Cardinal Arinze says evangelization needs acts of charity

Cardinal Francis Arinze said Sept. 18 that evangelization is at the center of the Church’s mission and that acts of charity are an indispensable part of this effort.

“If the Church did not evangelize, it would end up in the Vatican Museum,” he told the audience.

The cardinal delivered his remarks to a standing room-only crowd at Bonfils Hall on the grounds of the John Paul II Center for the New Evangelization in Denver, Colo. The talk was part of the Archbishop’s Lecture Series, a Denver tradition instituted by its former archbishop, Charles J. Chaput, now of Philadelphia.

Cardinal Arinze is originally from Nigeria, and served as head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship from 2002 to 2008.

The cardinal explained to CNA that his message for the talk was that charity is essential for evangelization because “charity is the mother of all the virtues. Without charity all the others fall away.”

Charity, he added, “orders all the others” (virtues) and that it is “preceding the Gospel” in the work of evangelization.

Cardinal Arinze said that evangelization, announcing the good news of salvation in Christ to every human person, is the reason the Church exists. [More]

SOURCE

CNA/EWTN News