News - Prelature of Ayaviri - First Encounter of the Bishop with Female Religious Communities

"The announcement that has to be brought forward is that of the one faith of the Church"

Ayaviri, June 16, 2006 - In the first meeting with female religious communities since his Taking of Possession, Bishop Kay Schmalhausen SCV invited female religious to live this new time with a renewed evangelical zeal becoming all echoes of the "new evangelization to which the Church calls us."

The Prelate said that "the announcement to be brought forward is that of the one and same faith of the Church. It is the precious deposit and great richness of the Church. Through baptism we have been made participants of this faith and as Church we are depositaries of a treasure that is for all humanity as well. God wanted to reveal to all men, in His Son Jesus Christ, their own identities, their most sublime vocation, their highest dignity, as well as the answer to all their questions, hopes and longings, and offer him the path to enter into communion with Him forever."

Bishop Kay insisted that the "newness of the task of evangelizing consists, as the late Pope John Paul II pointed out, in new methods, renewed ardor and new expressions into which the proclamation of the faith must be translated."

Among other things concerning this theme he said that "many years ago "zeal for souls" was talked about with the language of that time. Today we refer to the person in his integrity. But this zeal refers to something which we must not lose: ardor, enthusiasm, energy and the fervent desire to accompany the many men and women that the Lord has placed in our path, in order to take them to the encounter with Him. And this is something that we have to revive."

On Inculturation

On concluding his words and in dialogue with the religious he spoke on the theme of inculturation saying that "culture is the work of man, it is the manifestation of his identity and of his life in diverse expressions. Culture is man's work on himself, on his environment, on the world." He explained that "without doubt not all cultural elements are, of themselves, positive and humanizing. Man certainly does good in culture, but is also capable of doing evil, the fruit of his own weaknesses. Therefore culture has to be permanently purified. And, precisely, the Gospel - that is, Christ Himself - is the supreme and ultimate norm for this process of purification. It is the Gospel that judges culture and not culture that judges the Gospel. Thus the Gospel elevates the genuinely human, but also sifts and separates those practices and customs that are not."