A second Synod for Europe

2. From the outset, a deeper appreciation of the theme of hope was the principal goal of the Second Special Assembly for Europe of the Synod of Bishops. As the last of a series of continental Synods celebrated in preparation for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000,⁴ its purpose was to analyze the situation of the Church in Europe and to offer guidance in promoting a new proclamation of the Gospel, as I emphasized when I announced its convocation on 23 June 1996, at the conclusion of the Eucharist celebrated at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin.⁵

The synodal Assembly had to take up, re-examine and study the issues which surfaced in the preceding Synod for Europe, which was held in 1991, following the collapse of the walls, on the theme: “That we may be witnesses of Christ who has set us free”. That first Special Assembly emphasized the urgent need for a “new evangelization”, in the awareness that “Europe today must not simply appeal to its former Christian heritage: it needs to be able to decide about its future in conformity with the person and message of Jesus Christ”.⁶

Nine years later, the conviction that “the Church has the urgent task of bringing the liberating message of the Gospel to the men and women of Europe” ⁷ once more emerged with compelling force. The theme chosen for the new synodal Assembly set forth that same challenge, this time from the standpoint of hope. There was a need, in other words, to proclaim this message of hope to a Europe which seems to have lost sight of it.⁸