The "crisis of faith" and "spiritual poverty of many of our
contemporaries, who no longer perceive the absence of God in their lives as a
form of deprivation, poses a challenge to all Christians." They also show the link between ecumenism and the new evangelisation.
The latter was the theme of the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, whose participants the pope received.
In Benedict XVI's words, the subject addressed by the Pontifical Council follows what was discussed at the recent assembly of the Synod and falls with the purview of the Year of Faith.
Christian unity, which is a gift from God, "is on the one hand the fruit of faith and, on the other, a means-almost a prerequisite-for an increasingly credible proclamation of the faith to those who do not yet know the Saviour or who, while having received the proclamation of the Gospel, have almost forgotten this valuable gift. True ecumenism, recognising the primacy of divine action, demands above all patience, humility, and abandonment to the will of the Lord. In the final analysis, ecumenism and new evangelisation both require the dynamism of conversion, understood as the sincere desire to follow Christ and to fully adhere to the will of the Father."
Hence, we must be cognizant that "We cannot follow a truly ecumenical path while ignoring the crisis of faith affecting vast areas of the world, including those where the proclamation of the Gospel was first accepted and where Christian life has flourished for centuries. On the other hand, we cannot ignore the many signs indicating a persistent need for spirituality, which is made manifest in various ways. The spiritual poverty of many of our contemporaries, who no longer perceive the absence of God in their lives as a form of deprivation, poses a challenge to all Christians. In this context, we, believers in Christ, are called upon to return to the essential, to the heart of our faith, to bear witness to the living God before the world, a God who knows us and loves us, and live in his gaze; a God waiting for the answer of our love in everyday life."
"The commitment of the Church and ecclesial communities to proclaim anew the Gospel to today's men and women is a source of hope. Bearing witness to the living God, who came to us through Christ, is the most urgent imperative for all Christians. It is also an imperative that unites us all, this despite the incomplete ecclesial communion we experience today. We must not forget what it is that unites us: our faith in God the Father and Creator, revealed in His Son Jesus Christ, effusing the Spirit which revives and sanctifies. This is the faith we received in Baptism and it is the faith that, in hope and charity, we can profess together."
"In the light of the primacy of faith we may also understand the importance of the theological dialogues and conversations in which the Catholic Church is engaged with Churches and ecclesial communities. Even when we cannot discern the possibility of re-establishing full communion in the near future, such dialogue facilitates our awareness, not only of resistance and obstacles, but also of the richness of experience, spiritual life and theological reflection, which become a stimulus for ever deeper testimony."
"It is good to journey together towards this objective, provided that the Churches and ecclesial communities do not stop along the way, accepting the various contradictions between them as normal or as the best they can hope to achieve. It is, rather, in the full communion of faith, Sacraments and ministry that the strength of God, present and working in the world, will find concrete expression. Through the visible unity of the disciples of Jesus, humanly unexplainable unity, we shall make God's work recognisable, overcoming the world's tendency towards disintegration."