Vatican City, Oct 18, 2012 / 10:08 am
Mixing old with new, a progress report on the synod of bishops on the New Evangelization was delivered in Latin, the ancient language of the Church.
"Many Synod Fathers called for a new Pentecost … of seeing the action of the Church today, enlivened by the Holy Spirit, as a reflection of the energy in the early Church when the apostles set out to bring the first disciples to the Lord," Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., said late in the afternoon on Oct. 17.
"Many of the fathers spoke of the similarity between those early days of the Church and our moment in time today."
The 71-year-old American cardinal is charged by Pope Benedict XVI with steering the work of the synod. Under the title of General Relator, Cardinal Wuerl guides the discussions of the 262 participants as they attempt to map out a plan for bringing the Gospel to the modern world.