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EVANGELII GAUDIUM Voices of the Universal Church One World Theology (Volume 7) OWT Vol.7 (Evangelii Gaudium) 283pp. 5.25x8.5.indd 1 8/28/15 8:45 AM OWT Vol.7 (Evangelii Gaudium) 283pp. 5.25x8.5.indd 2 8/28/15 8:45 AM EVANGELII GAUDIUM Voices of the Universal Church 7 Edited by Klaus Krämer and Klaus Vellguth CLARETIAN COMMUNICATIONS FOUNDATION, INC. OWT Vol.7 (Evangelii Gaudium) 283pp. 5.25x8.5.indd 3 8/28/15 8:45 AM EVANGELII GAUDIUM Voices of the Universal Church (One World Theology, Volume 7) Copyright © 2015 by Verlag Herder GmbH, Freiburg im Breisgau Published by Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc. U.P. P.O. Box 4, Diliman 1101 Quezon City, Philippines Tel.: (02) 921-3984 • Fax: (02) 921-6205 [email protected] www.claretianpublications.com Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc. (CCFI) is a pastoral endeavor of the Claretian Missionaries in the Philippines that brings the Word of God to people from all walks of life. It aims to promote integral evangelization and renewed spirituality that is geared towards empowerment and total liberation in response to the needs and challenges of the Church today. CCFI is a member of Claret Publishing Group, a consortium of the publishing houses of the Claretian Missionaries all over the world: Bangalore, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Chennai, Colombo, Dar es Salaam, Lagos, Macau, Madrid, Manila, Owerry, São Paolo, Varsaw and Yaoundè. Cover design by Jayson Elvin E. Guevara Layout design by Ma. Myreen Q. Gayos All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means without written permission from the publisher. ISBN: 978-621-8009-43-1 OWT Vol.7 (Evangelii Gaudium) 283pp. 5.25x8.5.indd 4 8/28/15 8:45 AM Contents Preface ......................................................................................... ix The Church’s Missionary Transformation Pope Francis’ Evangelium Gaudii ........................................ 3 Francis X. D’Sa The Missionary Transformation of the Church ..................... 17 Paul M. Zulehner Promoting Small Christian Communities in Eastern Africa in the Light of The Joy of the Gospel ........... 29 Joseph G. Healey “The Lord does Not Disappoint those who Take this Risk” (EG 3) .................................................................. 41 Biblical Reflections from the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium of Pope Francis Bernardeth Carmen Caero Bustillos Amid the Crisis of Communal Commitment Discerning Missionary Disciples Seek and Share the Joy of Abundant Life ............................................................ 57 Eileen FitzGerald Outrageous Words and Unnoticed Words on the Challenges Facing the World and the Church ..................... 69 Comments on the Second Chapter of Evangelii Gaudium Klaus Vellguth v OWT Vol.7 (Evangelii Gaudium) 283pp. 5.25x8.5.indd 5 8/28/15 8:45 AM vi Evangelii Gaudium Always Alert to God’s Signs ................................................. 85 Exploring the Vision of Evangelii Gaudium James Kroeger “Thou Shalt Not Kill (…) Such an Economy Kills.” ............... 97 On the Crisis of Community Engagement Boniface Mabanza The Proclamation of the Gospel Proclaiming the Gospel of God’s Mercy .............................. 111 Paulo Suess The Principle of Fraternity.................................................... 123 A Grantee for the Implementation of Pope Francis’ Evangelii Gaudium in the World Pius Male Ssentumbwe Encountering the Word-Event: The Realization of God’s .... 137 Nearness and Newness in the Fragile World Siluvaipillai Johnson Heart to Heart – ................................................................... 149 Pope Francis and the Grace of Preaching Ottmar Fuchs The Social Dimension Of Evangelization The Social Dimension of Evangelization: ............................ 163 A Reflection from India George Gispert-Sauch On the Social Dimension of Evangelization ......................... 175 Jos Kuppens The Social Dimension of Evangelization ............................. 189 An Incontrovertible Commitment Olga Consuelo Vélez Caro The Social Dimension of Evangelisation ............................. 199 The Kingdom of God as the Horizon of Social and Communal Activity Klaus Krämer OWT Vol.7 (Evangelii Gaudium) 283pp. 5.25x8.5.indd 6 8/28/15 8:45 AM Contents vii Spirit-filled Evangelizers Spirit-filled Evangelizers ...................................................... 211 Bernd Jochen Hilberath Under the Influence of the Spirit .......................................... 221 Víctor Codina Spirit-filled Evangelization according to Evangelii Gaudium............................................................... 233 Peter K. A. Turkson Spirit-filled Evangelizers: ..................................................... 