The New Evangelization: A Benedictine Priority

According to John Allen.  Excerpts:

...In every way he possibly can, Benedict has signaled that he regards the “new evangelization,” broadly understood as reawakening a missionary spirit in the church, as a towering priority.

Despite his well-known antipathy for bureaucracy, for instance, Benedict XVI recently created an entirely new Vatican department to carry forward the project, the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization. He appointed a veteran Italian heavy-hitter, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, to head the office, and what amounts to an “A-list” of Catholic prelates from around the world as members, including Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna, Cardinal Angelo Scola of Venice, Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, and Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York.

Benedict has also dedicated the next Synod, a gathering of bishops from all over the world, to the theme of the “New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith.” The lineamenta, or draft working document, for the synod, to be held Oct. 7-28, 2012, was presented this morning in a Vatican news conference.

For all the emphasis on “new evangelization,” however, the term itself remains difficult to pin down...