ARCHDIOCESE OF CHICAGO Office For Mission Education & Animation

A Summary of the Apostolic Letter

Porta Fidei

“The Door of Faith”

For the Indiction of the Year of Faith by Pope Benedict XVI

Including an excerpt from

Pastoral Recommendations for the Year of Faith

by Cardinal William Joseph Levada

Porta Fidei Summary (paragraphs as numbered in original document)

1. The “door of faith” (Acts 14:27) is always open for us, offering us the life of communion with God and offering entry into His Church when the Word of God is proclaimed and the heart al-lows itself to be transformed by grace. It begins with Baptism (cf. Rom. 6:4); it is then that we can address God as Father. The end comes with the passage to eternal life.

2. Ever since the start of my ministry as the Successor of Peter, I have spoken of the need to rediscover the journey of faith. At the Mass inaugurating my pontificate, I said: “The Church as a whole and all her Pastors, like Christ, must lead people out of the desert towards the place of life”. However, because so many think that faith is self-evident and its meaning and values have little appeal, a profound crisis of faith has affected many people.

3. We cannot accept that salt should become tasteless and the light be kept hidden (Cf. Mt 5:13-16). We must rediscover a taste for feeding ourselves on the word of God and on the Bread of Life.

4. In light of all this, I have decided to announce a Year of Faith. It will begin on 11 October and it will end on the Solemnity of Christ our King on 24 November 2013. The starting date of Oc-tober 11 2012 also marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This document was requested by the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops in 1985 to serve the catechists. Moreover, it was produced in collaboration with all the bishops of the Catholic Church. Moreover, I have convoked for October 12, 2012 the General Assembly of Bishops to consider the theme, “THE NEW EVANGELIZATION FOR THE TRANSMISSION OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH”. This will be a good opportunity to usher the whole Church into a time for the redis-covery of the Faith.

6. The renewal of the Church is also achieved through the witness offered by the lives of believers. Christians are called to radiate

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the word of truth. That requires conversion. Hence, the Year of Faith is a summons to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, to conversion of life through the forgiveness of sins (cf. Acts 5:31). To the extent that he/she freely cooperates, one’s thoughts and affections, mentality and conduct are slowly purified and transformed.

7. It is the love of Christ that fills our hearts and impels us to evan-gelize. Through His love, Jesus attracts to himself the people of every generation. Today, there is need for stronger ecclesial commitment to new evangelization in order to rediscover the joy of believing and the enthusiasm for communicating the faith. Faith grows when it is lived as an experience of love re-ceived and when it is communicated as an experience of grace and joy. It makes us fruitful and enables us to give life-bearing witness. Only through believing, then, does faith grow and be-come stronger.

8. On this happy occasion, I wish to invite my brother bishops from all over the world to join the Successor of Peter in recalling the precious gift of faith. We will have the opportunity to profess our faith in our cathedrals and in the churches of the whole world; in our homes and among our families. Religious commu-nities as well as parish communities are to find a way to make public profession of the Credo.

10. At this point I would like to sketch a path intended to help us understand more profoundly not only the content of the faith but also the act of entrusting ourselves fully to God. Knowing the content to be believed is not sufficient unless the heart which is the authentic sacred space within the person is opened by grace so as to see below the surface and understand the word of God. Moreover, a Christian may never think of belief as a private act. Faith is choosing to stand with the Lord so as to live with him. Precisely because it is a free act, faith also de-mands social responsibility for what one believes. Finally, pro-fession of faith is both personal and communitarian. As we read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “‘I believe’ is the faith of the Church professed personally by each believer, principally during baptism. ‘We believe’ is the faith of the Church con-

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fessed by the bishops assembled in council or more generally by the liturgical assembly of believers.” That said, we must not for-get that very many people are sincerely searching for the defini-tive truth of their lives and of the world.

11. To arrive at a systematic knowledge of the content of the faith, all can find in the Catechism of the Catholic Church an indispen-sable tool. Blessed John Paul II called it a “valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion and a sure norm for teach-ing the faith.”

