Caracas, Venezuela, Mar 20, 2007 / 10:48 am (CNA).- In response to a plan in Venezuela by supporters of “21st century Socialism” to create a youth brigade to promote the image of a “new man,” Bishop Mario Moronta of San Cristobal called on the faithful not to let themselves be guided by ideologies but rather by the Gospel, which reveals that Jesus Christ is the authentic model for the human person.

In a recent pastoral letter, Bishop Moronta said those behind the plan to create a Socialist youth movement are really attempting to appropriate a concept that has its origin in biblical revelation, both in the Old and the New Testaments, in which Jesus Christ is presented as the authentic “new man” and his disciple, taught by the Master, as a new creature.

The bishop emphasized that while all believers in Christ are called to seek their own personal transformation and to model themselves after Christ, they should be guided by the Word of God and not by philosophies or ideologies.  In addition, he said, they are called to make new disciples for Christ and to help others to model their own lives after Christ the new man.

He praised the efforts of many ideologies and philosophies to promote the idea of the new man, but they must not treat it as if “it were a utopia with no relation to the transcendent.”

“Today is the time of the new man in Venezuela,” Bishop Moronta said, “because it is the time of grace and salvation that will culminate in the fullness of life.  Let’s spread the word, but let’s be living witness of this uniqueness, so that all believers and people of good will in Venezuela will take on the New Man, Jesus.  That is how we will be able to transform our society and bring about a moral renewal in our nation,” he said.

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