Apostolic Letter Ubicumque et Semper

1. Apostolic Letter in the form of Motu Proprio
UBICUMQUE ET SEMPER
(‘Everywhere and Always’)

2. Background
• Last June 2010, Pope Benedict XVI
created the Pontifical Council for the
Promotion of the New Evangelization.
• He named Archbishop Rino Fisichella as
the first President of this Pontifical
Council.
• By 21st September 2010, Feast of Saint
Matthew, he had issued the current
Apostolic Letter by way of Motu Proprio,
establishing formally said Pontifical
Council.

3. CONTENTS of this presentation:
• Definition of terms
• Motivations (urgent issues)
• ‘New Evangelization’: our mission
• Objectives of the Council (Article 3)

4. Pontifical Councils…
…form part of the structure of the Roman
Curia [the body that assists the Pope
in carrying out his functions]. The
other organs or charges of the Roman
Curia are:
I. The Secretariat of State
II. The Congregations
III. The Tribunals
IV. The Pontifical Councils
:
See: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils

5. Apostolic Letters…
… are documents issued
by the Pope or in his
name, e.g.
bulls and briefs.
See: newadvent.org

6. Motivations (urgency)
• John Paul II made this urgent task a
central point of his far-reaching
Magisterial teaching, referring to it as
the “new evangelization,” which he
systematically explored in depth on
numerous occasions—a task that still
bears upon the Church today,
particularly in regions Christianized
long ago.

7. Motivations (urgency)
• Post-Synodal Apostolic
Exhortation Christifideles Laici: “Whole
countries and nations where religion and
the Christian life were formerly
flourishing and capable of fostering a
viable and working community of faith,
are now put to a hard test, and in some
cases, are even undergoing a radical
transformation, as a result of a constant
spreading of an indifference to religion,
of secularism and atheism. …”

8. Motivations (urgency)
• “…in other regions or nations many
vital traditions of piety and popular
forms of Christian religion are still
conserved; but today this moral and
spiritual patrimony runs the risk of
being dispersed under the impact of a
multiplicity of processes, including
secularization and the spread of sects.”

9. “New Evangelization”
• ‘Evangelization’ refers to the effort to
proclaim the Gospel to all peoples; the
‘new evangelization’, in John Paul II
thought, is a response to new cultural
realities and expresses a Pauline
emphasis on inner conversion to
Christ as a basis for outreach to
others and to the wider culture.

10. The new Pontifical
Council’s objectives:
1.To deepen the
theological and
pastoral meaning
of the new
evangelization.

11. 2.To promote and foster in
close collaboration with
Bishops’ conferences,
teaching of the
Magisterium relative to
the new evangelization.
The new Pontifical
Council’s objectives:

12. 3. To make known initiatives
already under way in local
churches and promote new
initiatives, involving also
resources of religious
institutes and groups of the
faithful and new lay
communities;
The new Pontifical
Council’s objectives:

13. The new Pontifical Council’s
objectives:
4. To study and foster
the use of modern
means of
communication as
instruments for the
new evangelization.

14. 5. To promote the use of
the Catechism of the
Catholic Church.
The new Pontifical
Council’s objectives:

15. • The Council pursues its own
ends both by encouraging
reflection on topics of the
new evangelization, and by
identifying and promoting
suitable ways and means
to accomplish it.
Article 1:

16. Article 2:
The action of the Council is at
the service of the particular
Churches, especially in those
territories of Christian
tradition where the
phenomenon of secularization
is more obviously apparent.

17. Article 3:
Tasks or objectives of
the new Council (as
above).

18. Article 4:
The Council is directed by an
Archbishop President, assisted by
a Secretary, by an Under-Secretary
and by an appropriate number of
Officials, in accordance with the
norms established by the Apostolic
Constitution Pastor Bonus and by
the General Regulations of the
Roman Curia.

19. • Given at Castel Gandolfo on the 21st
day of September 2010, the Feast of
Saint Matthew, Apostle and
Evangelist…
Click here:
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/apos
t_letters/documents/hf_ben-
xvi_apl_20100921_ubicumque-et-semper_en.html