We live in difficult and challenging times, as Fr Pat Collins reminds us in his lead article, where Christian values and beliefs are more and more being abandoned in Western Europe and people live as if God does not exist. The Pope calls this a silent apostasy. Fr Pat believes that while standing in the truth of this situation we need to be people of hope and intercessors for our continent, giving each other mutual support and encouragement and good example as well as exploring new ways of sharing the gospel.

The call to prayer as the key to evangelisation and bringing Europe back from apostasy was underlined for me by an excited email I received recently from Salvatore Martinez, one of the key leaders of the Charismatic Renewal in Italy. At the last minute the Pope, had asked for the Charismatic Renewal to come and celebrate vespers with him at St Peter’s on the vigil of Pentecost. Dropping their own plans, 15,000 members of Rinnovamento nello Spirito responded to the Pope’s call to be at this vigil. Here the Pope publicly recognised the fruits of the Charismatic Renewal and said that he “desired that the spirituality of Pentecost be spread in the Church as a renewed thrust of prayer, holiness, communion and proclamation”. At the same time he gave formal recognition to the Burning Bush initiative. This is an intuition of Kim Kollins, an American living in Europe, in which she felt the Holy Spirit calling on the Church to return to the Cenacle for a time of renewed prayer to prepare for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church and the world. At the heart of this is Eucharistic adoration and the charismatic gifts. (See Goodnews March/April 2003). John Paul II also went on to affirm the role of the ecclesial movements and the new communities in the Church.

Cardinal Ratzinger, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, in his article (part one of 2) reminds us that new forms and initiatives are needed for the evangelisation of Europe, but he reminds us that the things of God always start very humbly and imperceptibly, and we need to be patient and not always be looking for the spectacular or big numbers. One of these new moves of the Spirit must be the recent interest among committed Catholic young people, in exploring the wisdom of Church’s teaching on sexuality. This seems to have been discovered afresh by a whole new generation, ignorant of the bitter controversies ignited by Humanae Vitae in the 60s, who are looking for a new holistic vision for their lives. Nicole Syed, shares how she has been inspired by the Pope’s vision of the theology of the body to set up a Fertility Care Centre in London.

Another similar grass roots initiative is “Pure in Heart” which was set up a couple of years ago by a small group of young people in Ireland, to promote chastity among their peers. That these initiatives are sorely needed is underlined by Jennell Paris William’s article on “the Truth about Sex”. An anthropology professor at an evangelical college in the United States, she writes illuminatingly about how the lies perpetuated by popular culture can subconsciously influence people’s attitude to sex. These can create unrealistic expectations which can negatively affect people’s real relationships. For many in our society romantic love is seen as a primary value which overrides all other commitments and we are encouraged to follow our hearts whatever the cost. For Christians, however, there are other priorities, which can overide this. Brian Jones, a consecrated celibate for 20 years, shares, how he unexpectedly fell in love in middle age, but ultimately chose to persevere in his religious vocation.

We are called to be holistic Christians bringing the gospel to every area of our lives. Charles Whitehead and David Palmer, both of whom have business backgrounds, share their experiences of life and work. Charles looks at being at peace at each stage of a person’s life and David looks at the charism of administration, and the difficulties of balancing practicalities and being open to the Holy Spirit. Discernment and knowing God’s will for our lives is not always easy so in this issue we have two articles on the subject, one very down to earth by Dorothy Ranaghan from the United States, and the other looking more at general principles for discerning spirits by Fr Fio Mascarenhas SJ from India.

On the prayer group scene, June Palmer has devised a quiz for us to find out how welcoming we are. Given that being welcomed is one of the key things that have attracted newcomers to Christianity in the past, this is a skill we are going to have to work on if we are going to be effective communicators of the gospel today!

Kristina Cooper