Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday opened a meeting of Roman Catholic Church leaders from around the world to debate how to counter rising secularism on the 50th anniversary of the momentous Second Vatican Council.

The synod of 262 archbishops, bishops and other senior clerics heard a call from the pope for a “new evangelism” for the Catholic Church, which is fast losing followers in Europe and feels increasingly discriminated against in many parts of the world.

The three-week synod coincides with the announcement on October 11 of a “Year of Faith” to mark the anniversary of the start of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), which changed the face of Catholicism.

In Saint Peter’s Square today, Benedict said the Council had been “the most universal expression” of the spiritual dynamic of the 20th century.

He shunned any reference to the latest scandal to rock the 2,000-year-old institution, the trial of his butler Paolo Gabriele who was convicted yesterday of stealing secret papers from the papal palace.

The 85-year-old head of the Roman Catholic Church, who was an expert at the Council known as “Vatican II” and one of its most reformist voices, has made the new evangelism a centrepiece of his papacy since being elected in 2005.

At the start of the synod a tired-looking, pale Benedict stressed that marriage and family must be at the centre of the new evangelism, as there was “an obvious link between the crisis of the faith and the crisis of marriage“.

The meeting will also look at the discrimination of Christians in parts of the world including on the part of radical Islamists, as well as increasing competition from evangelical churches, particularly in the developing world.

The last synod on evangelism was called by Paul VI in 1974 but the crisis of faith in traditionally Christian countries was not as strong then.

The Vatican earlier this year revealed the answers given by bishops to a questionnaire asking them to identify obstacles in spreading the Gospel.

Some talked about the problem of “excessive bureaucracy in Church structures”, others said “liturgical celebrations were devoid of deep spiritual experience” or that the problem was “an insufficient number of clergy“.

A 35-year-old German priest at the time of Vatican II, the then Joseph Ratzinger became more conservative after witnessing the perceived excesses of the 1960s and now aims to correct interpretations of the Council that he sees as deeply erroneous.

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