Archbishop Mgr. Paul Cremona addressed the Synod of Bishops currently being held in Rome on the theme ‘The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church”.

In his address, Archbishop Cremona said “I shall be speaking in the context of traditionally Catholic countries like Malta. Whenever we speak of a new evangelisation, we find a stumbling block. Many of our faithful still live in nostalgia of, and compare the present situation, with the model of the Church that was present 30 to 40 years ago.”

The Archbishop said that since the Catholic Church has not remained in a privileged position as it was then, some people live in an atmosphere of shock when the Church, or its pastors, are challenged.

“We need to go out of this traumatic experience to enter into a new evangelisation. We have to help the faithful recognise that that kind of Church does not exist anymore, and it cannot be proposed again in this “changed world. We cannot continue comparing our reality to that reality.” he said.

“We have to propose a new model of being Church and the model which corresponds most to today’s reality is the primitive Christian community as it is described in chapters two and four of the Acts of the Apostles, and brought to life in the other writings of the New Testament. We have to compare the Church today to, and shape it on, that community”.