132 Dariusz Mażewski, MIC Evangelization In my conference I won’t refer, except in one instance, to the documents of the Teaching Magisterium pertaining to the need for evangelization. I shall only quote them in order to refresh in memory the defi nition of evangelization as presented in exhortation of Pope Paul VI. Neither will I analyze from that point of view our Constitutions, which regard the need for evangelization as duty of pastoral work, as noted in art. 133. I admit that I’ve never been offi cially questioned as to how and in what manner I carry it out. Personally, I believe that evangelizing is done by someone whose life was saved by the Gospel. For this reason, this person feels prompted to proclaim it to all people. It is best if he does it in unity with the Church and if he is sent by his own superior (which must be distinguished from consent). What Is Evangelization? In the apostolic exhortation on evangelization in the modern world, Evangelii Nuntiandi, we fi nd the following defi nition: “For the Church, evangelizing means bringing the Good News into all the strata of humanity, and through its infl uence transforming humanity from within and making it new: ‘Now I am making the whole of creation new’ (Rev 21:5). (…) the Church evangelizes when she seeks to convert, solely through the divine power of the message she proclaims, both the personal and collective consciences of people, the activities in which they engage, and the lives and concrete milieu which are theirs. Strata of humanity which are transformed: for the Church it is a question not only of preaching the Gospel in ever wider geographic areas or to ever greater numbers of people, but also of affecting and as it were upsetting, through the power of the Gospel, mankind’s criteria of judgment, determining values, points of interest, lines of thought, sources of inspiration and models of life, which are in contrast with the Word of God and the plan of salvation.”1 1 EN, 18-19.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mw==