The Basic Christian Message as a Form of Ecumenism
Madison, Wis., April 2, 2005
Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J.
This holy, ecumenical and general Council of Trent … has always this purpose in mind that in the Church errors be removed and the purity of the Gospel be preserved. This Gospel was promised of old through the prophets in the Sacred Scriptures; Our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, first promulgated it from his own lips; he in turn ordered that it be preached through the apostles to all creatures as the source of all saving truth and rule of conduct (fontem omnis et salutaris veritatis et morum disciplinae, DS 1501).
2 3 II VI EN EN II O.F.Many contemporary Catholics possess no evangelistic fervor. One reason could be that they have little or no experiential knowledge of Jesus, and may even be ignorant of the basic Gospel message: that Jesus himself is the Good News. Perhaps they simply have not been fully transformed by the power and life of the Holy Spirit that comes through faith in Jesus and thus are incapable of offering this new life to others.4
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