, one would end up believing that everything "progresses". And the more accelerated this change is, the more "progress" it seems to imply. But none of this is true. Neither everything changes, nor everything progresses. And even more: all change is not progress. To believe in a uniformly ascending flow of progress is to fall victim to illusion. One begins by stating some facts about change and ends up by making an idol of the change-progress. What is permanent, what subsists, disappears from those minds that yield to the equivalence of change and progress.

As in the past culture developed in a bucolic environment, in today's accelerated rhythms -which so many times affect perspectives and demand a re-focusing- the culture of the XXIst century is being brought into existence. What is important is not so much the change or the speed of it, but to be conscious of what this really means. The inculturation of the Gospel demands that today's proclamation of the Good News take in account the characteristics of the speed of change, answering the challenges it presents. One must always have in mind that the gift of God's reconciliation is directed to all peoples, times and cultures.

The contribution of new technologies comes with a sort of "social cost". The challenge lies in figuring out how to manage this social cost, how to help minimize its negative effects. One must search how to reconcile technological advance with the fundamental values of human being and his nature according to the divine design. I find it nonsensical to assume an overall negative attitude towards new technologies or sciences, and thus reject them. We must learn how to understand them and integrate them within a culture at the service of the comprehensive fulfillment of the human person. And for this it is important to know well the dangers that certain technologies convey in themselves, and not only in their bad use.

All science or technology bears a dynamism centered in the search for the truth. This search is not a fabrication, but a projection of the search or exploration of the truth that can be found in the very heart of the human person. Sciences and other cognate disciplines embrace this dynamic longing and engage in the great adventure of knowing. In the search for the truth, foundations must not be left aside. The different specializations presuppose the existence of a reality and the ability of the person to have access to it, to grasp its truth, and to synthesize it. Sciences and technologies should not enclose themselves within their own methods.

Unfortunately, due to reductionism in today's world, some have come to mistake "methodization" for "science". Those who do so confine themselves to partial expressions, functionally disconnected from the ontological foundations of their area of study. Thus, in the final analysis, these "sciences" end up operating without any real connection to truth or reality. Their distance to reality increases to the point where the criterion of truth is no longer the correspondence with reality, but simply the degree of compliance with the proposed methodology and its limited "universe".

It is important to emphasize the serious consequences of failing to understand the proper value of reason and of the sciences and disciplines through which, when grounded on their foundations, it can rightly approach reality.

The ruptures that affect today's world reveal to a great extent the magnitude of the estrangement of science from the very foundations where it should be firmly grounded. Many arts, methodologies and sciences have become nugatory due to an excessive fragmentation which has taken them out of their context and absolutized what is only partial.

A formal declaration of atheism is scarcely necessary when the partial has been rendered absolute or when the link with the foundations and what they refer to has been broken. In other words, it is enough to act and think as if God does not exist, it is enough to be functionally agnostic for everything to be permitted, according to the tremendous phrase of Fiodor Dostoievski.

If those who dedicate themselves to science or technology exclude God and His divine Plan from their consciences, everything would be permitted for them, they would be beyond good and evil. This would sow in the field of the emerging "culture" tares even more destructive than the worst nightmare. Conversely, if science and technology recognize their due relationship to the foundations of reality and develop their methodologies accordingly, they may well put themselves at the service of the human person and his development according to God's Plan and so we may advance towards a Culture of Life, towards a Civilization of Love.