Conference on New Evangelization to Rejuvenate the Church

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio G. Cardinal Tagle sees a rejuvenation of the Christian faith, the Church and the mission to the poor following the Philippine Conference on New Evangelization he has convened on October 16, 17 and 18, 2013 at the University of Santo Tomas Quadricentennial Pavilion and other venues.

The conference is a celebration of the Year of Faith and a response to the call for new evangelization, a new way of being Church that responds to the emergent powerful culture affected by developments in information technologies, new media and social networking that influence the people’s way of thinking.

The program for the three-day conference will lay bare the richness of the Church’s teachings and liturgy with talks from Church experts and workers in various fields. The conference hopes to accomplish three objectives:

1. To help create an experience of God in the context of the challenges of the new millennium.

2. To strengthen bonds of communion as the Archdiocese of Manila and as Church in the Philippines

3. To provide avenues of inspiration and directions imbued with the spirit of mission (new evangelization).

The conference opens on October 16 with the celebration of the Misa ng Bayang Pilipino with Cardinal Tagle as presider and homilist at the Quadricentennial Pavilion at 8 a.m. The Misa ng Bayang Pilipino, the inculturated Eucharistic celebration for the dioceses in the Philippines, communicates to the Filipino Catholic faithful the spiritual and doctrinal wealth of the Roman Order of the Mass with the use of language, gestures and symbols culled from the Filipino pattern of thought, speech, behavior and cultural values. The Misa ng Bayang Pilipino offers the Filipino faithful a kind of worship that reflects their culture and that which they can call their own.

Cardinal Tagle will also engage several laypeople in a “Heart to Heart” session at 10:30 a.m. This free-wheeling encounter/dialogue with representatives of various sectors will be about the stories of faith told in the language of the modern world and how the Church listens and reacts to these narratives.

The almost 6,000 participants will then fan out to different venues at 2 p.m. for the Streams of Encounter of God (which are mini-conferences on the following topics: Word of God {Bible}, Prayer, Justice and Peace and the Integrity of Creation, Healing, Music and Arts, New Media/Video Games, and Mary and the Popular Devotions.)

Each stream will offer 10 to 15 substreams of prayer experiences on various themes/methods that will be affective, creative and contemplative to allow participants to be in Dialogue with Jesus. It is a moment to pray and reflect. Within the building, there will also be thematic exhibits, interactive corners, artistic presentations that are designed to enrich this encounter with Jesus. A faith-sharing will cap the Streams sessions, after which the participants will troop to the Pavilion for the Eucharistic Adoration with Taize Prayer at 6 p.m. The Taize way of praying is “a participatory prayer service designed to achieve a contemplative state through music, song and silence.” Short chants, repeated a number of times, engender a meditative character. "Using just a few words, [the chants] express a basic reality of faith, quickly grasped by the mind. As the words are sung over many times, this reality gradually penetrates the whole being."

The second-day program opens with the Morning Prayer at 7:30 a.m. In these Solemn Lauds, psalms are sung and the people listen to God’s word, as if with the entire Church to sanctify time. The psalms, when prayed, “move the spirit and sentiments of those who recite them. These sentiments are joy and sorrow, courage and fear, confidence and anxiety, love and anger, hope and despair, the entire gamut of human sentiments.”

At 8 a.m. the plenary session will open with a 20-minute video on the Journey of the Philippine Church. This will be followed by a talk on Popular Devotions and the New Evangelization by Fr. Catalino G. Arevalo, S.J.

At 10:30 a.m. Archbishop Emeritus of Nueva Caceres (Naga) Leonardo Z. Legaspi, OP, will lead in the giving of testimonies together with Msgr. Jose Clemente Ignacio, Rector of Quiapo Church, and film and TV personalties Coco Martin and Judy Ann Santos and others.

In the afternoon the participants will go to different Pathways of Communion and Renewal which will be based on the Pastoral Priorities set by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines. The Pathways are: Eucharist and Liturgy, Integral Faith Formation, Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue, Missio Ad Gentes, Laity, Family, Youth, Religious/Consecrated Life, Clergy and Parish.

After the Pathways sessions the participants will return to the Pavilion for the PCNE Eucharistic Celebration to be president by CBCP President Archbishop Jose S. Palma of Cebu. A youth mass will be held for some 3,000 young people at the UST’s Plaza Mayor with Naga Archbishop Rolando J. Tria Tirona as presider.

The second day will be capped by the Concert of the Millennium at 6 p.m. at the Pavilion.

The last day of the Conference will open at 7:30 a.m. with an “Interfaith Prayer for Peace” and Assisi-like gathering of representatives of various religions, together praying for solidarity, harmony and peace among all peoples and nations.

Cardinal Tagle gives the final talk for the conference on “Missionary Dimension of Evangelization at 8:30 a.m. This will be followed by “Wellsprings of Hope” or workshops by the different participants which will come out with resolutions for the various sectors: Schools and catechists; lay associations and ecclesial communities; youth; clergy; family; religious; parish; inter-faith; and the poor.

After the noon break the participants will go in a procession and pass through the “Door of Faith” represented by the Arch of the Centuries of the University. Cardinal Tagle will preside at the closing Mass. Pope Francis will give his message via video presentation and this will be followed by the Mission-sending rites and the planting of 10 native Philippine trees.

Participants will also be able to view the Lumen Fidei exhibit, have pictures taken at the photo booth, and browse through the Exhibitors Fair featuring souvenir items and church articles and other paraphernalia.

For more information on the conference go to www.pcne.com.ph, where the conference plenary events will be live-streamed. #PCNE