evangelization – Page 2

Significant remarks from the Evangelization Synod: the Good News ensured by small groups of survivors

The Cambodian Catholic experience is not something that rolls off our lips at cocktail parties or lunch dates in the USA. But the Asian perspective is needed: how does the Good News get rooted. Notice his points at the end of the post. The rather young bishop, The Most Reverend Olivier Michel Marie Schmitthaeusler, MEP, 42, vicar apostolic of Phnom Penh, Cambodia since 2010 told the Pope and the Synod:

The Khmer Rouge genocide killed bishops, priests, religious persons and the majority of Christians. For twenty years now, we are living a new time of the Acts of the Apostles with a first announcement of the Good News ensured by the small group of survivors, supported by the massive arrival of missionaries. Today we have about 200 adult baptisms each year… The small Church of Cambodia is in some ways a laboratory for evangelization in a Buddhist world, fully entered into a process of secularization driven by globalization a bit like the Asian dragons. The Ad Extra Mission is intimately tied to the Ad Intra Mission. Ad Extra and Ad Intra are mutually enriched by stimulating each other with the same and unique Mission of Evangelization!

Some meaningful points for a first proclamation of Jesus Christ and which may be extended also to a reflection about new evangelization. Two fundamentals: 1. The true encounter with Jesus Christ opens the heart to charity and to the experience of forgiveness to lead to the discovery of the gift of life. 2. The laity are apostles in this world (Apostolicam actuositatem).

How can the Church be the sacrament of Christ in the world for a new evangelization in actions and in truth? 1. A Church that touches the heart. 2. A simple Church. 3. A welcoming Church. 4. A Church in prayer. 5. A joyful Church.

Significant remarks from the Evangelization Synod: faith’s different reality in Northern Europe

At the Synod of Bishops men and women from all parts of the world gathered in Rome in October to speak on matters pertaining to evangelization. We in the USA, need perspective: the lower Europe and North America is not the only place where the Christian faith is incarnated. The bishop of Tromso since 2009,
Norway, Berislav Grgić, 52, said to the Synod Fathers:

The Catholic Church in the Northern Lands – Denmark, Finland,
Iceland, Norway and Sweden – is a very small minority and therefore has neither
the advantages nor the disadvantages that the Catholic Church often comes
across in traditional and prevalently Catholic regions. Despite its limited
relevance, numeric as well as social, our Church is nonetheless a growing
Church. New churches are built or bought, new parishes are instituted,
non-Latin rites are added, there is a relatively high number of adult
conversions and baptisms, there are vocations to priesthood and to religious
life, the number of baptisms is much higher than the number of deaths and
number of those who abandon the Church, and attendance at Sunday Mass is
relatively high.

Continue reading Significant remarks from the Evangelization Synod: faith’s different reality in Northern Europe

Julián Carrón says the Evangelization Synod was a “most decisive about the experience”

We need to keep a close eye on what happened at the Evangelization Synod just finished in Rome. A judgment, that is, an assessment of meaning, needs to be made so that we can derive a deeper call to conversion and New Life offered by Christ. Far from being a matter of strategy, the work done at the Synod by the bishops and experts and in time by the Pope, will prove, I think, to be historic.

Among the people appointed to the Synod was Father Julián Carrón, President of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation. He addressed a letter to CL in which he said, in part:

Hearing the call to conversion that came from the synod hall, I could not help but remember the call that Fr. Giussani issued many years ago in Viterbo, inviting us to “recover the truth of our vocation and our commitment.” Because we, too, he told us, run the risk of “reducing our commitment too a kind of theorization of a socio-pedagogical method, reducing it to a kind of activism that follows upon this theorization, and then a commitment to the political defense of it. Instead, our task is to reaffirm and to propose to man, our brother, a fact of life.

The text of the letter: Father Julian Carron on Synod.pdf

Ad Limina of New England bishops 2011

There’s not been lots of details revealed about the recent Ad Limina of New England’s 18 bishops. That may be because most of the meetings are private affairs between a bishop –or a group of bishops– and the Pope and his 12 key Vatican collaborators. The pilgrimage in Rome happened 3-9 November. The two New England Metropolitans, Cardinal O’Malley and Archbishop Mansell, led the bishops with the coordinating help of Bishop Evans.

There are things that are becoming more known because of the generosity of the bishops speaking about their experiences and their concerns.

Several stories of the recent Roman pilgrimage are noted here:

Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley, OFM Cap: “Together with the Holy Father“

Burlington’s Bishop Salvatore Matano: “US ad limina visits in focus“

A widely circulated CNS article: “Ad Limina visit highlights religious freedom, evangelization“

CATHOLICSM: The New York Premier

You are invited to a screening of CATHOLICISM with ArchbishopTimothy Dolan’s introduction and a presentation by project’s creator
Father Robert Barron, and Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete.

A reception and book signing following the event.

Presented by Crossroads
Cultural Center and Word on Fire

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

6:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

The Times Center

242 West 41st Street

New York, NY map

Click here to
RSVP

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan
Archbishop of New York

President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete

Author, theologian, columnist

Father Robert Barron

Author, speaker, theologian Founder of Word On Fire.

MORE
INFORMATION

This event is open to the public and
free of charge, but seating is limited.

