Where are we to look for this new evangelisation? Pope Benedict knows that it is not a question of tactics or programmes, nor of immediate success or sudden large numbers.

Both Popes Benedict and Pope John Paul II have looked instead to what has been called the Marian principle in the Church for the new life required for a new evangelisation.

Addressing the newly created Cardinals in 2006, for instance, Pope Benedict referred to Pope John Paul II’s emphasis on the Marian principle and then reminded the Cardinals that the Church’s Marian principle in the Church is “even more fundamental” than the Petrine principle to which it is united.

See his homily at the Eucharistic Concelebration with the New Cardinals on March 25th, 2006.