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.

Springtime in the Church

It‘s hot out! Things around the Blessed John Paul II Shrine are steaming, and the Washington DC community is preparing for 100 degree weather today. Summer is officially here.

As we sadly say goodbye to spring, it is heartening to remember that the Church’s springtime is still with us, and that it gets more beautiful every day. Blessed John Paul II was the first to notice this “promising” and “hope-filled” springtime. During his pontificate, he observed increased parish activity and bustling religious communities. He joyfully noted that this newfound energy revealed “the power of God’s love which in overcoming divisions and barriers of every kind, renews the face of the earth to build the civilization of love.”

In his 1998 message for the World Congress of Ecclesial Movements and New Communities, Blessed John Paul II said:

From the beginning of my Pontificate, I have given special importance to the progress of ecclesial movements, and I have had the opportunity to appreciate the results of their widespread and growing presence during my pastoral visits to parishes and my apostolic journeys…They represent one of the most significant fruits of that springtime in the Church which was foretold by the Second Vatican Council, but unfortunately has often been hampered by the spread of secularization. Their presence is encouraging because it shows that this springtime is advancing and revealing the freshness of the Christian experience based on personal encounter with Christ. Even in the diversity of their forms, these movements are marked by a common awareness of the "newness" which baptismal grace brings to life, through a remarkable longing to reflect on the mystery of communion with Christ and with their brethren, through sound fidelity to the patrimony of the faith passed on by the living stream of Tradition. This gives rise to a renewed missionary zeal which reaches out to the men and women of our era in the concrete situations where they find themselves, and turns its loving attention to the dignity, needs and destiny of each individual.