Evangelii Gaudium Research Articles

Laudato Si’: Care for Creation at the Center of a New Social Issue

AbstractThis essay reviews the documents of the pontifical magisterium of the Church from the encyclical Mater et magistra () to the exhortation Evangelii gaudium (2013), in order to show the Church’s historical commitment to the defense of the environment. It then argues that Laudato si’ elevates the theological status of the environmental crisis to that of a new social issue, much as Leo XIII did for the industrial crisis with his encyclical letter Rerum novarum ().

Bergoglio among the Phenomenologists: Encounter, Otherness, and Church in Evangelii gaudium and Amoris laetitia

Abstract Because Jorge Bergoglio’s (Pope Francis’s) pontifical texts depart from his predecessor’s Thomistic vocabulary, critics claim his works deploy an “improvisational” style. Closer analysis reveals, however, that Francis deploys the terminology of French phenomenology after the “theological turn.” In fact, Evangelii gaudium and Amoris laetitia frame the event of interpersonal encounter using three concepts drawn from Emmanuel Levinas’s and Jean-Luc Marion’s philosophical projects: the gaze, the face, and the other. Without ruling out a direct textual influence, I argue that Bergoglio’s theology of encounter highlights recent phenomenology’s implications for Catholic moral theology and ecclesiology. Faith is born of an encounter with the merciful gaze of a specific other - Jesus Christ. The Church, as the community that bears witness to this gaze, is thus called to eniconize this same gaze for “the least of these” (Matt 25:40). Not obviating the need for moral precepts, the encounter with the particular other becomes the condition of their possibility; moral norms only cohere within the context of the pastoral “face-to-face.” The main ecclesiological consequence of the “pastoral turn” Bergoglio initiates is thus a “kerygmatic hermeneutic” of the Church: the community of believers turns outward to encounter the other in mercy, evangelizing by example and charity.

Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism: “Evangelii Gaudium” and the Future of Catholicism. Edited by Gerard Mannion. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017. xx + 247 pages. $100.00.

Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism: “Evangelii Gaudium” and the Future of Catholicism. Edited by Gerard Mannion. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017. xx + 247 pages. $100.00. - Volume 45 Issue 1

Wideosłowa – o przepowiadaniu w formie audiowizualnej

Artykuł podejmuje zagadnienie audiowizualnego przepowiadania słowa Bożego poza liturgią, rozumianego jako uobecnianie się Kościoła „wyruszającego w drogę” (Evangelii gaudium). Często to właśnie środki społecznego przekazu, wśród nich zwłaszcza internet, stają się miejscami odległymi, ku którym powinniśmy wyjść, do których powinniśmy chcieć dotrzeć.Autor próbuje sformułować najważniejsze wskazówki dla głosicieli słowa Bożego w telewizji i internecie, podejmuje refleksję nad specyfiką mediów, treścią i formą przepowiadania oraz techniką przekazu. Przekaz audiowizualny – jak każda inna forma komunikacji werbalnej – wymaga od nadawcy umiejętnego posługiwania się pozawerbalnymi środkami przekazu. Nie jest to łatwe, bo w przeciwieństwie do komunikacji face to face nadawca nie widzi odbiorcy, nie odbiera informacji zwrotnej, nie wie, jakie emocje wywołuje jego wypowiedź. Mowa ciała jest tu elementem kluczowym. Przekaz audiowizualny sprzyja emfazie stanów emocjonalnych, wyrazu twarzy czy zachowań przestrzennych. Osobowość telewizyjną charakteryzuje świadomość panowania nad własnymi ograniczeniami i umiejętne wykorzystanie zalet. Ekran – bardziej niż perfekcyjny „model” człowieka, bez wad i ułomności – lubi człowieka autentycznego, który potrafi być sobą. Mimika, gesty, kontakt wzrokowy, szczery uśmiech, poczucie humoru, uprzejmość – stają się niezwykle ważne w przekazie ekranowym.

Book Review: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism: Evangelii Gaudium and the Papal Agenda

Book Review: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism: Evangelii Gaudium and the Papal Agenda

Book Review: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism: Evangelii Gaudium and the Papal Agenda. Ed. Gerard Mannion

Book Review: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism: Evangelii Gaudium and the Papal Agenda. Ed. Gerard Mannion

