What Ever Happened To The New Evangelization?

BCC | Crucifix, New Chapel at Saint John Paul II Academy
Photo by Nicholas Elbers

Read time: 7 minutes.

The New Evangelization is more than a fad. It is a trajectory increasingly obvious in its character as we see many people discovering and converting to the Church founded by Jesus Christ, the Catholic Church. Perhaps the label has worn out its usefulness, but the trend it identified is building in strength.

Q. What do people want and need?
A. People want to live rightly and be loved.

Q. Who can teach them and love them?
A. Jesus Christ and his Gospel.

Q. Where can people find and learn from and be loved by Jesus?
A. In his Church (1 Timothy 3:15).

A daily scroll through social media shows hundreds, if not thousands, of young people sharing their stories and decisions to seek reception into the Catholic Church. People are searching for holiness, meaning, peace, fellowship in the truth, goodness, and beauty. They’re seeking Jesus. They want to live the Gospel.

The stories of converts remind us of how and why God calls people to faith in Jesus Christ and His Church. These same stories can inspire us to refine our methods to invite others into communion. A genuine Catholic identity is essential, and without it, people may convert to something uncertain and eventually drift away.

Rocket science?

It seems many clergy miss that people are looking for authenticity, staying stuck—if their diocesan websites and social media accounts are any indication—on tired attempts to promote what they think are the most appealing aspects of the Faith. They come across as distracted, maybe even unaware of people’s deeper needs. Clergy, laity, and members of fading religious orders project onto others a watered-down religion that has lingered in the Church for far too long. For years, the faithful have had to endure a hollow version of the Catholic Faith, made up of shallow liturgy, weak morality, politicized religion and empty doctrine.

Why become Catholic? Because the Church founded by Jesus Christ is the Catholic Church, where the fullness of truth and salvation can be found.

With so many scattered efforts to invite seekers into communion, perhaps the New Evangelization has found a home among those who have truly embraced the mission to welcome and guide souls toward salvation. Communities that reach deeply into history to align themselves with the Church's mission, reflecting the true witness of the saints, are increasingly attracting people who want to "come and see" (St John 1:39-41). Many are weary of the identity wars that in many cases have led to despair. Communities that are deep in history offer seekers the opportunity to discover knowledge and wisdom that rescues them from wandering into fraudulent sideshows that sell enlightenment and leave people vulnerable to nonsense and even dangerous ideologies.

From the Cross of Nowa Huta began the new evangelization, the evangelization of the second Millennium. This church is a witness and confirmation of it. It arose from a living awareness and responsible faith and must continue to serve that faith. - Pope Saint John Paul II, 1979.

Recall that Nowa Huta was built as the ideal socialist city. The Soviet Union is no more, yet the cross of Christ stands as a witness to the enduring faith of millions through whose suffering God brought down a godless empire. While many in the West harbour mind numbing and soul destroying political and social views, the Cross of Christ will again triumph and release us from ideologies that rob people of their true identity in Jesus Christ.

Pope Saint John Paul II embodied the New Evangelization, with a proposal shaped by hard-won experience, guided by a sharp mind, and deepened through profound prayer.

Elements of the renewed evangelization.

1. Knowing Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6).
2. Meeting Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, the source and summit of the Christian life (John 6:54-55; CCC 1324).
3. Loving Jesus by keeping his commandments (John 14:15). Showing real love, the authentic redeeming love of Christ (John 13:34; 1 John 4:7).
4. Praying the Gospel by living the Gospel (Matthew 16:24; Romans 12:1).
5. Reaching out to the poorest of the poor, spiritually and materially, those in most need of God's mercy (Matthew 25:31-46).
6. Calling people to repentance, from sin to freedom in Christ (Matthew 4:17)
7. Praying with reverence and beauty the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (Hebrews 5:7; Hebrews 12:28).

Those seven points are made all the more convincing when the last point is taken seriously. When the Mass, "the Eucharistic sacrifice, which is the fount and apex of the whole Christian life" (Lumen Gentium 11), is reverent and beautiful, people discover God is pursuing them to invite them into communion. In a real sense, the New Evangelization is the rediscovery and celebration of the transcendentals of God through which God entices us into communion with Him.

In the Divine Worship Missal we find liturgical renewal fully realized. Divine Worship: the Missal is a unique expression of the Latin Rite Mass. The Ordinariate Missal doesn’t have an original Latin version, but centuries of tradition have, for example, shaped its rendering of the Roman Canon in hieratic English, achieving exceptional artistry and theological precision.

In communities of the Ordinariate, we find people who have launched out into the deep to follow the call of the Lord Jesus. It’s probably fair to say that complacency and timidity don’t have much of a place among Tradition-minded Catholics. People who have dared to leave behind the comfort of their former spiritual homes discover in the Ordinariate the timeless, timely and confident faith of the Apostles and saints.

Get with the program.

