He said "The formation and ongoing formation of all involved in the evangelising mission of the Church must be our first priority." He was speaking on Monday in Rome at at the Synod on Evangelisation.

Archbishop Dew said the Catholic Church in New Zealand displays the vibrancy of youth and an increasing vitality resulting from the growing ethnic diversity that migrant people have brought it.

But this vibrancy is set against the backdrop of an "aggressive secularism which fails to acknowledge the transcendent dignity of the human person, often blocks the dialogue with society on key bioethical and social issues such as euthanasia, abortion and the definition of marriage," he said.

• Read NZCBC press release
• Read full text of Archbishop Dew's address

Image: USAToday