Dear Brother Bishops,
1. In the glorious hope of Easter, I greet you, the Bishops of Ontario, rejoicing with you that the Paschal promise "does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Rom 5:5). I pray that during these days of your visit ad Limina Apostolorum the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead will move powerfully in your hearts, so that you may taste anew his peace and joy in "the priestly service of the Gospel of God" (Rom 15:16). You come from the cities, great and small, from the vast spaces of rural Canada, from cultures both English-speaking and French-speaking and from Churches of East and West. But you have come to the tombs of the Apostles united as brothers in hierarchical communion, as Pastors bearing the joys and hopes, the sorrows and concerns of the People of God whom Christ has called you to serve. The ministry of Bishops is complex and demanding, and its many pressures can at times blur our vision of what Christ calls us to be and to do. This time in Rome is a moment the Lord gives you to step aside awhile and focus once again upon what really matters, to take stock of your ministry in the light of the Lord's love for his Church, and to plan for the future with ever greater courage and confidence.
This is an hour of great challenge for the Catholic community, but it is also a time of abundant grace; and we who lead the People of God on their pilgrim way dare not overlook the gift that is now being offered. We stand at the threshold of a new millennium, at a time of profound cultural change which, like the millennium drawing to a close, is fraught with ambiguity. Yet in the midst of complexities and contradictions, the whole Church is preparing to celebrate the Great Jubilee of the 2000th anniversary of the Saviour's birth, certain that the mercy of God will do great things for us (cf. Lk 1:49). The signs are there that Christ, the fullness of God's mercy, is moving in new and marvelous ways. As at other significant moments of her history, the Church stands under judgement; and she will be judged on whether or not she succeeds in recognizing and responding to the demands of this "hour of grace". More than others, we Bishops stand under judgement: "it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy" (1 Cor 4:2).
2. The memory of the Special Assembly for America of the Synod of Bishops is still vivid in my mind: and how could it be otherwise, with so deep an experience of episcopal communion in the "care for all the churches" (2 Cor 11:28)? From Mexico City, the Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in America has gone forth to you and to the priests, religious and lay faithful of your Dioceses as an earnest invitation to engage in the "new evangelization". The Apostolic Exhortation contains many elements for thought and action; and it is one of these that I wish to consider with you today. The Exhortation notes that "the evangelization of urban culture is a formidable challenge for the Church. Just as she was able to evangelize rural culture for centuries, the Church is called in the same way today to undertake a methodical and far-reaching urban evangelization" (No. 21). What the Synod Fathers called for is nothing short of the evangelization which I have described as "new in ardour, methods and expression" (Address to the Assembly of CELAM, 9 March, 1983, III); and such an evangelization is certainly needed at the dawn of the third Christian millennium, especially in the large urban centres where a growing percentage of the population now lives. As the Synod Fathers observed, the Church in Europe and elsewhere has in the past succeeded in evangelizing rural culture, but that is no longer enough. A great new task now beckons, and it is unthinkable that we should fail in the evangelization of the cities. "He who calls you is faithful, and he will do it" (1 Thess 5:24).
3. The phenomenon of the megalopolis has long been with us, and the Church has not been slow to consider how best to respond. In his Apostolic Letter of 1971, Octogesima Adveniens, Pope Paul VI noted how increasing and irreversible urbanization is a great challenge to human wisdom, imagination and powers of organization (No. 10). He emphasized how urbanization in an industrial society upsets traditional ways and structures of life, producing for people "a new loneliness... in an anonymous crowd... in which they feel themselves strangers" (ibid.). It also produces what the Pope called "new proletariats" on the edges of the big cities, "a belt of misery in silent protest at the luxury which blatantly cries out from centres of consumption and waste" (ibid.). There arises a culture of discrimination and indifference, "lending itself to new forms of exploitation and domination" which deeply undermine human dignity. This is not the whole truth of the modern megalopolis but it is a crucial part of it, and it presents the Church, especially her Pastors, with a pressing and inescapable challenge. Urbanization, it is true, provides new opportunities, creates new modes of community, stimulates many forms of solidarity; but "in the struggle against sin" (cf. Heb 12:4) it is often the dark underside of urbanization which occupies your immediate pastoral attention.
In the years since 1971, the truth of Pope Paul's remarks has become clearer as the process of urbanization has gone on and increased. The Synod Fathers noted that the movement of people to the cities is most often caused by poverty, lack of opportunity and poor services in rural areas (Ecclesia in America, 21). The attraction grows stronger because the cities hold out the promise of employment and entertainment, appearing to be the answer to poverty and boredom when in fact they generate new forms of both.