Verso una teologia della “santità” del battezzato come tale

The present study, based on Pope Francis’ impetus in Evangelii gaudium and on what great mystics have proposed, aims to emphasize the need for spiritual theology to properly consider the great value of the principles of the Gospel. In accordance with the universal call to holiness – that is, the experience, with Paul and all the saints, that a true life of faith is a life in Christ – sanctity must be seen as something realized, not only in «distinct kinds of life» (LG 41), in great experiences of faith or the “dark night” (as in the lives of some exceptional saints), but also in every simple existence, with its joys and suffering. In other words, even “ordinary” sanctity (as we see in some simple or simply holy saints) must be given proper consideration, and this, not only in preaching, but also in the theology of the spiritual life. Spiritual theology must therefore increasingly become, simply, a theology of the Christian life. Such sanctity is certainly a fullness of the Christian life, as advocated by John-Paul II in Novo millennio ineunte, but it must also be “simply” Christian. More concretely, it seems to us that holiness as a vocation for all has not yet been explored as an anonymous holiness (§ 3) or through a proper consideration of the common denominator (§ 4).

Evangelii Gaudium, entre desafíos permanentes y novedosos de la evangelización del Pontificado de Francisco, a cinco años de su promulgación.

This paper reviews Church Evangelization challenges, five years after the promulgation of the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, specifying those that are permanent due to the nature proper of the Church and those that are new, which require a greater discernment process. These challenges also make up Pope Francis’s greatest tasks because Exhortation has become the navigation chart of his Pontificate. To discern these challenges for the Universal Church, this paper collects the Latin American Church reflection developed in the Document of Aparecida and the pending tasks of the Council that strongly articulate the pastoral conversion reflection of a Church expressed in Evangelii Gaudium.

La alegría del evangelio. Leyendo la ‘Evangelii Gaudium’ del Papa Francisco con san Agustín

The article offers a synopsis of the ecclesiological vision of Pope Francis, underlining the centrality of Charity that is what should guide the Evangelization of the Church within a secularized context. The role of the «missionary disciples» in this task, which is a work of mercy, is also pointed out. Later the article presents the illumination of the Augustinian doctrine to the encyclical Evangelii Gaudium, particularly concerning the preaching, as a service of charity, where the pastor gives voice to the message of God. The article also stresses S. Augusti­ne’s doctrine of the Interior Master in relationship with preaching.

Pastoralne aspekty „czterech zasad” papieża Franciszka

Pope Francis in exhortation Evangelii gaudium names four rules managing the development of community life and peacebuilding. He names them as evangelical criteria as well. He formulates them in the following way: the first rule – time exceeds space; the second one – unity predominates over conflict; the third one – reality is more important than idea; the fourth one – whole exceeds part. Pastoral look at these rules opens new horizons for theological analyses which may be translated into practical solutions, so essential for modern evangelization of the world.

Pietyzm XVII wieku jako protestancka forma Nowej Ewangelizacji

Can equivalents of the Catholic new evangelization be found in the Protestant world? They certainly can. One among them — with all their temporal and theological difference — is pietism, a religious renewal movement initiated by Philipp Jacob Spener (1635-1705), who included his postulates in the book titled Pia Desideria (1675). Pietism emphasized revival of personal faith, ardent prayer, reading the Holy Scriptures, human involvement in the transformation of socio-economic structures, missionary activity, and community life. Is there, alternatively, also a Catholic form of pietism? The answer is not straightforward, because the 21st century Catholic Church has behind it the great work of the Second Vatican Council with its call for lay apostolate, biblical renewal, and the revival of ecclesial movements. The idea of the parish as a “community of communities,” sensitizing the need to proclaim the kerygma, set up of prayer and formation groups, charismatic renewal — in all of this one can also see the implementation of the ideals that guided the pietists. In a sense, Pope Francis’ exhortation Evangelii Gaudium deserves to be called the pia desideria of our times.

Modelo Papa Francisco

From the theology and anthropology of the diocese, a few months before the visit of the Supreme Pontiff to Peru (18-01-2018), the author warns, locates and explains the growing position of Pope Francis’ model in the recent developments of the Catholic Church. It examines the historical background and rootedness of this model among the dioceses of Latin America and the Caribbean, and reveals its theological and pastoral implications in the process of reform of the structures of the Church that the first Latin American pope convened in his Evangelii Gaudium (EG 2013). Meanwhile, and decisively, the Pope Francis’ model has succeeded at mending and exposing the oppositions, inertias and contradictions of the dominant pastoral theological model.

POLITICS FOR FRANCIS

The first Latin American Pope chosen as Saint Peter’s successor led up to an unprecedented event in the bimillenary history of the Church. His ideological and pragmatic points of view, as well as his personal and intrinsic virtues, were the distinctive features that catapulted him as an indisputable world leader and model actor in International Politics. As a consequence of this expertise demonstrated by the Bishop of Rome, different issues have been established in the media and in the global public opinion. This can be seen in the anthropological and social aspects of his discourse, which he has successfully instated, as if he were an experienced and successful politician.As a result of Francis’s supremacy due to his leading position and the evident change of direction of some political, social and economic issues by the Church, his discursive production - especially the apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel)- are essential to understand his conception of politics.

