(ANS – Vatican City) – The work of the Synod, the New Evangelization, the role of the laity and, especially, the centrality of Jesus not only in Theology, but especially in the Church's pastoral practice: Msgr. Timothy Costelloe, Archbishop of Perth, Australia, focused on these issues in a lengthy interview granted to ZENIT, where he repeated his speech points issued to the Synod of Bishops.

The Salesian prelate confessed in the interview that the complexity of the New Evangelization amazed him: “It's got so many aspects, and I think a lot of us are just starting to get a little bit clearer in our minds as to what exactly it means”.

Even the diversity of contexts in which the New Evangelization must be applied, could result in loss of orientation: “We’ve got bishops here from all over the world. Some are from countries which have traditionally been very Christian countries (…), many are from countries where Christianity is a new phenomena”, the archbishop pointed out.

For this reason, in his speech released last Oct. 9th at the Synodal Assembly to which he was elected member of the Australian Bishops' Conference, Msgr. Costelloe had highlighted some key points of the New Evangelization, all based on the very heart of Christianity, the figure of Jesus. In his speech the prelate had highlighted some points:

• the need to “recover the ecclesiology of the Church as the Body of Christ, with Christ as its life-giving head”;
• the need to bring attention to Christ, “reminding us that the goal of all evangelization is to foster an encounter between the person and Christ”
• commitment for the consecrated to “help people to be captured by the fascination which the Jesus of the gospels exerts on hearts and minds”;
• the challenge posed to the whole Church: “to return the Church to Christ and to return Christ to the Church - not to become other than we are but to become more fully who and what we are”.

The theme of the centrality of Christ and of return to him is very dear to the Bishop, to which in the interview he returns frequently, detailing how in this process the laity must also be participants and major characters: “Young people, for example, are very easily attracted by Jesus once they begin to understand Him and He's presented to them as He actually is, in the pages of the Gospels, in our tradition of the Church. Once people understand who this person is, I think that desire to not just to follow Him, but to commit themselves to Him, to become both His disciples and His friends, and His collaborators, I think that does start to grab people”.

And also: “a very obvious point is that the New Evangelization depends on the New Evangelizers. I think one of our tasks is to identify those people in our local diocesan communities, our local parish communities, Church agencies, schools, whatever we have, identify those people who are already engaged committed and really work with them, to help them understand just how important this is, so that they then become excited and enthusiastic about it”.

The interview with Mons. Costello is published on Zenit, in English, in 2 parts (1 – 2).

Published 23/10/2012