The Gospel Today: Hopes and Obstacles
6. A number of factors seem to be working toward making
people today more deeply aware of the dignity of the human person and more open
to religious values, to the Gospel and to the priestly ministry.
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In the more specifically religious and Christian sphere,
ideological prejudice and the violent rejection of the message of spiritual and
religious values are crumbling and there are arising new and unexpected
possibilities of evangelization and the rebirth of ecclesial life in many parts
of the world. These are evident in an increased love of the sacred Scriptures;
in the vitality and growing vigor of many young churches and their ever -
larger role in the defense and promotion of the values of human life and the
person; and in the splendid witness of martyrdom provided by the churches of
Central and Eastern Europe as well as that of the faithfulness and courage of
other churches which are still forced to undergo persecution and tribulation
for the faith.(11)
6. A number of factors seem to be working toward making
people today more deeply aware of the dignity of the human person and more open
to religious values, to the Gospel and to the priestly ministry.
Despite many contradictions, society is increasingly
witnessing a powerful thirst for justice and peace; a more lively sense that
humanity must care for creation and respect nature; a more open search for
truth; a greater effort to safeguard human dignity; a growing commitment in
many sectors of the world population to a more specific international
solidarity and a new ordering of the world in freedom and justice. Parallel to
the continued development of the potential offered by science and technology
and the exchange of information and interaction of cultures, there is a new
call for ethics, that is, a quest for meaning - and therefore for an objective
standard of values which will delineate the possibilities and limits of
progress.
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In the more specifically religious and Christian sphere,
ideological prejudice and the violent rejection of the message of spiritual and
religious values are crumbling and there are arising new and unexpected
possibilities of evangelization and the rebirth of ecclesial life in many parts
of the world. These are evident in an increased love of the sacred Scriptures;
in the vitality and growing vigor of many young churches and their ever -
larger role in the defense and promotion of the values of human life and the
person; and in the splendid witness of martyrdom provided by the churches of
Central and Eastern Europe as well as that of the faithfulness and courage of
other churches which are still forced to undergo persecution and tribulation
for the faith.(11)
The thirst for God and for an active meaningful relationship
with him is so strong today that, where there is a lack of a genuine and full
proclamation of the Gospel of Christ, there is a rising spread of forms of
religiosity without God and the proliferation of many sects. For all children
of the Church, and for priests especially, the increase of these phenomena,
even in some traditionally Christian environments, is not only a constant
motive to examine our consciences as to the credibility of our witness to the
Gospel but at the same time is a sign of how deep and widespread is the search
for God.
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