Vatican City, Sep 2, 2011 / 10:34 am
Pope Benedict XVI is encouraging Catholic and Orthodox Christians to work together in re-evangelizing traditionally Christian countries.
“For a renewed proclamation of the Gospel in the modern world we need evangelizers animated by the same apostolic zeal of (Saint) Paul,” the Pope said in a letter to mark the close of the twelfth Inter-Christian Symposium.
Over the past four days, the symposium has brought together both Catholic and Orthodox scholars in the Greek city of Thessaloniki to discuss the topic of “The witness of the Church in the Modern World.” The Pope described the theme as “very timely and central” to his “concerns and prayers” for a “new evangelization” of traditionally Christian countries where the practice of the Christian faith has declined in recent times.
Pope Benedict noted that although the Church has never ceased to “proclaim the salvific mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,” the regions in need of re-evangelization are “currently experiencing the effects of a secularization capable of impoverishing the most profound aspects of man.”