For many people, especially the young, the city becomes an experience of rootlessness, anonymity and inequality, with the consequent loss of identity and sense of human dignity. The result is often the violence that now marks so many of the large cities, not least in your own country. At the core of this violence there is a protest bred of deep-seated disappointment: the city promises so much and delivers so little to so many. This sense of disappointment is also linked to a loss of confidence in institutions - political, legal and educational institutions, but also the Church and the family. In such a world, a world of great absences, the heavens seem closed (cf. Is 64:1) and God seems a long way away. It becomes a profoundly secular world, a one-dimensional world which to many people can appear like a prison. In this "city of man", we are called to build "the city of God"; and before so daunting a duty we are tempted perhaps, like the prophet Jonah at Nineveh, to lose heart and flee from the task (cf. Jonah 4:1-3; Octogesima Adveniens, 12). But, as with Jonah, the Lord himself will lead us resolutely along the path which he has chosen for us.
4. Les Pères du Synode n'ont pas promu une nouvelle évangélisation urbaine de manière indéterminée: ils ont précisé des éléments de l'activité pastorale qu'une telle évangélisation requiert. Ils ont parlé du besoin d'"une évangélisation urbaine méthodique et capillaire par la catéchèse, la liturgie et la manière même d'organiser ses structures pastorales" (Ecclesia in America, n. 21). Ici nous avons donc trois éléments très précis: la catéchèse, la liturgie, et l'organisation des structures pastorales - éléments qui sont radicalement liés aux trois dimensions du ministère de l'Évêque: enseigner, sanctifier et gouverner. À ce sujet, chers Frères, nous touchons le point central de ce que le Christ nous appelle à être et à faire dans la nouvelle évangélisation.
Ces trois dimensions ont pour objectif une expérience nouvelle et plus profonde de la communauté dans le Christ, qui est la seule réponse efficace et durable à une culture marquée par le déracinement, l'anonymat et les inégalités. Là où cette expérience Est, fragile, on peut s'attendre à ce que davantage de fidèles se détachent de la religion ou dérivent vers des sectes et vers des groupes pseudo-religieux, qui s'appuient sur leur aliénation et se développent parmi les chrétiens déçus par l'Église pour quelque raison que ce soit. On ne peut plus s'attendre à ce que les gens viennent dans nos communautés spontanément; il doit plutôt y avoir une nouvelle impulsion missionnaire dans les villes, avec des hommes et des femmes dévoués, notamment des jeunes, qui s'engagent au nom du Christ pour inviter les gens à rejoindre la communauté ecclésiale. C'est un élément central de l'organisation des structures pastorales, qui est requis pour une nouvelle évangélisation des villes. Cette dernière donnera un nouvel élan du même ordre que celui qui a permis la naissance de l'Église sur votre terre: en particulier l'engagement héroïque de Jean de Brébeuf et d'Isaac Jogues, de Marguerite Bourgeoys et Marguerite d'Youville. Mais maintenant, le but est la ville, et c'est là que le nouvel héroïsme missionnaire doit briller avec autant d'éclat que cela s'est produit dans le passé, mais autrement. Cela dépendra en grande partie de l'élan et du dévouement des missionnaires laïcs urbains; ceux-ci auront aussi besoin du service de prêtres vraiment zélés, qui seront eux-mêmes habités par l'esprit missionnaire et qui sauront comment allumer cet esprit chez les autres. Il est vital que les séminaires et les maisons de formation soient clairement vus comme des écoles pour la mission, formant des prêtres qui pourront aider les fidèles à devenir les nouveaux évangélisateurs dont l'Église a désormais besoin.
5. Lorsque que les fidèles répondent à l'appel du Seigneur et cherchent à entrer davantage dans la communauté croyante, ils doivent être conduits à demeurer en intimité avec le Christ, à travers la vie cultuelle et la catéchèse, dont les Pères du Synode ont parlé. Le lieu privilégié pour cette expérience reste la paroisse, malgré tous les grands changements qui s'y déroulent dans le contexte urbain d'aujourd'hui (cf. Ecclesia in America, n. 41). Il est vrai que la paroisse a besoin de s'adapter pour faire face aux changements actuels rapides; mais il est aussi certain que la paroisse s'est montrée, dans le passé, capable d'extraordinaires adaptations et qu'elle en sera encore capable aujourd'hui.
