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February 2024
Bp Paolo Martinelli released his new Pastoral Letter :"Not Slaves but Children"
Christian Formation for the Third Millennium in the context of a multicultural, multilingual and multi-rite Church of the migrants in the Arabian Gulf
We all need to be continuously formed at every stage of our life : as children, youth, and adults, for us to always be “Not Slaves but Children”, able to enjoy the freedom of the children of God. A freedom to choose good, that allows us to discern our vocation and live our lives within the plan of God who loves us. The personal experience of this love makes us capable of bearing witness in word and deed, forming others in our turn.
Bp Paolo notes that in the epochal change we find ourselves in, "the fundamental challenge for Christian formation could be summarized in these terms: one must pass from a Christianity transmitted by convention - through a social bond taken for granted - to a Christianity transmitted by conviction, capable of communicating the reasons for one's faith."
He observes some specific challenges for the youth and asks : "how can this spiritual richness be transmitted vitally to the new generations, whose characteristics are often profoundly different from the past?"
Bp Paolo stresses that all those who are responsible for formation, which are not only the religious, teachers and catechists but in first place the parents, "must, above all, be witnesses", and need to be helped and formed as well for that.
"Christian formation must show the connection between faith and life." Jesus is not only the content of faith but also the one with whom we look at reality, at life.
"Christian formation does not end with the transmission of the contents of the faith; it must generate a new mentality, a new way of reading history and society", making the Christian a witness in his turn.