Donald Wuerl - New Evangelization: Passing on the Catholic Faith Today

New Evangelization

New Evangelization

Passing on the Catholic Faith Today

Cardinal Donald Wuerl

OUR SUNDAY VISITOR PUBLISHING DIVISION

OUR SUNDAY VISITOR, INC.

HUNTINGTON, INDIANA 46750

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C., and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

English translations of the propositions of the Synodus Episcoporum Bulletin and other Vatican documents from the Vatican website, www.vatican.va, 2012 by Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Every reasonable effort has been made to determine copyright holders of excerpted materials and to secure permissions as needed. If any copyrighted materials have been inadvertently used in this work without proper credit being given in one form or another, please notify Our Sunday Visitor in writing so that future printings of this work may be corrected accordingly.

Copyright 2013 by Cardinal Donald Wuerl. Published 2013.

18 17 16 15 14 13 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

All rights reserved. With the exception of short excerpts for critical reviews, no part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever without permission in writing from the publisher. Contact: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., 200 Noll Plaza, Huntington, IN 46750; 1-800-348-2440;

ISBN: 978-1-61278-698-8 (Inventory No. T1403)

eISBN: 978-1-61278-302-4

LCCN: 2012955315

Cover design: Lindsey Riesen

Interior design: Dianne Nelson

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Chapter 1:
Evangelization and the New Evangelization

Chapter 2:
The Context Today of Our Faith Proclamation

Chapter 3:
The Kerygma The Core of the Good News

Chapter 4:
The Church Home of the Good News

Chapter 5:
The Church Font of the New Evangelization

Chapter 6:
Parishes Centers of the New Evangelization

Chapter 7:
The Theological Tasks of the New Evangelization

Chapter 8:
Sharing the Faith

Conclusion:
You Will Be My Witnesses (Acts 1:8)

Summaries and Reflections for Personal and Parish Use

At the end of each chapter, you will find summaries and reflections which are designed for personal use or group discussion. They are intended especially for pastors and adult formation directors who wish to study this text and the New Evangelization in parish programs. Ideal for small groups, answers to the reflection questions could be written and/or discussed at the parish level. Individual readers would also welcome these additions as they help mediate the message and mission of the New Evangelization for personal faith development. The boxed sections are taken directly from the text and will help to highlight a strong point in each chapter.

As I took my aisle seat on the plane, the woman in the window seat turned and introduced herself, and seeing my Roman collar she said, Have you been born again? Yes, I responded, and she immediately asked, When?

I said: In baptism. And I have been trying to grow into that new life ever since. Oh, she said, youre Catholic, which led her to another question and the beginning of a conversation that lasted the entire flight. She noted that as Catholics we are big on this Church thing. She recognized this was a major difference between us. Then, she showed me her small prayer book that had in it a number of quotations from the New Testament reminding us that we have received new life in Christ and asked, Tell me about this Church thing that is so important to you.

We began with Matthews Gospel and Peters confession about Jesus that led to Jesus announcement, You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church (Mt 16:18).

As the conversation unfolded, and as she raised a number of significant questions, we talked about Jesus establishing his new Body, the Church, how we are all invited into the family of God, how the apostles mission continues today through the bishops who lead the Church, and how the work of Saint Peter is carried on today by the Bishop of Rome, the pope.

As we landed and were taxiing up to the gate, the man in the aisle seat directly across from me leaned over and said: Father, I couldnt help but hear this conversation. Im Catholic, and I didnt know all of that.

Those conversations recalled for me a still earlier conversation I had on a flight going to one of our bishops conference meetings. As I took my seat, the man in the seat next to me asked where I was going. With a smile, I answered, To the same destination you are, I hope! He chuckled and added, No, what I meant to say was, Whats the purpose of your trip? I told him and then asked him why he was traveling. Sounding discouraged, he said, Im going to the first Communion of my kid brothers kid. Then to add emphasis to his displeasure, he said, Im going because my mother called and said, I want to see you there.

I interjected that a first Communion is a very happy event. He shot back, Maybe for you. This unfolded into a two-hour-long conversation about holy Communion, the Mass and the Eucharist. My travel companion claimed to be Catholic, or, as he described it, a Catholic who is no longer into the faith. The more we talked, the more it was clear he had no real understanding of what the Catholic faith teaches on something as basic as the Eucharist. He said he had been to some religious education programs when he was little, but that they had not meant much to him.

This time around, though, he showed real interest in what he thought he already knew. He was now realizing he was mistaken or simply missing information about the faith of the Church.

As our plane landed and taxied up to the gate, he turned and very seriously said, Thanks, Father, for talking to me about this Eucharist thing; its really cool, and then corrected himself, I mean really great.

During the recent Synod on the New Evangelization, those conversations came flooding back. In one way or another, they represented all the different manifestations of why we need a New Evangelization and to whom, in one way or another, it should be directed.

The New Evangelization will likely resonate with so many of our young people who are actively searching for a deeper connectedness to the Church. The night before I left Washington for the synod meeting in Rome, I had Mass with a large number of students who are part of the campus ministry program at George Washington University. Following the Mass, I joined the chaplain and the students for some burritos. The students were happy to tell me that under the direction and encouragement of their energetic chaplain, they think of themselves as apostles on the campus, charged to bring somebody else back to Mass.

Only a short time before, I had met with a number of students at The Catholic University of America who were also very much committed to coming together in small groups to deepen their prayer life and their understanding of the faith.

Almost immediately after I returned from the synod, I visited the Catholic Center at the University of Maryland, where I celebrated Mass for several hundred students and then joined them for a buffet supper. The students were quick to point out to me how their chaplain, who concelebrated Mass with me and whom they greatly appreciated, continually urges them to invite fellow students to Mass. Next to me at the supper was a young lady in the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiaion of Adults) program who told me that it was precisely because of an invitation she had received to come to Mass that she eventually came to the decision to become a member of the Church.