BRAZIL PRELATE POINTS TO EVANGELIZATION DEFICIT

SÃO PAULO, Brazil, JULY 23, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The archbishop of São Paulo says there is an evangelization deficit around the globe today and that's why Benedict XVI has created the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization.

Cardinal Odilo Scherer offered this explanation in an article in the diocesan "O São Paulo."

The Pope's is "truly a very significant" decision, the cardinal asserted. He "brings all to understand that this [new evangelization] is an objective of his, and that it must be the attitude of the Church worldwide, to respond to the challenges launched by the present 'change of age in the history of humanity.'"
 
"We cannot lose this occasion if we don't want the Good News of the Gospel to be excluded from the life of the people -- of peoples -- and of the new culture that many factors are generating," the prelate asserted.
 
Cardinal Scherer said he believes the new pontifical council is especially important for Europe, "where Catholicism has been historically important and has marked the life and culture of those nations, but today faces great difficulties."
 
However the concept of "new evangelization" must not be misunderstood, the cardinal clarified. "It is not about underrating the evangelizing work already carried out by the generations that preceded us in the course of the centuries.
 
"On the contrary, it is about appreciating 'again' what they already did and that, perhaps, has ceased to be done in many places."
 
"We are clearly faced with a deficit of evangelization in our days," the cardinal declared. And, he continued, "new times require a new proclamation of the Gospel, new cultural syntheses and recourse to new methodologies to evangelize."

Never-ending task

Cardinal Scherer noted that evangelization can never be considered "finished once and for all." On the contrary, "every generation needs to be evangelized again, and also more than once in the course of life."

He said this is even more the case when we consider that currently the "passing on of the faith, of the 'apostolic heritage' and of ecclesial life no longer happens automatically; there is a rupture in the current of the transmission of the faith."
 
"How difficult the evangelization of their children is for parents," the prelate observed. "And how many Catholic parents, sadly, no longer consider their own the mission to evangelize their children! That is why a 'new evangelization' is necessary."

VATICAN AIDE: WOMEN SPIRITUAL GUIDES DESERVE CREDIT

ROME, JULY 23, 2010 (Zenit.org).- One of the Church's leading women is calling for wider recognition of the contribution women make, particularly as spiritual guides.

Flaminia Giovannelli, undersecretary at the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, made this proposal Thursday in L'Osservatore Romano.

"My image of the Church is that of John Paul II and Mother Teresa shaking hands," Giovannelli reflected.

The 62-year-old expert in economics and political science spoke of the role that women play in the Church, specifically in women's religious congregations.

"When I think of so many women religious who in their congregations, at various levels, carry out extraordinary roles in a totally independent way, not only to exercise charity but also to manage patrimonies, organize schools and hospitals, and above all to support the spiritual lives of their sisters, enjoying the respect of all because of their admirable work, I think their value is affirmed on its own," she said.

According to Giovannelli, who has been working at the pontifical council since 1974, "women are outstanding in some ecclesial realms, I am thinking especially of spiritual direction."
 
"If it is essential for the Christian to receive the sacrament of reconciliation, as it reconciles him with God, spiritual direction is of fundamental importance for life: to know rationally that our sin has been forgiven is not always the same as feeling that one is forgiven," she noted.
 
"How important is the help of someone to recognize and back the plan that the Lord has for each one of us," Giovannelli continued. "And how many times this help comes to us from a woman, precisely because of the sensitivity and affectivity that are hers."
 
Giovannelli says she believes that giving importance to the task of spiritual support could be at the same time a recognition of the role of women.

At work

On a personal level the pontifical council undersecretary affirms she has "always had the sensation that my ideas are taken into account precisely because they are the ideas of a woman, complementary and hence necessary in order to come to an objective judgment on the issues on which she has been consulted."
 
"And this is essential," Giovannelli asserted. "It does not take away from the fact that, depending on the organizations and women's level of preparation, facilitated ultimately by their access to more properly ecclesiastical studies, they could also assume roles of greater responsibility. 

BENEDICT XVI NOW 7TH OLDEST POPE IN HISTORY

ROME, JULY 22, 2010 (Zenit.org).- On Monday, Benedict XVI became the seventh oldest pope in history, considering only those popes who reigned since the year 1400 when records became more reliable.

Blogger and author Anura Guruge reported this milestone at his site Popes and the Papacy.

There, he includes a chart showing the 83-year-old Benedict in the No. 7 slot, having overtaken Gregory XIII, Paul IV and Benedict XIV, who all died at age 83, but closer to their 83rd birthdays then Benedict XVI now is. On Monday, the Holy Father was 30,410 days old.

Pope John Paul II, who died just over a month before his 85th birthday, is in the No. 6 spot, having lived 31,000 days.

The record for the oldest pope in history, Guruge reports, is held by Pope Leo XIII, who died at age 93, reigning from 1878 to 1903.

The chart also includes the records for the longest papal reign, and an interesting datum: the percentage of their lives they spent as pope.

Pope Pius IX, who reigned from 1846 to 1878, that is, 31 years, spent 36.5% of his life as pope. He died at age 85, putting him in the No. 4 slot for history's oldest pope.