VATICAN, net. The International Meeting for the “Pastoral Project of Evangelii Gaudium” began on the September 18th with more than 2,000 pastoral workers from seventy countries worldwide participating. The Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization organized this conference, which ends on September 20th.
Bishops, priests, catechists, religious, pastoral leaders, members of associations and movements will be exploring the contents of the Apostolic Exhortation in depth that Pope Francis indicated as the programmatic document of his papacy. Renowned speakers will be discussing specific themes in relation to pastoral ministry and evangelization.
During these three days of exchange regarding Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation, 1,700 people from sixty-one countries who are committed to the work of evangelization are attending and on Friday, the 19th of September they also had a meeting with the Bishop of Rome.
Archbishop José Octavio Ruiz Arenas, the Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, explained of what this initiative consists to Vatican Radio:
“This is a Meeting that the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization has organized so that we can reflect and bring to light the many tracks and pastoral guidelines that the Pope has offered to the Church in this Apostolic Exhortation.”
“This is an Apostolic Exhortation that, as he himself tells us, is programmatic of his Papacy and where he invites the entire Church to take that pastoral conversion very much into account in the activities that are carried out, that missionary spirit, that evangelizing impulse that should encourage all Christians in such a manner that we should see how it is transformed into a fundamental tool for the renewal of the Church so that we may truly fulfill the Lord’s command to announce the Gospel to all people with enthusiasm and above all with much joy.”
Lastly, Archbishop Ruiz Arenas pointed to the family as the protagonists of the New Evangelization within the framework of this synodic road about family pastoral.
Original: Spanish – Translation: Celina M. Garza, San Antonio, TX USA