245 Looking Deep Within Stanislaus T. Lazar Appendix Index of Authors ................................................................... 261 Index of Translators ............................................................. 265 OWT Vol.7 (Evangelii Gaudium) 283pp. 5.25x8.5.indd 7 8/28/15 8:45 AM OWT Vol.7 (Evangelii Gaudium) 283pp. 5.25x8.5.indd 8 8/28/15 8:45 AM Preface It is hard to think of any other Church document which has met with such a positive reception in recent years as the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium promulgated by Pope Francis on 24 November 2013. It begins in the introduction by stating the joy the Gospel brings and goes on in the following five chapters to examine the missionary transformation of the Church, the crisis of communal commitment, the proclamation of the Gospel, the social dimension of evangelisation and spirit-filled evangelisers. In the months after the publication of the Apostolic Exhortation the document was read all over the world and acknowledged as an outstanding, groundbreaking ecclesiastical document. This worldwide reception is reflected in the present volume in the One World Theology edition, in which theologians from different regional churches contribute articles reviewing the Apostolic Exhortation from their individual perspectives. It is divided into five chapters paralleling the five chapters of Evangelii Gaudium. In the opening chapter the authors examine the missionary transformation of the Church. The Indian theologian, Francis X. D’Sa, concentrates on the programmatic index of the Apostolic Exhortation in which Pope Francis invites Christians to renew their personal encounter with Jesus Christ and thereby experience the joy of the Gospel (EG 1). For Francis this joy that Christians radiate is the foun- dation of the Church’s missionary charisma. D’Sa shows that, in con- sidering the missionary character of the Church, Francis focuses less on dogmatic doctrines and more on the attractiveness of a Church that is moved by the Spirit: “Genuine religion is the ambience of the Spirit. Pope Francis is conscious of this. That is the reason for his openness to all religions, to all human beings and to all of nature. This is the source of his joy, his Evangelii Gaudium.” In his contribution on the “Missionary Transformation of the Church” Paul M. Zulehner points out that behind the central issue of ix OWT Vol.7 (Evangelii Gaudium) 283pp. 5.25x8.5.indd 9 8/28/15 8:45 AM x Evangelii Gaudium mission lies the question of the Church’s vision, by which Pope Francis is guided in his pontificate. It is characterised by the renunciation of a moralising approach in favour of a healing and therapeutic approach on the part of the Church, in which Pope Francis refers to a hierarchy of truths and to compassion as the guiding principle in pastoral care. Zulehner draws attention to an ecclesiological realignment, which he sees both in a decentralisation of the Church and in a raising of the status of local churches, which are even granted a local magisterium in the Apostolic Exhortation. With this in mind, Paul M. Zulehner talks of a self-healing process to which the Pope wishes to subject the Church. He says the Church must be freed of its structural, middle- class-focused self-absorption, for “the Church will only be healed by finding its way towards people on the periphery of life.” In his article on “Promoting Small Christian Communities in Eastern Africa in the Light of the Joy of the Gospel” Joseph Healey reports on a national workshop for Small Christian Communities during which the participants looked in depth at the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium. He also analyses the statement of the Tanzanian theologian, Laurenti Magesa, who has undertaken an analysis of the positive remarks made in the Exhortation about the Small Christian Communities. Joseph Healey concludes by saying that “SCC members are called to be disciples of Jesus Christ.” Under the heading “The Lord does not disappoint those who take this risk” Bernadeth Carmen Caero Bustillos makes it clear that the first chapter of Evangelii Gaudium correlates with the Gospel of St. John in stating that it is not the external structures but, above all, the internal structures which need to be changed. The author points out that Evangelii Gaudium understands the term “missionary” in the sense of a transformation, just as St. John’s Gospel says that it is only after Jesus’ resurrection that he sends his disciples out into the world. Caero concludes: “We, too, can only share the joy of Christ’s resurrection if we have previously experienced it in our own lives.” In the second chapter the authors explore the remarks made by Pope Francis about the crisis of communal commitment. Eileen FitzGerald sees a connection between Evangelii Gaudium and the Final