Structure and Competences of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization

Abstract

The Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization was established by Pope Benedict XVI in motu proprio Ubicumque et semper (21 September 2010). The mission of evangelization is a continuation of the work of Jesus Christ – the first and supreme evangelizer. The duty of the Church to proclaim always and everywhere the Gospel of Christ cannot be overlooked. The Council, as a new dicastery of the Roman Curia, “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” (art. 2).

The purpose of this article is to show the genesis, structure and competences of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization.

The Council is directed by an archbishop president, assisted by a secretary, by an under-secretary and by an appropriate number of officials. The dicastery will have its own members and may avail itself of its own consultors.

The competences of the Council – indicated in Ubicumque et semper – are: 1) to examine the meaning of the new evangelization, 2) to promote and to foster of the papal Magisterium related to the new evangelization, 3) to make known and to support initiatives linked to the new evangelization, 4) to study and to encourage the use of modern forms of communication, 5) to promote the use of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (art. 3). Furthermore, Pope Benedict XVI in motu proprio Fides per Doctrinam (16 January 2013) transferred the competence for catechesis from the Congregation for the Clergy to the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization.