EVANGELII GAUDIUM - page 43

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CHAPTER TWO
AMID THE CRISIS
OF COMMUNAL COMMITMENT
50. Before taking up some basic questions re-
lated to the work of evangelization, it may be
helpful to mention briefly the context in which
we all have to live and work. Today, we frequent-
ly hear of a “diagnostic overload” which is not
always accompanied by improved and actually
applicable methods of treatment. Nor would we
be well served by a purely sociological analysis
which would aim to embrace all of reality by em-
ploying an allegedly neutral and clinical method.
What I would like to propose is something much
more in the line of an evangelical discernment.
It is the approach of a missionary disciple, an
approach “nourished by the light and strength of
the Holy Spirit”.53
51. It is not the task of the Pope to offer a de-
tailed and complete analysis of contemporary
reality, but I do exhort all the communities to
an “ever watchful scrutiny of the signs of the
times”.54 This is in fact a grave responsibility,
since certain present realities, unless effectively
dealt with, are capable of setting off processes
53 John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation
Pastores Dabo Vobis (25 March 1992), 10: AAS 84 (1992), 673.
54 Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Ecclesiam Suam (6 August
1964), 19: AAS 56 (1964), 609.