On Friday November 14, in the Press Office of the Holy See, a press conference took place to introduce the Third World Congress of Ecclesial Movements and New Communities.
Initially, Cardinal Rylko, President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, introduced the works of the congress by saying that ecclesial movements and new communities are the providential answer of the Holy Spirit to the challenges of post-modernity. “It is incredibly vast the richness and variety of new charisms that the Holy Spirit is lavishing to the Church in our times. From these charisms many movements and new communities are born, they offer new pedagogical itineraries of Christian initiation of amazing incisiveness, capable of changing persons’ life and of reawaking new evangelizing impulse … It is surprising to see their missionary creativeness, and the capacity of finding always new ways of announcing and witnessing the Gospel...”
The Conference continued with the speech of Monsignor Clemens, Secretary of the Dicastery, presenting the program and explaining that “we could describe the guideline idea of this congress as an answer to the Pope’s invitation to the missionary transformation of the Church”.
After that, followed the speech of Maria Voce, President of the Focolare Movement, and the speech of Jean Luc Moens, Responsible for International Relations of the Emmanuel Community.
Below the integral texts of the four speeches:
