Golden Jubilee For Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference Child safeguarding National Pastoral Centre T he National Pastoral Centre falls under the Commission for Evangelization, Catechesis, Liturgy and Worship. In the history of the Church the mission of Pastoral and cultural centres has always been to evangelize. When the Christian message has come in contact with new cultures, the missionaries have always been challenged with new ways of understanding the gospel by the recipients. This has been the case from the very beginning of Christianity. Pastoral and Cultural Centres came up because of the felt need to overcome the rift between culture and religion. General history of Centres of Evangelization In the missionary history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries many plans and efforts to create learning centres for missionaries were made. The plans and efforts aimed at achieving a better understanding and a deeper appreciation of the local cultures. In 1935 the decree Provido sane Consilio of the Congregazione del Concilio, now called the Congregation for the Clergy, asked for the creation of “catechetical offices”. This idea further developed during the International Catechetical Congress of 1950 in Rome, called by Pope Pius XII. The call to found catechetical centres influenced also the call to found cultural and pastoral institutes. Fr. Mgcini Moyo National Pastoral Centre Coordinator The missionary encyclical Princeps Pastorum (1959) of Pope John XXIII advocated the establishment of study centres with a direct missionary orientation, where foreign and local priests could use their knowledge and experience for the good of the nation from which they came or to which they were sent. The encyclical considered as a distinctive feature of these centres the importance of publications and the dissemination of Christian literature in such a way that the Church can, through these centres, have an influence on public opinion. The encyclical also recognized and highlighted collaboration among local and foreign clergy as an essential task of pastoral and cultural institutes. In the Decree on the Missionary Activity of the Church Ad Gentes the idea to have “centres for pastoral care, catechetics, liturgy and publications” is fully developed. 69