The Pope launched a team to stem the secularisation of Catholic countries and “re-evangelise” the West.
Benedict XVI announced the creation of a new Vatican department dedicated to tackling what he called “a grave crisis in the sense of the Christian faith and the role of the Church.”
He expressed deep concerns that previously staunch Catholic countries in Europe and North America were facing “the eclipse of a sense of God”. Tens of thousands of worshippers are deserting the Church over issues such as clerical sex abuse and the ban on married priests.
“I have decided to create a new body with the aim of promoting a renewed evangelism,” in countries that are going through “progressive secularisation of society”, the 83-year-old Pope said.
The new department, to be called The Pontifical Council for New Evangelisation, will try to reinvigorate belief among Catholics in rich, developed countries – or, in the pontiff’s words, “find the right means to re-propose the perennial truth of the Gospel.”
It is expected to be led by an Italian archbishop, Rino Fisichella, who as head of the Pontifical Academy for Life is the Vatican’s top bioethics official.
Congregations in the West have fallen dramatically and faith in the Church has been hard hit by a series of high-profile scandals involving the sexual abuse of children by paedophile priests.
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