Church in Brazil begins Advent with evangelization campaign

Nov 29, 2005 / 22:00 pm

Cardinal Geraldo Majella Agnelo, Archbishop of Sao Salvador de Bahia and President of the Bishops’ Conference of Brazil, inaugurated the traditional National Evangelization Campaign of Advent saying, “The time has come to move from receiving to giving.”

The cardinal said the 2005 Evangelization Campaign corresponds to the Church’s awareness that the “challenges to evangelization are constantly changing in Brazil,” and that that the work of evangelization should not be considered finished.

The Campaign’s objectives include deepening the faithful’s awareness of the urgency of evangelization and raising the necessary funds to carry out mission work.

Cardinal Agnelo invited Catholics in Brazil to take up the task of evangelization and to recognize that during the last 500 years, evangelization in the country has been led by foreign missionaries, and that it is now time for Brazilians to invest their own energy and resources in the work of evangelization.  “It is more and more necessary that we share our goods with others, out of our own poverty,” he said.

The Evangelization Campaign will end the third Sunday of Advent with a national collection.