Catholic Evangelization

Catholics are not known for "Evangelization". We don't usually pass out leaflets, do street preaching or knock on the doors of strangers.
But how many remember The New Evangelization? The first papal use of the term new evangelization was by Pope Paul VI in his 1975 apostolic exhortation, Evangelii nuntiandi,. The term was popularized by Pope John Paul II[5] who used it during an address to the Latin American bishops in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on May 9, 1983.





Goal I: To bring about in all Catholics such an enthusiasm for their faith that, in living their faith in Jesus, they freely share it with others

Goal II: To invite all people in the United States, whatever their social or cultural background, to hear the message of salvation in Jesus Christ so they may come to join us in the fullness of the Catholic faith.

Goal III: To foster gospel values in our society, promoting the dignity of the human person, the importance of the family, and the common good of our society, so that our nation may continue to be transformed by the saving power of Jesus Christ.

Go and Make Disciples: A National Plan and Strategy for Catholic Evangelization in the United States

In March 1990, the Committee on Evangelization of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) presented plans to develop a national plan and strategy ...

www.usccb.org

Gnarwhal said:

I dunno, I always thought that at the very least Catholics were somewhere between the street corner baptists and evangelicals and the "come and see" reclusive Orthodox.

Sometimes I think the Church seems a little gun shy from ancient accusations of forced conversions over the past 1-2,000 years. They really put a lot of emphasis on full knowledge and consent of the will when receiving a sacrament, which is good in its own right, but I wonder if that also creates a little fear of pursuing converts beyond those who might arrive on our doorsteps.

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The path to full communion can be quite long and certainly a commitment.. Other churches is it is just an altar call o quick dunk. We make people read, think and reflect. But before that, just breaking the ice, we tend not to be very aggressive, not like a few 100 years ago.

Evangelization: Form a band of joyful missionary disciples.

Evangelize a culture in need of hope, especially the religiously unaffiliated.
• Invite and empower youth/ young adults to become missionary disciples.
• Foster an evangelizing focus in catechesis and Catholic schools.
• Communicate more effectively how the faith transforms lives.
• Offer our society an account for the hope that is within us.
• Acknowledge and welcome the gifts and talents that the Hispanic community brings to Christ’s Church.


These are some interesting possibilities. Notice youth and schools. But what about adults?
Communicate more effectively how the faith transforms lives.
Offer our society an account for the hope that is within us.

I think we need more training in effective communication related to evangelization.
Like how and when to begin an evangelical dialogue.
How and to what degree we share our own transformation.
We would need some apologetic skills to enable us to clear up misconceptions.

Maybe if the homilies would lean more into evangelization. Certainly every Gospel lends itself.

OK, so my sister is 72. We both went to Catholic grammar school. She was married in the church and had all 4 of her children baptized and I think conformed. As of today none of them attend Mass.

Why. Out of the habit, don't get much out of it, would just rather not bother and stay home. She was divorced and remarried.

Wow! So as I see it the goal is not just to get them back to church but to help them explore the underlying reason, which may be an absence of the awareness of Christ in their lives. This takes a lot pf prayer because there is no script. It is a person to person intimate encounter about our deepest concerns and desires. And also the marriage issue. I would love to refer her to a priest but she is not interested. It is up to me to "evangelize".

Bob Crowley said:

What is Evangelisation? - National Centre for Evangelisation, Australia

[Evangelisation is] the proclamation of Christ and his Gospel (Greek: evangelion) by word and the testimony of life, in fulfilment of Christ's command. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Glossary) Encouraged to Evangelise Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the...

nce.catholic.org.au

Tonight I attended the last night in a local Catholic series of nine sessions entitled "People on a Mission" or if you like "Evangelisation".

They covered a fair bit of ground - the topics were -

1. Why does the church exist? - In a nutshell - To carry out the great commission
2. A parish on a mission - How might our parishes become mission minded
3. The Bi-Product of mission - How does the Gospel affect the world
4. Mission in the public square - How might the church interface with politics
5. Making the mission personal - How do we carry out our "personal mission"
6. Family on a mission - developing our own families
7. The Mission of Mercy - Catholic Social Justice eg. Hospitals, charities
8. Mission Accepted - OK, we've taken it on - now what?
9. Mission Amnesia - we forget what we're here for.

