Blessed John Paul II showed that even Popes can be charismatic; even Popes can be prophetic. Apart from the many charisms with which He was endowed, there is obviously that of evangelistion. This charism was so powerful in Him that He can be said to 3have inaugurated a new evangelisation in the Church, an expression He Himself has combined.

With His enthusiasm for new evangelisation, together with His great skill in communication and His striking example, He managed to capture the heart of many for this urgent need of contemporary humanity at the beginning of the Third Millennium of Christianity.

Now we can confirm that this special charism will not die with Him. His successor, Pope Benedict XVI, is equally convinced of this greatest need, and how new evangelisation is to be the top priority of the pastoral work of the Church. Now we are living in a phase when the charism of Blessed John Paul II needs to be disseminated to reach every baptized man and woman. This is an important phase for the institutionalization of this charism of new evangelisation.

Pope Benedict XVI will proof Himself to be the providential man for this. He founded a new Pontifical Council for New Evangelisation of the Dechristianized Countries. Early this year, He announced that the theme for the next Synod of Bishops, to be held in October 2012, will be new evangelisation. With the nomination of Archbishop Rino Fisichella to preside over the new Pontifical Council, the ball started to roll.

There are a lot of questions to be answered, if they will ever be answered. The most important of them all is: what is this new evangelisation? What is it that makes it new? While there are many leading pastors who think that this refers to just a renewal of the things that we are doing not so well, or to do the good things that we used to do in the past; there are those who have a more radical vision of the newness of evangelisation and think that the Church needs to have the courage to take up new roads that have never been used before.

It is not we or somebody else thinks, it is what the Holy Spirit, the principal agent of evangelisation is intends to do. The Church cannot take the initiative, that is the prerogative of the Holy Spirit. The Church goes by attentive listening, by discernment, and obedience not to miss the boat. Therefore, it was a wise inspiration on the part of the Pope and His collaborators to call and meet the New Evangelisers. Blessed John Paul II has gone to His Father’s House, but His spirit is alive in so many Christians who are given to share His vision. The New Evangeliser of the last decades is still alive in the New Evangelisers scattered in the whole Catholic Church like a yeast that is promising to leaven the whole dough.

Between the 15 and 16 October, Pope Benedict XVI will meet with no less than 10,000 New Evangelisers from allover the world. We praise God for calling us to be there. The nineteen of us will represent all the members of our Community, all those who attend the Cells of Evangelisation in 12 parishes, all those who participate in our Courses of Evangelisation and in our Outreaches, maybe over 600 people to say the least. I am sure that even the 10,000 to be present in Rome, they are not all the New Evangelisers. If we multiply them 50 times, then we might get an idea of how the Holy Spirit is working for the new evangelisation of the whole humanity: 500,000 New Evangelisers proclaiming the Good News with new zeal, new methods and new expressions in every country and corner of the world.

May this unique invitation by the Pope turn out to be a great inspiration for Him to guide the Church in this kairos (moment of grace) for the spreading of the Kingdom of God, so much and so long threatened in our times.

Contact Fr Paul Fenech.