Tickets must be obtained online
through www.catholicism.eventbrite.com

Continue reading CATHOLICSM: The New York Premier

Protestant faith community unable to replace Catholic truth

From the point of view of truth, Ed Stannard’s article in today’s New Haven Register, “New Haven Church to Fill Spiritual Void” is a bit misleading when he fails to distinguish between the Church –meaning the Catholic Church– and the various ecclesial communities such as the Protestant types. He reduces the truth of being one, holy, catholic and apostolic, i.e., being authentically Catholic– to being opportunistic. No doubt there are opportunities for evangelization that the Catholics are unable to engage in now, but the presence of the Catholic remains solidly in New Haven and can never be replaced by a denomination, which the Catholics are not.

One should note, there is no one-to-one correspondence. One church community is not as good as another. They do not believe the same things (dogma and doctrine, the nature of the priesthood, Eucharist and apostolic authority) even though there are some superficial things that are the same (some liturgical practices). Hence, Catholicism is not on par –theologically or liturgically or justice-wise– with the Episcopal Church. And, the Rev. Robert Hendrickson knows this theology and ecclesiology well. What he is doing is poaching Catholics from the truth in a period when the Archdiocese of Hartford has been unable to assign young, vibrant priests and pastoral ministers to the area and frame their work as a call and mission from God and the Church.

While it is true that the Archdiocese of Hartford has not responded as best as it could to the religious needs of the people in the Hill section of town, the Catholic Church is still very present in this area of the city with the fact of Saint Anthony’s Church and the Catholic Worker House and with the people present.

Clearly, the new evangelization proposed by Benedict XVI needs to be enacted today.

Catholics can’t ignore personal piety: forming others to be religious and spiritual

How often do you think mainline Christians take the personal piety of others? How frequently do we take someone who says “I am spiritual but not religious”? “Not very often” is the best answer to offer. Saying that one is spiritual and not religious lacks a certain seriousness of belief and unbelief. Catholics in the USA number circa 65-70 million and in the world Catholics number just over a billion this notion of being spiritual and not religious gaining currency. Why? Because a personal relationship with Jesus is lacking. There is no encounter with the living Messiah, Jesus is an abstraction.

Last week someone asked me what I thought of being spiritual but not religious. I simply said, to hold that belief is to lack a certain convergence of faith and reality; while understandable from the point of view that many professed Christians lack a true conviction of faith in Jesus Christ both from the point of doctrine but also in practice.

David Briggs has an article that is to be read: “Religious but not spiritual: The high costs of ignoring personal piety.”

Instead of jumping to a negative conclusion, why not ask the question of what you are doing to work on your own education in the Faith and its practice? Adherence to Christ is a life of love, but it is also an ongoing work.

Julián Carrón speaks on the New Evagelization, relationship between the Gospel and culture

On October 14, 2011 Pope Benedict XVI received Father Julián Carrón, President of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, in audience in the Apostolic Palace, the day before the Vatican meeting on “New Evangelizers for a New Evangelization,” a two day event that will culminate in the Mass with the Pope on Sunday at 9:30 in Saint Peter’s Square. What follows is an interview with Vatican Radio’s Alessandro Gisotti (emphasis mine).

Alessandro Gisotti interviewed Fr. Carrón about tomorrow’s meeting and the challenge of the new evangelization.

Father Julián Carrón: The first thing I would like to express is how grateful and moved I am at this opportunity the Holy Father has given me to be with him in this audience, because it enabled me to tell him how, in this moment of travail due to the social, cultural, and economic situation, we are seeing that when people verify the faith in their own life circumstances, they flower into a type of person that leaves us speechless. Being able to share with him living the faith, as he testifies it to us, was a true consolation.

How important is this meeting? How important is the Pope’s challenge for a new evangelization?

Continue reading Julián Carrón speaks on the New Evagelization, relationship between the Gospel and culture

Bocelli, Messori & Mother Veronica Berzosa support the New Evangelization

Since the found of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization with Archbishop Rino Fisichella as its president, all eyes looked to today’s event in the Pope Paul VI Auditorium with nearly eight thousand people from every continent gathered in Rome to experience what it means to share the Faith of Jesus Christ with others through word and music. Pope Benedict attended part of the gathering and said, “The world today needs people who proclaim and witness that Christ is the one who teaches us the art of living, the way of true happiness, because He himself is the way of life.”

Archbishop Fisichella invited Mother Veronica Berzosa, founder of Iesu Communio, a religious community of women dedicated to the evangelization of the youth, Italian writer Vittorio Messori who spoke about the reasons to believe, and the Italian scientist Marco Bersanelli who spoke on about the dialogue between science and faith. Colombian bishop Fabio Suescun, spoke to those assembled on experiences of the New Evangelization in Latin America.

For many, it was beautiful to hear Andrea Bocelli who said:

“I think I owe my faith to an internal search, the rejection of the idea of feeling like I was the product of coincidence. I followed my road, I hope to do so consistently, even when certain episodes of life make us tremble and feel weak before our convictions.”

“New Evangelizers for the New Evangelization – The Word of God grows and spreads” in a spirit of joy

How does one evangelize? Why does one evangelize? Or not? Tomorrow in Rome, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, will host a meeting entitled “New Evangelizers for the New Evangelization : The Word of God Grows and Spreads.” In a recent interview, Fisichella said:

“For new evangelization, this [the issue of immigration] is certainly a factor to be taken seriously, because we have millions of Christians on the move in different countries, bringing with them not only the richness of their Christian experience, but who also come to meet the challenges which Europe in particular but also the United States present, with regards to secularization”.

“… we want to reinforce that evangelisation is the very mission of the Church and it has been going on for over two thousand years, but it needs to find a new language, a new lifestyle one that is respectful but has a deeply rooted identity”, evangelisers “who have a profound sense of belonging to the Church and the Christian community but at the same time who are open to others. And also a good dose of joy and enthusiasm, which is never a bad thing!”