As it did then, evangelization today also demands total and faithful adherence to God's Word, adherence to Christ first of all and attentive listening to his Spirit who guides the Church, docile obedience to the Pastors whom God has chosen to guide his people and prudent, frank dialogue with the social, cultural and religious bodies of our time. All this presupposes, as is well known, close communion with the one who calls us to be his friends and disciples, a unity of life and action nourished by listening to his Word, by contemplation and by prayer, by detachment from the mindset of the world and by ceaseless conversion to his love so that it may be he, Christ, who lives and works in each one of us. Here lies the secret of the authentic success of every Christian's apostolic and missionary commitment, and especially of those who are called to a more direct service of the Gospel.

- Letter to Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., 10 January 2008