Pope Francis new paper - The Joy of the Gospel

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! What a beautiful day!

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium_en.pdf

The Pope’s new document is called “The Joy of the Gospel” or “Evangelii Gaudium”. The link above is the document in PDF form. That makes it easy to download to an iPad or iPhone or computer for smooth reading.

These papers (called an Apostolic Exhortation) are usually released as summaries of a synod …. a bishop’s council. They are sort of “everything and the kitchen sink” type of documents that touch on all the topics that each of the bishops brought up during the meeting. This one refers to the October 2012 synod that discussed the new evangelization.  But, unlike previous papers, the new Pope decided to use the topic as an opportunity to speak out more about his own vision for everyone to go out and evangelize.

Chapter 1 and Chapter 5 …. the first and last chapters … really allow Pope Francis to speak in his own, more folksy style. The middle chapters are where he touches on the bishops talking points. But he still gives them his own unique touch.

He talks a lot about Christian joy that we must have in evangelization. The quote that jumped out at me the most at first glance that really speaks to the Pope’s simple approach was “an evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral” Ha ha! I think everyone can relate to that image.

The paper will also be released in book form in just a few weeks.