– Supernatural Spanish Episcopal Conference made public today the document Faithful to missionary sending approved by the Plenary Assembly with the orientations and lines of action for the EEC in the period 2021-2025. The Spanish Episcopal Conference offers in this document some orientations and lines of work especially directed to the organs of the Conference itself.
A thorough preliminary analysis
The document begins with an analysis of the Spanish reality at all levels. The bishops are not oblivious to the new social situation in which the Catholic Church moves, in which "a moralistic capitalism that not only regulates production and consumption, but also imposes values and lifestyles" reigns, together with the prevailing cultural relativism and an advance of nihilism that produces a spiritual impoverishment and the loss of meaning in life for many people. A process that, as stated in the document, is born "a neo-pagan proposal that aims to build a new society, for which it is necessary to "deconstruct". Thus we are witnessing an anthropological constructivism in the widespread ideological currents of gender and in the social acceptance of abortion and euthanasia; a historical and also pedagogical constructivism, reinforced by the domination of the school, for which it is necessary to "deconstruct" because, as Francis says in n. 13 of FT, "human freedom seeks to build everything from scratch". All this happens painlessly, because mass culture, based on emotions and sensations, is ensuring that this process of demolition is experienced almost indifferently, even more as an achievement of freedom".
The society of mistrust and post-truth thus involves and directly affects the relationship of Catholics and non-Catholics with the Church.
Family, pandemic and difficulties
One of the pillars that has been affected by this process has been the family, especially with regard to family unity and stability: "secularization influences the deterioration of the so-called traditional family, it also seems certain that the crisis of the same contributes, in turn, to boost religious decline, since it breaks a basic institution in the transmission of faith and basic experiences in the configuration of the person (...) The weakening of the family bond causes the loss of social ties, which accentuates this weakening, since the praise of individual autonomy and the permanent claim of the right to have rights enthrones the individual and makes any bond suspicious".
Evidently, the pandemic has influenced the drafting process of this document. A blow to humanity in the face of which we Christians are called to "consider this situation as a historic moment of a strong call to renewal for humanity and for the Church" and to give "witness of a confidence that overcomes fears, of hope and of fraternal charity".
Another of the introductory points of the document highlights the reality of the Catholic Church in today's Spain in which, looking at the social data, it encounters "two types of difficulties: some come from outside the environmental culture; others come from within, from internal secularization, lack of communion or missionary daring".
The Magisterium of Pope Francis
The second part of the letter, dedicated to the ecclesial framework, begins with a reference to the magisterium of Pope Francis who "places the Church's fidelity to the missionary mandate - id - and priestly mandate - do - in his magisterial texts...". Evangelii gaudium (2013) y Gaudete et exsultate (2018) which contain the lines that are developed in papers such as. Amoris laetitia (2016); Christus vivit (2019)], y Laudato si' (2015) y Fratelli tutti (2020): "The proclamation of the Gospel is made to people who live in realities that the Pope presents to us as true signs of the times, a passage of the Lord who illuminates and judges history in order to call for conversion, fraternity and mission. These privileged places are the family (children, youth, the elderly), migrants and the discarded, and the common home of the human family". They also point out that "The Pope's proposal is based on the proclamation of mercy that recognizes one's own miseries. For this reason, the issues of abuse of minors and vulnerable people by members of the Church deserve special attention".
The work of the EEC
Faithful to missionary zeal, it recalls the lines of work of the EEC in recent years and which must continue to be at the forefront of action:
- The fruits of the Congress of the Laity: People of God going forth with "the centrality of the four itineraries in all our pastoral actions: first proclamation, accompaniment, formation processes and presence in public life".
- The priestly formation plan Forming missionary pastors.
- The application of Amoris laetitia and the renewal of marriage preparation.
- Church servant of the poor in the current situation of economic and social crisis.
- The transmission of the faith through the catechesis of Christian initiation and the catechumenate.
- The care of popular piety as a space for transmitting the faith.
- Pastoral care and catechesis for people with disabilities.
- The implementation of measures for the care of victims of abuse, the punishment of perpetrators and the prevention of all types of abuse.
Discernment and call to evangelization
Faithful to the Missionary Sending concludes with a call for "a great discernment We want as a College -collegiality- and as a People -synodality- in the light of the Spirit, the Word and the Magisterium to recognize the passage of the Lord and to interpret his call at this time in order to make the appropriate choices that will truly enlighten the work of the Conference at the service of the dioceses".
Likewise, there is a call to missionary outreach for all, especially the laity, which entails "listening to the needs of our society in the perspective of the common good and enlightened by the Social Doctrine of the Church".
Lines of action
The proposal for action of this document for the Spanish Church points out, in the first place, the need to be "witnesses of God and teachers of the faith in the face of spiritual impoverishment and new searches for spirituality, based on the conviction that human beings are capable of encountering God (...) We must also teach how to pray, to live a relationship with God and to remember the most profound truth of human beings: that God has created them and maintains them in existence".
Priorities
The priorities of the Spanish Church for the next few years are articulated around
- Evangelization
- Christian Initiation
- Proposal of life as a vocation: identity, spirituality and mission of priests, laity (married couples) and consecrated life.
- Presence in public, personal, community and institutional life at the service of the common good.
- Personal and institutional witness of a welcoming and Samaritan Church in the preferential option for the poor.
- "For a synodal Church: communion, participation and mission".
- Communication plan of the Spanish Episcopal Conference.
- Integral accompaniment (personal, material and spiritual) to all those affected by the pandemic.
- Organization of the particular Churches at the service of the People of God: review of the presence in the rural world, missionary renewal of parishes.
EEC Reform
One of the most awaited points is the one that refers to the reform of the Spanish Episcopal Conference itself. In this sense, Fieles al envío misionero emphasizes that, in the coming years "we must advance in the way of working in the Spanish Episcopal Conference. Within the commissions (sub-commissions and departments) and among the various commissions.
The lines of action corresponding to the work of the episcopal commissions are the focus of the last part of the document, which details their mission, the actions to be carried out and promoted in the coming years, as well as the joint work between the different commissions.
Faithful to missionary sending is the fruit of an exercise of discernment shared by the bishops, the collegiate bodies of the EEC and the collaborators, to approach the social and ecclesial reality and suggest pastoral orientations that have been carried out over several months of dialogue.
