The Door of Faith: Pope Calls for Year of Faith, Issues Apostolic Letter

The Year of Faith is a summons to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the one Savior of the world. In the mystery of His death and resurrection, God has revealed in its fullness the Love that saves and calls us to conversion of life. The 'door of faith' is always open for us. It is possible to cross that threshold when the word of God is proclaimed and the heart allows itself to be shaped by transforming grace.

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P>VATICAN CITY, (Catholic Online) - On Monday October 17, 2011 Pope Benedict XVI again demonstrated his passionate dedication to the New Evangelization and the missionary vocation of the whole Church. As he has through word and deed since assuming office, he proclaimed that we are living in a new missionary age. He affirmed his pastoral plan for the whole Church to proclaim the liberating Gospel of Jesus Christ.At the end of an international meeting on the new Evangelization he proclaimed a "Year of Faith."

In June of 2010 Pope Benedict XVI established the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization. The term "New Evangelization" is a favorite phrase of Pope Benedict XVI - as it was of his predecessor, Blessed John Paul II. There is a desperate need for such a new evangelization in the secularized Western world. Nations once influenced by Christianity have rejected the foundations of their own freedom.

Many Catholics do not know what the Catholic Church actually teaches. Others practice a "cafeteria Catholicism"- choosing what parts of the faith they will follow. Some profess the Creed but confine its influence only to participation in the Liturgy on Sunday. This has led to what the fathers of the Second Vatican Council warned of - the "greatest error of our age, the separation between faith and life."

The rejection of the existence of objective truth has unleashed what has been referred to by Pope Benedict XVI as a "Dictatorship of Relativism".  The contemporary culture has embraced a "new" paganism; which is just the old paganism dressed up in the sophistry of an age that purports to be "enlightened" when it is bound in the ignorance and darkness which accompanies the rejection of God.

So this missionary Pope has announced a "Year of Faith". It will run from October 11, 2012, until November 24, 2013, when the universal church celebrates the Solemnity of Christ the King. He told the faithful, "It will be a moment of grace and commitment to a more complete conversion to God, to strengthen our faith in Him and proclaim Him with joy to the people of our time"

Then, on Monday, October 17, 2011, he released "Motu Propio" (a latin phrase which means "on his own authority") an apostolic letter entitled  the Door of Faith" (Porta Fidei). Below we offer just a few excerpts from this powerful letter. It can be read in its entirety here:

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"The 'door of faith' is always open for us, ushering us into the life of communion with God and offering entry into His Church. It is possible to cross that threshold when the word of God is proclaimed and the heart allows itself to be shaped by transforming grace".

"Ever since the start of my ministry as Successor of Peter, I have spoken of the need to rediscover the journey of faith so as to shed ever clearer light on the joy and renewed enthusiasm of the encounter with Christ. ... Whereas in the past it was possible to recognise a unitary cultural matrix, broadly accepted in its appeal to the content of the faith and the values inspired by it, today this no longer seems to be the case in large swathes of society, because of a profound crisis of faith that has affected many people".

"In the light of all this, I have decided to announce a Year of Faith. It will begin on 11 October 2012, the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Vatican Council II, and it will end on the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King, on 24 November 2013. The starting date of 11 October 2012 also marks the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a text promulgated by my Predecessor, Blessed John Paul II, with a view to illustrating for all the faithful the power and beauty of the faith".

"Moreover, the theme of the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops that I have convoked for October 2012 is 'The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith'. This will be a good opportunity to usher the whole Church into a time of particular reflection and rediscovery of the faith. It is not the first time that the Church has been called to celebrate a Year of Faith...

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"It seemed to me that timing the launch of the Year of Faith to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Vatican Council II would provide a good opportunity to help people understand that the texts bequeathed by the Council Fathers. ... I would also like to emphasise strongly what I had occasion to say concerning the Council a few months after my election as Successor of Peter: 'if we interpret and implement it guided by a right hermeneutic, it can be and can become increasingly powerful for the ever necessary renewal of the Church'.

