The president of Renewal in the Holy Spirit and consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization defines the document as a ‘magna carta’ for the new challenges of the Third Millennium: “It reveals a pedagogy appropriate to the needs of our time”
Federico Piana- Vatican City
Clear expression of the teaching of Pope Francis. Salvatore Martinez, President of the Renewal in the Holy Spirit and consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, he uses this definition to comment on the new Directory for catechesis published in recent days. The document – which also underlines the urgency of the commitment of every baptized person to spread the Gospel using three basic principles: mercy, dialogue and testimony – for Martinez is “a systematization of the Pope’s thought and the re-proposition of his magisterium witnesses “.
Listen to the interview with Salvatore Martinez
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Why, president?
R.- Because the great challenges of the new evangelization of the Third Millennium are indicated in a timely, dynamic and factual way. The Directory is also a sort of theological, ecclesial syntax of Pope Francis’ own vocabulary. It also reveals a pedagogy appropriate to the needs of our time, to the most marked challenges: in essence, it gives orientation, an impetus, to faith.
In this document you see some macro-directions to take …
R.- Meanwhile, the great theme of the incarnation of faith. Faith is life and it is in this century, at the beginning of a new millennium. Then the inculturation of the faith. That is, dialogue with cultures, trends, current lines of thought. Third, the theme of the culture of dialogue, of encounter, so dear to Pope Francis. All this is well placed, with understandable language and summarizes the papal magisterium starting from the apostolic exhortation The gospel of joy.
The text recalls that it is the responsibility of each baptized person to spread the Gospel with new forms of communication. An important step today?
R.- Of course. There are general contexts that perhaps until yesterday we have defined virtual, such as the digital world or globalization. The magisterium pays attention to what are the vital contexts in which everything happens, that is, where men and women consume their lives, where men and women need the Gospel, of Christ. The Directory reminds us that evangelization is not done only for the sacraments: it is true catechesis not only if it proposes the encounter with Jesus but if it enables us to generate, speak and bring Christ. It is the great relationship that exists between formation and evangelization.
The Directory also highlights that the family is an essential, essential tool, we could say, for catechesis.
R.- It is the primary subject. It should be remembered, in an appropriate way, that he is an active subject of evangelization. The family is not only the subject of catechesis but it is the place where faith is transmitted and lived and we are prepared to witness it. The Gospel is born in the family. The Directory also raises the theme of the intergenerational relationship and suggests a catechesis that is designed so that there is a new activity that starts from children and reaches up to the elderly.
Then there is a passage from the text that concerns parishes, associations and ecclesial movements of Catholic schools. What is your opinion?
R.- Movements and associations need to receive a new impetus. In the challenge of the new evangelization there is no doubt that they have a preponderant role. It is important that the Directory, from the theological-pastoral point of view, reaffirm the location of ecclesial movements in particular churches and then engage in dialogue with the world. The movements are made by lay people and in the world it is up to them to witness the Gospel also with those educational pedagogies of renewal linked to the many charisms bestowed by the Holy Spirit.
