Wednesday 27th November 2013

Overnight, Pope Francis released his “apostolic exhortation” which calls for church flexibility and missionary zeal, including an admission that such a call might result in a decentralisation of authority from the Vatican itself.

The “apostolic exhortation”, titled Evangelii Gaudium, or “Joy of the Gospel”, is his first major document that Francis has authored alone while in the Papacy. It is written in an accessible style, a break from the academic language of previous exhortations from other popes.

In the introductory paragraph he writes, “In this Exhortation I wish to encourage the Christian faithful to embark upon a new chapter of evangelization … while pointing out new paths for the Church’s journey in years to come.”

The following five chapters describe the necessity for the change of the Catholic church towards mission and evangelism, the challenges of society, ways that evangelism might increase, and the “social dimension of evangelization”.

The document is marked by an intense focus on the nature of evangelism. Pope Francis writes of “a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything”. By “everything” he includes the way that the traditions of the church such that they might be “suitably channeled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation”.

““Every Christian is challenged, here and now, to be actively engaged in evangelization; indeed, anyone who has truly experienced God’s saving love does not need much time or lengthy training to go out and proclaim that love,” he writes.

At several points, he urges action by members of the church that is active and outward-looking, rather than complacent and introverted: “I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.”

He also writes against an imbalance of the preaching of the church, in a long and surprisingly practical section on preaching: “The same [imbalance] happens when we speak more about law than about grace, more about the Church than about Christ, more about the Pope than about God’s word.”

He criticizes an “economy of exclusion” where “human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded”, and the effect this has on spiritual life.

Francis acknowledges the need for greater inclusion of all people within this mission of the church, including the “need to create still broader opportunities for a more incisive female presence in the Church.”

Photo from catholicism, used under a CC license.