"The renewal of the Church is also achieved through the witness offered by the lives of believers: by their very existence in the world, Christians are called to radiate the word of truth that the Lord Jesus has left us. The Council itself, in the Dogmatic Constitution 'Lumen Gentium', said this: ... the Church ... clasping sinners to her bosom, is at once holy and always in need of purification".

"The Year of Faith, from this perspective, is a summons to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the one Savior of the world. In the mystery of His death and resurrection, God has revealed in its fullness the Love that saves and calls us to conversion of life through the forgiveness of sins. For St. Paul, this Love ushers us into a new life. ... Through faith, this new life shapes the whole of human existence according to the radical new reality of the resurrection. ... 'Faith working through love' becomes a new criterion of understanding and action that changes the whole of man's life".

"Through His love, Jesus Christ attracts to Himself the people of every generation: in every age He convokes the Church, entrusting her with the proclamation of the Gospel by a mandate that is ever new. Today too, there is a need for stronger ecclesial commitment to new evangelization in order to rediscover the joy of believing and the enthusiasm for communicating the faith. In rediscovering His love day by day, the missionary commitment of believers attains force and vigor that can never fade away. Faith grows when it is lived as an experience of love received and when it is communicated as an experience of grace and joy".

"Only through believing, then, does faith grow and become stronger; there is no other possibility for possessing certitude with regard to one's life apart from self-abandonment, in a continuous crescendo, into the hands of a love that seems to grow constantly because it has its origin in God".

"We want to celebrate this Year in a worthy and fruitful manner. Reflection on the faith will have to be intensified, so as to help all believers in Christ to acquire a more conscious and vigorous adherence to the Gospel, especially at a time of profound change such as humanity is currently experiencing.

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"We will have the opportunity to profess our faith in the Risen Lord in our cathedrals and in the churches of the whole world; in our homes and among our families, so that everyone may feel a strong need to know better and to transmit to future generations the faith of all times. Religious communities as well as parish communities, and all ecclesial bodies old and new, are to find a way, during this Year, to make a public profession of the Credo.

"We want this Year to arouse in every believer the aspiration to profess the faith in fullness and with renewed conviction, with confidence and hope. It will also be a good opportunity to intensify the celebration of the faith in the liturgy, especially in the Eucharist, which is 'the summit towards which the activity of the Church is directed; ... and also the source from which all its power flows.' At the same time, we make it our prayer that believers' witness of life may grow in credibility...

"A Christian may never think of belief as a private act. Faith is choosing to stand with the Lord so as to live with Him. This 'standing with Him' points towards an understanding of the reasons for believing. Faith, precisely because it is a free act, also demands social responsibility for what one believes. ...

"To a greater extent than in the past, faith is now being subjected to a series of questions arising from a changed mentality which, especially today, limits the field of rational certainties to that of scientific and technological discoveries. Nevertheless, the Church has never been afraid of demonstrating that there cannot be any conflict between faith and genuine science, because both, albeit via different routes, tend towards the truth...

"The Year of Faith will also be a good opportunity to intensify the witness of charity. ... Faith and charity each require the other; in such a way that each allows the other to set out along its respective path. Indeed, many Christians dedicate their lives with love to those who are lonely, marginalized or excluded, as to those who are the first with a claim on our attention and the most important for us to support, because it is in them that the reflection of Christ's own face is seen. Through faith, we can recognise the face of the risen Lord in those who ask for our love".

"Having reached the end of his life, St. Paul asks his disciple Timothy to 'aim at faith' with the same constancy as when he was a boy. We hear this invitation directed to each of us, that none of us grow lazy in the faith. It is the lifelong companion that makes it possible to perceive, ever anew, the marvels that God works for us.

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"Intent on gathering the signs of the times in the present of history, faith commits every one of us to become a living sign of the presence of the Risen Lord in the world. What the world is in particular need of today is the credible witness of people enlightened in mind and heart by the word of the Lord, and capable of opening the hearts and minds of many to the desire for God and for true life, life without end". 

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