2012: A Year For The New Evangelization

2012 was quite a year for the Church. There were some low points, involving scandal, violence, and religious liberty violations. On the other hand, there were many high points, involving growth, better communication, and a renewed vigor for the Faith. While there was sorrow, our good Father gave us much to be grateful for.

How can we ever forget this year for the New Evangelization? Blessed John Paul II’s call to a re-evangelization of cultures was given a more concrete vision in 2012, as the Church came together for the Synod on the New Evangelization. Leaders from throughout the world gathered in October, in order to discuss how to inspire greater Faith in their countries. At the close of the Synod, the Church looked forward with hope in the Holy Spirit, and Pope Benedict XVI shared his conviction that there would be a “new springtime for Christianity.”

In anticipation of this springtime, the Holy Father launched the Year of Faith, “a summons to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the one Savior of the world.” Pope Benedict XVI announced the Year of Faith in response to a modern crisis of faith—the very crisis that sparked the Synod for the New Evangelization. This celebration began in October, and it will end on November 24, 2013, the Solemnity of Christ the King. Leaders have already begun to “re-catechize” the faithful, and we can look forward to more in the year to come.

In 2012, the Church promoted a renewed vigor for evangelization and initiated a Year of Faith to ground us in the Truth to be transmitted. There were strong efforts to bring the New Evangelization to the Americas and to spark new unity between American nations, where over half of the world’s Catholics live. This is why the “Ecclesia in America” Conference was held in December. There were over 200 American leaders at the summit, from cities like Toronto, Boston, Tegucigalpa, and Guadalajara. The summit was held in response to Blessed John Paul II’s 1999 apostolic exhortation, delivered in Mexico City, and it sparked a new solidarity between American nations.

USCCB on New Evangelization and Marriage

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has been very active in the last couple of weeks, sharing reactions to the Synod on the New Evangelization, responding to US election results, and in hosting their annual fall meeting, where many important propositions were discussed and voted on.

Check out this article about USCCB’s new strategic road map for the New Evangelization, called “Journey with Christ: Faith/Worship/Witness.”

Also, this reaction to recent initiatives legalizing same-sex marriage is worth reading. It reports on the November 7 statement published by Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco, chairman of the USCCB Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, who said: “In a society marked by increasing poverty and family fragmentation, marriage needs to be strengthened, promoted, and defended, not redefined.”

Pope Benedict XVI’s general intention for the month of November is that “bishops, priests, and all ministers of the Gospel may bear the courageous witness of fidelity to the crucified and risen Lord.” Let us pray for our bishops then, that they may continue to be guided by the Holy Spirit. 

Papal Intentions for November

Pope Benedict XVI’s general intention for the month is for ministers of the Gospel, “That bishops, priests, and all ministers of the Gospel may bear the courageous witness of fidelity to the crucified and risen Lord.” His missionary intention is that, “the pilgrim Church on earth may shine as a light to the nations.”

At the end of the Synod of Bishops, Church leaders released a list of propositions for promoting the New Evangelization. Let us especially pray for our pilgrim Church during these exciting, yet still challenging times. 

Let us also join the Holy Father in praying for the victims of Hurricane Sandy, that they may continue to trust in God and receive the support they need. 

Win, Build, Send

In his intervention during the synod’s proceedings last week, Curtis Martin, American founder and president of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, shared the three-step process FOCUS missionaries follow in order to form student disciples:

Win: We, who have encountered Jesus, go out and love people, because Christ first loved us. In the midst of our friendships with them, we introduce them to our greatest friend, Jesus.

Build: Once they have encountered Jesus, we build them up in the knowledge and practice of the faith. There is a crisis of faith and many Catholics have not embraced the teachings of the Church, they do not know that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist, or of the inerrancy of Sacred Scripture. They have not accepted the difficult teachings, such as Humanae Vitae; without the fullness of Catholic faith, authentic renewal is impossible. We must be transformed.

Send: As these young disciples grow in their practice of the faith, they are sent out, with our continued care, to begin the process anew. Holiness will take a lifetime, but the work of evangelization can begin shortly after an authentic encounter with Jesus; think of the Samaritan woman at the well.

Perhaps we can take this “Win, Build, Send” process with us into our parishes and workplaces, forming personal relationships with others and inviting them to grow with us as disciples of Jesus Christ and evangelizers of His Word. 

Check back next week for a final analysis of the Synod and the results.

What They're Saying About the Synod

At the close of the Synod of the New Evangelization, our Church looks to the future with hope. We have come together as a Church, we have come together open to the Holy Spirit, and we have come together as a people earnestly seeking the Lord’s help in bringing a scattered people closer to Him.

Look at some of the helpful and hope-filled things our leaders said about the new evangelization in the past weeks:

The Gospel … is true and can therefore never wear out. In each period of history it reveals new dimensions … as it responds to the needs of the heart and mind of human beings, who can walk in this truth and so discover themselves…It is for this reason, therefore, that I am convinced there will also be a new springtime for Christianity.

-Pope Benedict XVI, Oct 15 afternoon session

Many Synod Fathers called for a new Pentecost…of seeing the action of the Church today, enlivened by the Holy Spirit. Many of the fathers spoke of the similarity between those early days of the Church and our moment in time today.

-Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, DC, Oct 17 interview

Cardinal Dolan on the New Evangelization

Society itself still may have this transcendental directive that we are not ready to give it up on. We are realistic and it's threatened but we are not ready to give up on it.

For more on Cardinal Dolan’s update on the Synod on the New Evangelization and how it should be addressed in America, check out this Rome Reports interview. 

What exactly is a Synod?

At lunch last Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI told Synodal Fathers that the Synod on the New Evangelization reminds him of the Road to Emmaus. He said:

Synodus means “shared walk”, “walking together”, and so the word synodus makes me think of the famous walk of the Lord with the two disciples who were going to Emmaus, who are to an extent an image of the agnostic world of today. Jesus, their hope, had died: the world was empty; it seemed that either God did not exist or had no interest in us. With this despair in their hearts, but still with a little flame of faith, they walk on. The Lord walks mysteriously beside them and helps them to better understand the mystery of God, His presence in history, His silent walking with us. In the end, at supper, when the words of the Lord and their listening have already lit up their hearts and illuminated their minds, they recognize Him at the meal and finally their hearts start to see. Thus in the Synod we are walking together with our contemporaries. We pray to the Lord that He may illuminate us, that He may light up our hearts so they may become prophetic, that He may illuminate our minds; and we pray that at supper, in the Eucharistic communion, we can really be open, see Him and thus also light up the world and give His light to this world of ours.

For more on the definition of “synod,” check out this site.