“THE FALL OF THE SECOND WALL”: THE NORMALIZATION OF RELATIONS BETWEEN CUBA AND THE UNITED STATES AND THE ROLE OF POPE FRANCIS

The pastoral trips of Pope Francis to Cuba and to the United States were not only religious. The political activity that he organized to consolidate the relationship between the two recently reconciled countries was remarkable. Through visits, meetings and masses the Pope expressed his position and concerns about various arguments, beyond the recomposed Cuban-American relationship. During the trip he addressed subjects including the environment, poverty, family, union, freedom, all of which were themes that the Pontiff had clearly stated in his encyclical Laudato Si ‘(2015) and his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (2013). With this trip, Pope Francis ended up consolidating his status as a global politician as well as a pastor with a high degree of acceptance not only among Catholics.

La dimensión social de la evangelización en la Exhortación Apostólica "Evangelii gaudium"

Se ofrece una reflexión sobre «La dimensión social de la evangelización», capítulo IV de la Exhortación Apostólica Evangelii gaudium, del papa Francisco. Tras examinar la estructura y fuentes del documento, considera las repercusiones sociales y comunitarias del kerigma. El autor comenta los textos de Evangelii gaudium que se refieren a la inclusión social de los pobres, así como todo lo referido a la paz y al diálogo social. Las nociones de «pueblo» y de «pobre» son especialmente objeto de atención.

A “opção preferencial pelos pobres” como chave hermenêutica da Exortação Apostólica Evangelii Gaudium

A opção preferencial pelos pobres é uma das marcas mais singulares da Igreja latino-america. Cunhada a partir do Concílio Vaticano II e tendo seu ápice nas Conferências de nosso Episcopado, especialmente Medellín, ela encontra eco novamente no pontificado de Francisco, que tem se revelado sensível às questões sociais. Partindo deste princípio, o presente artigo busca analisar a opção supracitada como uma chave hermenêutica de sua Exortação Apostólica Evangelii Gaudium. Para este propósito, tem-se como ponto de partida a compreensão da tarefa hermenêutica da teologia, passando pela força do impulso conciliar, o florescimento de uma nova tradição, o conceito de opção pelos pobres e contra a pobreza, culminando nas reflexões de Francisco a partir de sua exortação e nos seus desdobramentos para a vida da Igreja como um todo.

Mission as Kinship on the Margins

Mission, according to Evangelii gaudium, is characterized by missionary joy, a kind of displacement, the experience of being evangelized by the poor, and the image of the bruised church. Such an understanding invites us to go to the margins and there encounter the Christ. This article develops the concept “kinship on the margins” in conversation with Greg Boyle’s understanding of kinship. It distinguishes four types of kinship (based on blood, milk, water, or wine) and offers a case study of kinship on the margins—the work of Georg Sporschill, SJ, in eastern Europe, which is an expression of a “church of the poor.”

Understanding Mission Today: Points of Convergence?

In this brief article, essential content from mission statements by three different church groupings is compared and contrasted. Lausanne’s Cape Town Commitment is brought together with the WCC’s Together Towards Life and the Vatican’s Evangelii Gaudium. This article identifies considerable convergences between the three agendas and sees these as grounds not only for general optimism for the future of mission, but also for meaningful dialogue and appropriate strategies for the work.

The ecumenical vision of Pope Francis: journeying together as fellow pilgrims − ‘the mystery of unity has already begun’

After reviewing some of the unique ecumenical steps taken by Pope Francis, this article examines briefly the three ecumenical paragraphs in Evangelii Gaudium. It presents them in the wider context of this post-synodal exhortation, of the ecumenical gestures and testimonies of Pope Francis, the ecumenical orientation of the Catholic Church and the ecumenical movement as such. It concludes with an outlook on a newly emerging ecumenical paradigm.

Missional Formation for Transforming Discipleship

AbstractMission – in the larger sense, beyond the mission of the institutional church – in the 21st century is an urgent and decisive issue. We need to prepare for a transforming mission with transforming discipleship. Together towards Life, along with Evangelii Gaudium and Laudato Si', offer paradigm shifts to consider as we envision mission formation with other parameters – with a different theological and ministerial education. Participation in the world is necessary for any true transformative mission: it is there that we learn and practise the true challenges to abundant life for everyone and for all. Practice alone is not enough: we must always question our own praxis, reviewing it in the light of the gospel.