14. The Year of faith will also be a good time to intensify the wit-ness of charity. Faith without charity bears no fruit. Without faith charity would be a sentiment constantly at the mercy of doubt. Did not James write: “But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith” (Jas 2:14-18). Therefore faith and charity require each other.

15. May this Year of Faith make our relationship with Christ increas-ingly firm, because only He guarantees an authentic and lasting love. We believe with firm certitude that the Lord Jesus has con-quered evil and death. With confidence we entrust ourselves to him: he, present in our midst overcomes the power of the evil one (cf. Lk 11:20); and the Church, the visible community of his mercy, abides in him as a sign of definitive reconciliation with the Father. Let us entrust this time of grace to the Mother of God, proclaimed “blessed because she believed” (Lk 1:45).

Given in Rome at Saint Peter’s on October 11 in the year 20ll, the seventh of my pontificate. Benedict XVI.

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From the Pastoral Recommendations for the Year of Faith

by Cardinal William Joseph Levada

At the level of the parish/community/association/movement

1. In preparation for the Year of Faith, all of the faithful are invit-ed to read closely and meditate upon Pope Benedict XVI’s Apos-tolic Letter, Porta fidei.

2. The Year of Faith “will also be a good opportunity to intensify the celebration of the faith in the liturgy, especially in the Eucha-rist.” In the Eucharist, mystery of faith and source of the new evangelization, the faith of the Church is proclaimed, celebrated and strengthened. All of the faithful are invited to participate in the Eucharist actively, fruitfully and with awareness, in order to be authentic witnesses of the Lord.

3. Priests should devote greater attention to the study of the documents of Vatican Council II and the Catechism of the Catho-lic Church, drawing from them resources for the pastoral care of their parishes – catechesis, preaching, Sacramental preparation. They should also offer cycles of homilies on the faith or on cer-tain specific aspects such as, for example, “the encounter with Christ”, “the fundamental contents of the Creed”, and “faith and the Church.”

4. Catechists should hold more firmly to the doctrinal richness of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and, under the direction of their pastors, offer guidance in reading this precious document to groups of faithful, working toward a deeper common under-standing thereof, with the goal of creating small communities of faith, and of giving witness to the Lord Jesus.

5. It is hoped that there will be a renewed commitment in parish-es to the distribution of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and of other resources appropriate for families, which are true domestic churches and the primary setting for the transmission of the faith. This might be done, for example, during the blessing

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of homes, the Baptism of adults, Confirmations and Marriages. This can contribute to the deepening of Catholic teaching “in our homes and among our families, so that everyone may feel a strong need to know better and to transmit to future genera-tions the faith of all times.”

6. The promotion of missions and other popular programs in par-ishes and in the workplace can help the faithful to rediscover the gift of Baptismal faith and the task of giving witness, knowing that the Christian vocation “by its very nature is also a vocation to the apostolate.”

7. During this time, members of Institutes of Consecrated Life and of Societies of Apostolic Life are asked to work towards the new evangelization with a renewed union to the Lord Jesus, each according to their proper charism, in fidelity to the Holy Father and to sound doctrine.

8. Contemplative communities, during the Year of Faith, should pray specifically for the renewal of the faith among the People of God and for a new impulse for its transmission to the young.

9. Associations and Ecclesial Movements are invited to promote specific initiatives which, through the contribution of their prop-er charism and in collaboration with their local Pastors, will con-tribute to the wider experience of the Year of Faith. The new Communities and Ecclesial Movements, in a creative and gener-ous way, will be able to find the most appropriate ways in which to offer their witness to the faith in service to the Church.

10. All of the faithful, called to renew the gift of faith, should try to communicate their own experience of faith and charity, to their brothers and sisters of other religions, with those who do not believe, and with those who are just indifferent. In this way, it is hoped that the entire Christian people will begin a kind of mission toward those with whom they live and work, knowing that they “have welcomed the news of salvation which is meant for every man.”

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