What is true about Ordinariate communities is also true in the wider Church where the same elements are real and common. Where discipleship is nurtured in reverent liturgies and eucharistic fellowship is real, commitment is strong and vocations flourish. The opposite is proof of claim: the Archdiocese of Chicago, for example, with approximately 2.2 million Catholics, celebrated a mere two ordinations this past year. That fact is an indictment of all that’s misguided in certain ways of practicing Catholicism.

Open Doors

In the Ordinariate we find a fully and authentically realized ecumenism.

The Ordinariate experience is informed and anchored by deference and reference to the Holy See. As Anglicans- (and Methodists-) now-Catholics can fully attest to, the Petrine Office, far from destroying diversity, is the guarantor of authentic diversity and unity.

This single Church of Christ, which we profess in the Creed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic “subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him. Nevertheless, many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside her visible confines. Since these are gifts properly belonging to the Church of Christ, they are forces impelling towards Catholic unity.” - Lumen Gentium 8

Only in communion with Peter can one hope to retain a constant lifegiving orthodoxy.

For the three ordinaries (leaders of their respective jurisdictions - North American, the United Kingdom and Oceania), the Personal Ordinariate is the first real example of true Christian unity and ecumenism.

“I have no doubt that if you read the Decree on Ecumenism (Unitatis Redintegratio) that actually the Ordinariate is the first occasion where that vision of that document has been fulfilled,” Msgr Newton said.

“When people are looking for what ecumenism really is, here it is, in a living form.”

• https://catholicleader.com.au/news/australia/why-the-ordinariate-is-the-living-form-of-the-second-vatican-councils-decree-on-ecumenism/

What that means is the Ordinariate, which became possible in 2009 through Pope Benedict XVI’s promulgation of the apostolic constitution, Anglicanorum Coetibus, gives former Anglicans a way to express their tradition, heritage and elements of worship but still be in full communion with the Catholic Church.

We are reminded, too, by a paragraph at the website of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter that

(t)he key to understanding the essential purpose of the Ordinariate is to be found in the preface to Anglicanorum coetibus. In those opening paragraphs, there are no fewer than nine references to the Vatican II document Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. Here the one Church of Jesus Christ is said to subsist in the Catholic Church: although many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside of its visible structure, these elements, as gifts belonging to the Church of Christ, are forces impelling toward Catholic unity. There is an inner dynamic in the life and teaching of Anglicanism which continues to draw Anglicans to its source. The Personal Ordinariate is Pope Benedict XVI’s response to “this holy desire.”

An essay by Monsignor Mark Langham may further introduce readers to the importance of communion with the See of Peter. The Ordinariate: Realised Ecumenism; Realised Unity by Monsignor Langham, Catholic Chaplain to Cambridge University, provides a thorough examination of the ecumenical landscape and the necessity of offering the Ordinariate for facilitating unity among Christians.

Communion has content; only when they can share the Eucharist can you claim a wonderful expression of the unity of the Church.

So it is that the Ordinariate is a truthful response to the claim to be Catholic, a realistic expression of the unity of the Church. In this it is contributing to a more honest ecumenical project, by demonstrating the need to draw a rigorous theological conclusion from the claims of communion. 

Catholics need certainty. Our whole sacramental system is predicated on an assurance given to us that the sacrament is doing what it claims to be; that the sign is authentic, that grace is truly conferred. (...) Ultimately, there is only one guarantee of that: communion. Communion with the Church, and, when all is said and done, Communion with Peter (the Bishop of Rome and Universal Shepherd, established by Jesus Christ).

God blesses us with a beautiful liturgy, and thus we may enjoy a strong Eucharistic fellowship in the Lord. The sacraments are celebrated with serene dignity and confident character, and thus Ordinariate communities are places of continuous transformation, where the Holy Spirit nurtures the mustard seed of faith. The gifts of the Personal Ordinariates are spreading into the wider Church, connecting with other inspired groups and individuals, and creating an unstoppable wave of renewal that stays faithful to the Apostolic witness.

• https://bccatholic.ca/news/catholic-van/hungry-for-that-mystery-and-awe-chapel-altar-rail-brings-school-community-together

Starting Points

Consider the following vital aspects of the Christian life. 

1. Liturgy: Prayer and Ritual; Eucharistic Fellowship
2. Love: Doctrine and Practice; Mission

Jesus is real; he is alive. In the Mass, we meet Jesus Christ, experience the love of God, and follow the steady compass of unchanging doctrine—a guiding star leading us to know Him and be saved by Him. May the Sacred Liturgy be at the heart of the mission to save souls.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, while many were lost to a rebellion stirred by proud men in Europe, through thy intercession ten million souls came to believe and were welcomed into the Holy Catholic Church. Blessed of God, pray for the unity of the Church and for those finding their way back. May all who long for the truth and the peace found only in Jesus be led to him and his holy Catholic Church. Amen.