Leo XIV: The key to evangelization is the testimony of the encounter with Christ

Pope Leo XIV said Friday that the key to every evangelization school lies in offering the testimony of the personal encounter with Christ.

He said it during a private audience with members of the San Andrés Evangelization School, originally from Mexico.

From different countries, these evangelizers arrived in Rome on the occasion of the Jubileo de la Esperanza, accompanied by its founder and director José “Pepe” Prado Flores and the archbishop of Quebec, Cardenal Gérald Cyprien Lacroix.

On the occasion of the celebration of the liturgical memory of the martyrdom of San Juan Bautista, Leo XIV shared a reflection “on the mission of the evangelizers today.”

“In the prologue of the Gospel of St. John it is affirmed that ‘the word became flesh and inhabited among us’, and then it is indicated that John the Baptist testifies to it,” recalled the Pontiff, who asked to reread the first verses of the fourth Gospel carefully.

In them, he said, “we can discover what is the key to every Evangelization School: to testify to what has been contemplated, of the encounter that has been with the God of life.”

This same idea, according to the Pontiff, is collected in the first letter of the Apostle Saint John: “What we have seen and heard, we also announce it to you, so that you live in communion with us. And our communion is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”

The announcement of the Gospel, added Leo XIV, “is our vocation as baptized, so we must convey what we have received, so that we all become one in Christ.”

The Holy Father’s greeting concluded with the invitation to the pilgrims “to contemplate the lives of the saints who, like John the Baptist, have been faithful followers of Jesus Christ, manifesting him in the words and works of good.”

Before saying goodbye, he thanked them “the fruitful work they carry out in favor of evangelization” and encouraged “to continue walking with renewed hope.”

What are the Evangelization Schools of San Andrés?

Las Evangelization Schools of San Andrés They base their apostolate on the instruction that St. Paul gave to his disciple Timothy: “You, my son, how much you have heard me in the presence of many witnesses, entrusts it to faithful men who are capable, in turn, of instructing others.”

Its origins date back to an evangelization school initiated in 1980 in the Diocese of Chilpancingo-Chilapa, in Mexico. Three years later, he moved to Guadalajara, with the name of “Apostles School” and in 1986 he joined the 2000 Evangelization Project.

In the 1990s, its international expansion began and in the following decade national offices are established in Mexico, Colombia, Italy, Brazil, the United States, Hungary, Portugal, Canada and Argentina. Years later he expanded to Poland, Ukraine and Romania.

Since 2018, its founder José H. Prado was invited by the Dicastery of Laity, the family and life, to be part of Charis, service organ for all charismatic expressions in the world.