Cependant, devant toute adaptation, il faut garder clairement présent à l'esprit que c'est par-dessus tout l'Eucharistie qui révèle la vérité immuable de la vie chrétienne. C'est pourquoi la liturgie Est aussi centrale, et il est nécessaire que les Évêques et les prêtres fassent tout ce qui est en leur pouvoir pour assurer que la vie cultuelle de l'Église, spécialement la Messe, sera centrée sur la présence réelle du Seigneur - "parce que l'Eucharistie constitue l'entière richesse spirituelle de l'Église" (Presbyterorum Ordinis, n. 5). Cela demande à la fois une catéchèse systématique des jeunes et des adultes, ainsi qu'un profond esprit de fraternité entre tous ceux qui se rassemblent pour célébrer le Seigneur. On ne doit pas laisser l'anonymat des villes envahir nos communautés eucharistiques. De nouvelles méthodes et de nouvelles structures doivent être trouvées pour construire des ponts entre les personnes, de sorte que se réalise réellement cette expérience d'accueil mutuel et de proximité que la fraternité chrétienne requiert. Il se pourrait bien que cette expérience et que la catéchèse qui doit l'accompagner soient mieux accomplies dans des communautés plus réduites, comme cela est précisé dans l'exhortation post-synodale: "On peut peut-être trouver un moyen de renouvellement paroissial, particulièrement urgent dans les paroisses des grandes villes, en considérant la paroisse comme une communauté de communautés" (Ecclesia in America, n. 41). Une telle réalisation demandera d'être accomplie prudemment, pour ne pas engendrer de nouvelles formes de fractures; mais il se pourrait aussi qu'il soit "plus facile, au sein de ce contexte humain, de se retrouver pour écouter la Parole de Dieu, pour réfléchir, à sa lumière, sur les divers problèmes humains, et pour mûrir des choix responsables, inspirés par l'amour universel du Christ" (ibid.).
Non seulement les paroisses, mais aussi les écoles catholiques et d'autres institutions doivent s'ouvrir aux urgences pastorales nécessaires pour évangéliser les villes. Mais, pour cela, elles doivent s'assurer que leur identité catholique n'est en aucune façon affectée par les influences liées à la sécularisation. Au Canada, ces influences sont parfois lourdes, et vous, chers Frères, vous avez lutté pour leur résister. Je vous exhorte fortement à poursuivre ce chemin avec courage et lucidité, de manière que les institutions catholiques, précisément à cause de leur identité catholique, puissent efficacement contribuer à l'ouvre d'évangélisation, importante pour l'Église. Tout cela fait profondément partie de la tâche de vigilance que le Christ a confiée aux Évêques.
6. Yet it must never be forgotten that developments at the level of pastoral structure and strategy are intended to do one thing alone: to lead people to Christ. This was the simple and luminous vision of the Synod, and it is reflected in the Post-Synodal Exhortation. It is certainly this for which people long, even though they themselves sometimes fail to see it. Scripture leaves no doubt that Christ is not encountered apart from the experience of Christian community. We cannot have Christ without the Church, the community of faith and saving grace. Without the Church, it is certain that we shall create an idea of Christ in our own image, when our real task is to allow him to create us in his own image. The New Testament is also quite precise in its description of the encounter with Christ. We see this especially in the Easter season, when we read the accounts of the appearances of the Risen Lord which were the very seed of Christianity understood as a religion not just of enlightenment but especially of encounter. The Gospels tell us that the encounter with Christ is always unexpected, unsettling and commissioning. The call of Christ, like the call of God in the Old Testament, comes to those who do not expect it - at a time, in a place and in a way they could never have predicted. It is unsettling in the sense that life can never be the same again: there is always a dislocating effect in the call of Christ who says, "Follow me" (Mt 4:19), with all the conversion of life that this implies. And finally, those who encounter Christ are always commissioned by him to go forth to share with others the gift which they themselves have received (cf. Mt 28:19-20). This, then, will be the threefold shape of the encounter with Christ which leads people more deeply into the community of faith, and which remains the whole purpose of their journey of faith within the Church.
7. In a community more fully conscious of Christ's presence the megalopolis will find the God-given sign pointing beyond a culture of rootlessness, anonymity and inequality. There will be nurtured the culture of life which you, dear Brothers, have striven so consistently to promote; and this in turn will generate a culture of human dignity, that true humanism which is rooted in God's creative act and is always a sign of Christ's redemptive power. Such a community will be the seed of "the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God" (Rev 21:2). We are those who have seen that vision of the Church: therefore "we have learnt that there is a City of God and we have longed to become citizens of that City" (Saint Augustine, City of God, XI, 1), where "we shall be still and see; we shall see and we shall love; we shall love and we shall praise" (ibid., XXII, 30).
With the praise of the Most Holy Trinity in our hearts and on our lips, we look to Mary, "Mother of America" (Ecclesia in America, 76). May she through whom the light rose over the earth shed light upon your own path as you journey with your people through the darkness to meet the Risen Lord. Entrusting the Church in Ontario to her unfailing care, and invoking the infinite mercy of God upon yourselves, and upon the priests, religious and lay faithful, I gladly impart my Apostolic Blessing.
4 May 1999
Pope John Paul II