The Church’s Renewed Evangelizing Mission

A Soul for the New Europe: What would Don Francesco Ricci Propose?

Religion is back in Central Eastern Europe after a long experiment in Godlessness. The fall of communism was followed by a radically changed religious situation in the former Central East European block countries. Certainly, the post communist years were perturbed for most of the countries of Eastern Europe, especially for filling the spiritual desert that the fall of communism left behind. For Pope Benedict XVI, the real depredation that the communist regimes left behind was not economic. Instead, it consisted of the destruction of souls, and the eradication of a moral consciousness. The late Patriarch Aleksy II of Moscow and all of Russia complied. What worried the patriarch the most was saving Russians’ defaced souls and restoring traditions of social service, than building defaced churches. In 1991 essay entitled La Chiesa della Compassione Don Francesco Ricci reflected brilliantly on the compassionate mission of the Church in post-communist Central Eastern Europe. The chapter’s foci will be on the triple role of religion or the Christian Church in the post-communist, post-Christian or what Don Francesco Ricci called neo-pagan societies. This triple role includes regenerative, unitive, and formative dimensions of religion. This specific mission of religion or of the Church in post-communist societies is going be applied on a national and international level.