Sao Paulo, Brazil–With the Feast of St Paul, (Patron of the the Archdiocese of Sao Paulo) 25th of January, we make an opening of the Pastoral Year in our Archdiocese (Sao Paulo). At the same time, we offer to God our great proposals and projects for the year and we ask for the intercession of St. Paul, our Patron, the grace of fidelity, of perseverance, of good fruits in the objectives that we set ourselves.

Even without special planning, it would be enough to follow the rhythm of the Liturgical Year for having a year filled with proposals. In fact, accompanying and living the mystique of the Liturgical Year is a healthy practice of great pedagogical value for the personal experience of faith and for service of evangelization of the Church. The Church has a rich proposal of evangelization, each year, in the celebrations and commemorations of the liturgical year. Whoever follows regularly the liturgical celebrations of the Church has plenty of food for faith and for the Christian witness in the world, step by step, for the entire year.

Therefore, in 2011, the Archdiocese of Sao Paulo puts in focus, for reflection and pastoral action, the parish, “community of communities”. Centered in our attention on the parish, in whatever expression most near and concrete to the Mystery of the Church, we want to advance in the proposal of the Ten Degree Pastoral Plan of the Archdiocese, that invites us to be missionary disciples of  Jesus Christ in the great and complex city of Sao Paulo of a new and more incisive form.

It would be impossible to think of our Church, without parishes, with her father, her parish churches, her spaces of life and pastoral action, her presence in the social and cultural space…Even with difficulties and deficiencies of our time and in the metropolitan context, and without have the pretense of which the parish continues alone confronting all the necessities and challenges of the mission of the church, continues truly that she has her reason of being and of existing; the Church never abandoned the parish, but invites it to review and deepen its significance, its life and mission.

In this year, therefore, we may try to do that which depends on us in order that the parish may be renewed and may be authentic communities of missionary disciples of Jesus Christ in this city, that God loves. A process of pastoral conversion is necessary to recover the motivations and give new life; Perhaps to overcome weariness, stagnation and the logic of mere conservation. The parishes need to be marked by a new dynamic and an impulse decidedly missionary. If we are not careful, they will close in upon themselves, instead of being a missionary presence that projects about, through the media of human community. In order to advance this pastoral goal throughout the year, all are invited to roll up their sleeves, clergy, laity, religious, families, various church organizations present in the parishes… The youth will have a privileged year, with the clergy, we will have an important meeting on the February to address the issue. As Archbishop, I will write a Pastoral Letter for all the Archdiocese on this issue.

But the pastoral year of 2011, prepares us much: A Campaign of Fraternity, with the theme-Brotherhood and life on the Planet-it is an invitation to care, with shared responsibility, for our common house, deepening a culture of respect, of caring and of solidarity. The natural castasrophies in these days challenge our ethical sense before the nature and of the rest of the inhabitants of the Earth.

The First Congress of Laity, realized in 2010, mobilized thousands of lay men and women, who want to involve themselves in the action efficiently planned of the laity in our Archdiocese. The many proposals elaborated in the Thematic Offices and presented in the closing of the Congress need to be resumed and worked. In August will be realized the World Day of Youth with the Pope in Madrid, many youth already are mobilizing themselves for going to Spain and, with hundreds of thousands of other youths from all parts of the world who desire to participate and root themselves more in Christ.

Our Archdiocese also will have a new and important fact for the life of our church and her missionary dimension: this being the opening of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary trusted to the direction of the New Catechumenate Way, for forming [diocesan] priests with the missionary charism. That St. Paul disciple and missionary of Jesus Christ intercedes for us!

Cardinal Odilo P. Scherer

Archbishop of São Paulo

Translated from Portuguese (not an official translation)