The inter-Franciscan online course entitled “Current Evangelization in Europe: a new evangelization? The Franciscan contribution", mandated by the General Ministers of the three Franciscan Orders and carried out by the Secretariats for Evangelization and Mission OFM, OFM Conv and OFM Cap, was held on 7 – 9 November.
The objective of the meeting, which was attended by 120 friars from 25 countries, was to revive, reflect, update, and animate Franciscan evangelization in Europe today.
Br Francisco Gomez Vargas OFM, General Secretary for Evangelization and Mission, in his speech underlined the importance of the Franciscan charism in this service: “Like Saint Francis, our experience of the poor Christ, who reveals God as Emmanuel, “God-with-us”, necessarily sends us into the world as brothers to be living and effective witnesses of the Kingdom of God. Because, again like Saint Francis, God does not call us for ourselves, but for the Gospel". “Evangelization today – he continued – propels us towards a new future if we live our vocation for others as an evangelizing fraternity. The challenge is to build new fraternities, with new presences, of life and evangelization, in order to favor the opportunity for a serious review, adaptation and reformulation of our form of consecrated life, understood as a process of configuration to the person of Jesus Christ”.
Br Massimo Fusarelli OFM, Minister General, focused on the importance of the new evangelization in the post-secular world: “post-secular means that the religious element is no longer taken into consideration. […] We are aware that the mission is not simply something that is addressed, as in the past, to countries that have not yet heard the announcement of Jesus Christ. We know that the mission is aimed at everyone, even the lands of ancient Christianity which are experiencing such significant changes today. The evangelizing mission, therefore, is open to all and knows no boundaries." The objective, therefore, must be to make known "a God who is not foreign to humanity, but who is profoundly present in the life of each individual". This course, concluded the Minister General, wants to "start a process so that we become aware of being called to live the Gospel and to announce it with our lives and words even in the post-secular world. How to do it? With what languages, with what new sensitivity, with what preparation? We can do it with renewed enthusiasm, aware of the challenges, the hardships, and our fragilities. We can begin confident in what Saint Francis calls the Holy operation of the Spirit of the Lord, who is always among us, even in the post-secular world."
