II. Communities that celebrate their faith and give thanks for the gift of God

Declaration

The sacraments unite us to the person of Christ. They are " actions of Christ" for contemporary men and women, gifts of the Spirit at the heart of the human reality. Believers often express their quest for spirituality through the request for sacramental celebrations. All pastoral leaders must be welcoming, understanding and respectful of persons who express the desire to celebrate a sacrament. I invite them to help these people to deepen the profound meaning of each sacrament, and to enhance the community dimension of each one.

To foster pastoral actions of the highest quality in the celebration of all the sacraments, I recommend that each pastoral leader:

- ensure an up-dating of his sacramental theology;

- search for new pastoral approaches;

- give great care to the symbolic aspect of each sacrament in order to reach the people in the reality of their life experiences.

I commit myself

to establish a commission to review, as soon as possible, the different modalities of Christian and sacramental initiation of youth;

to request those responsible for the pastoral service for marriage to review the different modalities of marriage preparation that are offered, in the diocese to future spouses;

to request those responsible for the Office of the Family to assist communities to implement the proposals relating to the life of the couple and to family life;

to see that the Office for Liturgy Services works with Christian communities to ensure Eucharistic celebrations of high quality by giving a meaningful place to children;

to ensure on-going formation for homilists and for all who exercise a ministry of the Word;

to make accessible to individuals, who have distanced themselves from religious practice and who are desirous of beginning a journey of faith, Sunday community celebrations, without Eucharist, but centred on the Word of God and the sharing of Christian experience;

to search, with pastors, for dynamic ways to enhance the value of the celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation in all its forms: for renewed pastoral approaches, to be able to identify easily accessible places of welcome, for ways to ensure the presence and availability of priests at regular times to receive individuals;

to give, within the next few months, directives concerning the celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.