"The Church has the duty to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ always and everywhere". Thus begins the document with which the Pontifical committee for the promotion of the New Evangelization(Ubicumque et semper) is constituted.

At the opening of the Second Vatican Council, on October 1, 1962, John XXIII pointed out that the "deposit of faith" (what is usually called Christian doctrine) is, in its substance, always the same; and this same deposit changes in the "manner of formulating its expression" according to times and places. Thus this deposit of faith can be "guarded and taught in an ever more effective way". This is what is now indicated by saying that it is a matter of proclaiming and proclaiming the beauty of the Gospel "always and everywhere", with words that give degree scroll to the document. Two affirmations, then, are important here, in parallel with the Council's purpose.

In the first place, Benedict XVI says that "the evangelizing mission statement , a continuation of the work willed by the Lord Jesus, is necessary and irreplaceable for the Church, an expression of her very nature". In fact, the word Church means con-vocation, the call of many to form the family of God. That is why the Church exists. Throughout history, her essence is identified with her mission statement. She is, in the words of the Second Vatican Council, a "messianic people"(Lumen gentium, 9), because in her lives the "Messiah" (Christ, the one anointed by the Spirit of God), awaited and promised. And therefore, she is also anointed and sent to the whole earth to communicate and submit the Good News that the living and triune God has willed to manifest through Christ and in Christ: that God is love; that only love creates and vivifies, unites and saves; that his doctrine is not a dead letter, pure theory or law external to the human heart, but that it is life: indeed, the full and authentic life that every person and humanity as a whole have longed for since the beginning of the world.

Secondly, "this mission statement (of the Church) has assumed in history ever new forms and modalities according to the times, situations and historical moments". Our era is witnessing "gigantic progress" and "undeniable benefits", together with a "turning away from the faith" and even a "disturbing loss of the sense of the sacred" that casts doubt on the transcendent foundations of human existence.

Consequently, a task is proposed that John Paul II had already called "new evangelization", addressed especially to the baptized who do not live their faith or do not know it, and also to others who wish to deepen their faith. A task with special reference letter to the "First World", the world of welfare and consumerism, sick with indifferentism and secularism, when not seriously affected by atheism. These are territories, in many cases traditionally Christian, which today require "a renewed missionary thrust, an expression of a generous openness to the gift of grace".

Attention, because it is not a social or cultural problem, a problem of Structures and organizational and external strategies. It is a more central question, which affects the heart of each person, his or her relationship with God. The mission statement is always based, in a living way, on the very identity of the Church and of Christians. Hence, for them, the new evangelization, "although it refers directly to their way of relating to the outside world, presupposes above all a constant interior renewal".

It is certainly necessary to rebuild the Christian fabric of Christian communities; but "we cannot forget that the first task will be to make ourselves docile to the gratuitous work of the Spirit of the Risen Lord, who accompanies those who are bearers of the Gospel and opens the hearts of those who listen. In order to proclaim the Word of the Gospel fruitfully, it is necessary first of all to have a profound experience of God".

For this reason, neither are we before what, with too human eyes, could be interpreted as an attempt at a new expansion or restoration of a lost cultural influence. No. "At the root of all evangelization is not a human project expansion, but the desire to share the priceless gift that God has willed to give us, making us sharers in his very life".

New evangelization means, at summary, interior renewal, experience of God, rediscovery of the beauty of the Gospel, a new impulse that enlivens all temporal realities (families and jobs, cultures and laws, social transformations, scientific and technological advances), with what St. Josemaría Escrivá called "the hope of Christ" (Furrow, 293).

It is a matter - at final- of being faithful, in a renewed and creative way, to one's own identity and mission statement. The Christian is a follower of Christ, which means anointed by the Holy Spirit, that is, by the love staff of God. It is up to the hierarchy of the Church and its magisterium to orient and promote a new evangelization. But this task belongs to all Christians, here and everywhere, now and always, who are called to be evangelizers, with their life and their word.