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A New Evangelization

A New Evangelization

Evangelization is no longer limited to its former meaning of making Christians out of non-Christians, Rather, according to Pope John Paul II, there is a new evangelization that is needed in order to enliven the faith of the already baptized and to invite them into a personal and dynamic relationship of communion with Jesus Christ in and through the Christian community.

Evangelization seeks to bring the Good News into all strata of humanity transforming it from within. As such, every person, community, and culture is always in need of evangelization.

The General Directory for Catechesis (GDC) places catechesis within the overall framework of evangelization. Together they function toward bringing people to maturity in faith. This faith maturity is realized at any age, but it is adults who are most capable of making a free and full response to the Gospel message. Therefore, the catechesis of adults holds the highest priority in the Church’s catechetical mission.

Recognizing the centrality of adult faith as a model and foundation for the faith of the entire community, the United States bishops have published a statement Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us, that gives new urgency to the ministry of adult faith formation.

Though the Church, in its catechetical documents, has a long history of declaring adult catechesis to be the primary form of catechesis, the practice in most Catholic parishes is far from that ideal. The reality is that most of the resources of the average Catholic parish go toward the education of the children in one form or other. There are several reasons for this situation. One is that Catholics love their children, and they themselves were taught the faith in childhood. These early years are viewed as the most formative and lasting in terms of religious development. Moreover, many adult Catholics wrongly perceive receiving the sacrament of Confirmation as the end of formal catechetical classes for teens.

Childhood is the time when most Catholic adults received their Catholic identity. For most adults this identity formation process made deep and lasting impressions and gave them a sense of who they were in the world and what it meant to be Catholic. This identity was most often expressed in terms of religious practices in which Catholics were more or less obliged to engage. While the conferral of a religious identity has obvious value, there is a downside. Practices can become an end in themselves, and the Gospel spirit of lifelong conversion and growth in a living relationship with God can get blurred. The vary practices designed to nurture that relationship become a substitute for it.

This intense focus on children’s identity formation and Catholic practices has led gradually to a culture of complacency among adults in the Church with respect to their own faith formation. After all, if I am doing what is required, what I have been taught to do since I was little, then what is the need for further faith formation in adulthood?

Nuturing Adult Faith: A Manual for Parish Leaders is a great resource.  Click the link to the NCCL website for more great materials.

The above is an excerpt from: Nurturing Adult Faith, A Manual for Parish Leaders. Reprinted with permission ©2003 by National Conference for Catechetical Leadership.

United States Conference of Catechetical Leaders ( NCCL)