by Margaux Salcedo
The Office for the Promotion of New Evangelization (OPNE) was created in 2015 by His Eminence Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle as a response to the Vatican’s call for New Evangelization.
What is New Evangelization?
Pope Saint John Paul II, in his encyclical, Redemptoris Missio, enlightens us:
In section 33 of his encyclical, he describes three different situations for evangelization.
First is the continuing evangelization of Christian communities. The Church has the ongoing and perpetual task of pastoral care, even for those who are already fervent in their faith.
Second is evangelization where Christ and his Gospel are not known. Pope Saint John Paul II calls this mission ad gentes.
Finally, there is New Evangelization. This is for those who have been baptized but “have lost a living sense of the faith, or even no longer consider themselves members of the Church, and live a life far removed from Christ and his Gospel”. The task here is re-evangelization or what we now call “new evangelization”.
On July 1, 2015, the Office for the Promotion of New Evangelization, an entity of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila (RCAM) directly accountable to the Archbishop of Manila was formed.
Rev. Fr. Jason H. Laguerta was appointed as Director of the office.
OPNE was declared by Cardinal Tagle to have the following objectives:
To help generate an experience of God in the context of the challenges of evangelization in the new millennium;
To strengthen bonds of communion-in-mission between the Archdiocese of Manila and the Church in the Philippines, the Church in Asia and the Universal Church.
To provide avenues of inspiration and directions for evangelization in our contemporary world.
Through this office, Cardinal Tagle hopes to respond to “the need for new and effective means of proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in order to live our communitarian experience of faith in a renewed way and to proclaim it through an evangelization that is new in its ardor, in its methods, in its expressions.”
Meanwhile, Father Jason sees the offices as assisting the Archbishop and the Archdiocese of Manila in providing directions for the Church in contemporary times. OPNE also seeks to provide, gather and research new approaches towards evangelization in different contexts and ministries; and also strives to animate the local, particular and regional churches through events and programs towards the new expressions of evangelization.
Since its creation, OPNE has successfully launched 6 conferences entitled Philippine Conference on New Evangelization.
This website, Dominus Est, is the latest project of OPNE to reach out, share the Gospel, and shine the light of Christ to all, especially to those who are lost.