At the end of it I don't think any of us are going to go out tomorrow and set the world on fire. We're all going to need more confidence in God and ourselves before we have any hope of doing that.

Back when I was Protestant, I think I had this subconscious image of a Billy Graham style campaign - huge crowds, people's lives being changed, and prayer for "revival". But it didn't come.

Now I'm Catholic, and Catholics are not known for being particularly evangelical. For a long time that was left to the priests and religious as the visible vanguard of the church. Even my old Protestant pastor said to me once "I think they (religious orders) underpin the church".

But times have changed. Catholic schools were once that - now they're largely secular. Priests are in short supply and so are the religious orders.

Because Catholic hospitals and charties receive government funding, they are subject to political censure if they don't do the entire bidding of (our leftist) governments.

And so evangalism is being pushed further down the pecking order to the laity. We're being forced to think about how we're going to do our share of evangelisation. One thing I know - it's going to start with prayer, After all iit's God's church, and if He really wants the church to grow and attract disciples He can start with a few mini-pentecosts to get the ball rolling. Ultimately it's His responsibility.

Secondly we can only do so much. There are five categories of mission above - parish, family, personal, mercy (charity) and public square.

I think most of us are limited to one or two. It's up to us to work out which one we'll work in and how we''ll do it.

Meanwhile I'm going to sleep on it. Hopefully I'll think of something.

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I think we need far more development on a theology of "Evangelization" for the laity. Those 9 topics look like a good start. Or perhaps it is already there buried in the many documents and teachings. You know how reading something like GAUDIUM ET SPES can be. Or EVANGELII NUNTIANDI can be. A specific summary would help.



This is one of the shorter Exhortations that we all should read.


41 "It is therefore primarily by her conduct and by her life that the Church will evangelize the world, in other words, by her living witness of fidelity to the Lord Jesus- the witness of poverty and detachment, of freedom in the face of the powers of this world, in short, the witness of sanctity."


79. The work of evangelization presupposes in the evangelizer an ever increasing love for those whom he is evangelizing. That model evangelizer, the Apostle Paul, wrote these words to the Thessalonians, and they are a program for us all: "With such yearning love we chose to impart to you not only the gospel of God but our very selves, so dear had you become to us. "What is this love? It is much more than that of a teacher; it is the love of a father; and again, it is the love of a mother. It is this love that the Lord expects from every preacher of the Gospel, from every builder of the Church. A sign of love will be the concern to give the truth and to bring people into unity. Another sign of love will be a devotion to the proclamation of Jesus Christ, without reservation or turning back. Let us add some other signs of this love.

The first is respect for the religious and spiritual situation of those being evangelized. Respect for their tempo and pace; no one has the right to force them excessively. Respect for their conscience and convictions, which are not to be treated in a harsh manner.

Another sign of this love is concern not to wound the other person, especially if he or she is weak in faith, with statements that may be clear for those who are already initiated but which for the faithful can be a source of bewilderment and scandal, like a wound in the soul.

Yet another sign of love will be the effort to transmit to Christians not doubts and uncertainties born of an erudition poorly assimilated but certainties that are solid because they are anchored in the Word of God. The faithful need these certainties for their Christian life; they have a right to them, as children of God who abandon themselves entirely into His arms and to the exigencies of love.

"52. This first proclamation is addressed especially to those who have never heard the Good News of Jesus, or to children. But, as a result of the frequent situations of dechristianization in our day, it also proves equally necessary for innumerable people who have been baptized but who live quite outside Christian life, for simple people who have a certain faith but an imperfect knowledge of the foundations of that faith, for intellectuals who feel the need to know Jesus Christ in a light different from the instruction they received as children, and for many others."


I think there are many fully initiated Catholics who have not grown in their faith since childhood or young adulthood. So at this point they may have lost even the fundamentals. And perhaps even hunger for a more mature expression of the faith than they learned as children. There really is no limit to the depth one can go. We must be open to hearing their questions and be as best equipped as we can to provide either some answers or directions to answers.