{"id":1263,"date":"2012-10-07T18:25:00","date_gmt":"2012-10-07T18:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/pope-opens-bishops-synod-with-universal-call-to-holiness\/"},"modified":"2012-10-07T18:25:00","modified_gmt":"2012-10-07T18:25:00","slug":"pope-opens-bishops-synod-with-universal-call-to-holiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/10\/pope-opens-bishops-synod-with-universal-call-to-holiness\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope opens bishops’ synod with universal call to holiness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Vatican City, Oct 7, 2012 \/ 12:25 pm (CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- Pope Benedict XVI has formally opened the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization with a \u201cuniversal call to holiness\u201d aimed at all Christians worldwide.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cHoly men and women bloom among the generous missionaries who announce the Good News to non-Christians, in the past in mission countries and now in any place where there are non-Christians,\u201d said the Pontiff in his homily during Mass in St. Peter\u2019s Square Oct. 7.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cHoliness is not confined by cultural, social, political or religious barriers. Its language, that of love and truth, is understandable to all people of good will and it draws them to Jesus Christ, the inexhaustible source of new life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tOver the next three weeks the Synod of Bishops will aim to map out a new evangelization of the contemporary world. The Pope explained that the particular focus of \u201cnew\u201d evangelization are those people \u201cwho, though baptized, have drifted away from the Church and live without reference to the Christian life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe Synodal Assembly which opens today is dedicated to this new evangelization, to help these people encounter the Lord, who alone who fills existence with deep meaning and peace,\u201d he said. He added that a rediscovery of the Christian faith can be a \u201csource of grace which brings joy and hope to personal, family and social life\u201d to the re-evangelized.<\/p>\n

\tWearing green vestments, the vast majority of the 262 Synod Fathers joined Pope Benedict in St. Peter\u2019s Square to con-celebrate Mass. The Pontiff advised them that the synod session should be focused on \u201cthe glorious One who was crucified.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cIn every time and place, evangelization always has as its starting and finishing points Jesus Christ, the Son of God,\u201d he told them. He identified the crucifix as \u201cthe supremely distinctive sign of him who announces the Gospel: a sign of love and peace, a call to conversion and reconciliation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cMy dear Brother Bishops,\u201d he said, \u201cstarting with ourselves, let us fix our gaze upon him and let us be purified by his grace.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe Pope reflected upon the Sunday gospel in which Jesus proclaimed the indissolubility of marriage: \u201cwhat therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.\u201d Pope Benedict recognized that \u201cunfortunately, for various reasons, marriage, in precisely the oldest regions evangelized, is going through a profound crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tHe called upon the Synod of Bishops to focus make marriage \u201cnot only an object but a subject of the new evangelization\u201d suggesting that there is \u201ca clear link between the crisis in faith and the crisis in marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cMarriage is linked to faith, but not in a general way,\u201d he said. Marriage \u201cas a union of faithful and indissoluble love\u201d is \u201cbased upon the grace that comes from the triune God, who in Christ loved us with a faithful love, even to the Cross.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tHe advised that this statement be understood \u201cin contrast to the painful reality of many marriages which, unhappily, end badly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tIn conclusion, Pope Benedict placed the Synod of Bishops under the protection of the saints, particularly Bl. John Paul II \u201cwhose long pontificate was an example of the new evangelization\u201d and \u201cthe Blessed Virgin Mary, Star of the New Evangelization.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWith her let us invoke a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit, that from on high he may illumine the synodal assembly and make it fruitful for the Church\u2019s way ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vatican City, Oct 7, 2012 \/ 12:25 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI has formally opened the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization with a “universal call to holiness” aimed at all Christians worldwide.<\/p>\n

\t“Holy men and women b…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-vatican"],"yoast_head":"\nPope opens bishops' synod with universal call to holiness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Vatican City, Oct 7, 2012 \/ 12:25 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI has formally opened the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization with a “universal call to holiness” aimed at all Christians worldwide. “Holy men and women b...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/10\/pope-opens-bishops-synod-with-universal-call-to-holiness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pope opens bishops' synod with universal call to holiness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Vatican City, Oct 7, 2012 \/ 12:25 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI has formally opened the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization with a “universal call to holiness” aimed at all Christians worldwide. “Holy men and women b...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/10\/pope-opens-bishops-synod-with-universal-call-to-holiness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-10-07T18:25:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/10\/pope-opens-bishops-synod-with-universal-call-to-holiness\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/10\/pope-opens-bishops-synod-with-universal-call-to-holiness\/\",\"name\":\"Pope opens bishops' synod with universal call to holiness\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-10-07T18:25:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-10-07T18:25:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\"},\"description\":\"Vatican City, Oct 7, 2012 \/ 12:25 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI has formally opened the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization with a “universal call to holiness” aimed at all Christians worldwide. “Holy men and women b...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/10\/pope-opens-bishops-synod-with-universal-call-to-holiness\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/10\/pope-opens-bishops-synod-with-universal-call-to-holiness\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/10\/pope-opens-bishops-synod-with-universal-call-to-holiness\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Pope opens bishops’ synod with universal call to holiness\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\",\"name\":\"CNA Daily News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"CNA Daily News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pope opens bishops' synod with universal call to holiness","description":"Vatican City, Oct 7, 2012 \/ 12:25 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI has formally opened the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization with a “universal call to holiness” aimed at all Christians worldwide. “Holy men and women b...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/10\/pope-opens-bishops-synod-with-universal-call-to-holiness\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pope opens bishops' synod with universal call to holiness","og_description":"Vatican City, Oct 7, 2012 \/ 12:25 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI has formally opened the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization with a “universal call to holiness” aimed at all Christians worldwide. “Holy men and women b...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/10\/pope-opens-bishops-synod-with-universal-call-to-holiness\/","og_site_name":"Catholic News","article_published_time":"2012-10-07T18:25:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA"}],"author":"CNA Daily News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"CNA Daily News","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/10\/pope-opens-bishops-synod-with-universal-call-to-holiness\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/10\/pope-opens-bishops-synod-with-universal-call-to-holiness\/","name":"Pope opens bishops' synod with universal call to holiness","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-10-07T18:25:00+00:00","dateModified":"2012-10-07T18:25:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1"},"description":"Vatican City, Oct 7, 2012 \/ 12:25 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI has formally opened the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization with a “universal call to holiness” aimed at all Christians worldwide. “Holy men and women b...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/10\/pope-opens-bishops-synod-with-universal-call-to-holiness\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/10\/pope-opens-bishops-synod-with-universal-call-to-holiness\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/10\/pope-opens-bishops-synod-with-universal-call-to-holiness\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Pope opens bishops’ synod with universal call to holiness"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/","name":"Catholic News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1","name":"CNA Daily News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"CNA Daily News"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}