www.catholicnews.sg SUNDAY OCTOBER 21, 2012
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ARCHBISHOP’S MESSAGE FOR WORLD MISSION SUNDAY (OCT 21)
VOL 62
NO. 21
INSIDE HOME Reaching out to poor for 50 years SVDP members honoured for service „ Page 2
“Called to radiate the Word of truth� (Apostolic Letter Porta Fidei, n. 6)
Preparing to be church guides
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
cant this year as it coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and the opening of the Year of Faith, which has as its theme “New Evangelization�. cation to spreading the Gospel with even greater zeal and courage. Evangelisation is still valid today with the number of those who do not know Christ growing. Pope Benedict XVI places the Church’s missionary nature at the centre of ecclesiology. “Today as in the past, Christ sends us through the highways of the world to proclaim his Gospel to all the peoples of the earth� (Apostolic Letter Porta Fidei, n. 7.) Entrusted with this missionary mandate, we must take up with urgent stride and apostolic zeal, the duty of proclaiming the Word of God to those who do not yet know Him. Through the actions of missionaries, the proclamation of the Gospel becomes much more – intervention on behalf of one’s neighbour, justice for the poorest, the possibility of education in the most remote villages, medical aid in isolated places, emancipation from poverty, rehabilitation of the marginalised, the overcoming of ethnic divisions, and the respect and support for the development of all people. Our personal encounter with Christ All humanity hungers and thirsts for Christ – the living bread and the water. To be effective messengers of God demands however that we Gospel of Jesus. Indeed, one of the major obstacles to evangelisation is the personal crisis of faith. Fundamentally our personal encounter with Christ must be our basis for evangelising. It is the joy of the Lord’s presence and the desire to make ! " that propels us with renewed energy.
Nativity parishioners take up course „ Page 4
School broadcast station launched Holy Innocents students learn to be DJs „ Page 5
‘Pray well to sing well’ Renowned conductor gives tips to choirs
We must take up with urgent stride the duty of proclaiming the Word of God to those who do not yet know Him. # $ " ! % " and foremost a gift and a mystery which must be welcomed and shared. It is a talent received so that it may bear fruit; it is a light that must never be hidden, but must illuminate the whole house. It is the most important gift which has been made to us in our lives and which we cannot keep to ourselves. The core of the proclamation is always the same: that Christ died and rose for the world’s salvation, God’s absolute love for every man
and every woman that resulted in Him sending His Only-Begotten Son, the Lord Jesus, who redeemed the world from sin and death by the offering of Himself on the Cross. Daily renewal Our enthusiasm for communicating the faith & es of an increasingly changing world. A New Evangelisation will bear fruit in communities and countries losing their reference to God only if we can reawaken in them the joy of believing. The drive to evangelise must never remain on the margins of ecclesial activity and in the personal life of Christians. Rather, it must strongly characterise it, strong in the awareness that they are missionaries of the Gospel and that those who receive the Word are those for whom the Gospel is intended. „ Continued on page 5
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ASIA ‘Forced’ to attend govt classes Shanghai’s priests, nuns made to attend sessions „ Page 10
THE MISSION A look at missionary work by S’pore Catholics „ Pages 20-21