Tom Peterson - One Moment Can Change a Soul: Helping Catholics Come Home

Helping Catholics Come Home

Tom Peterson

Foreword by Scott Hahn

Except where noted, the Scripture citations used in this work are taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible Second Catholic Edition (Ignatius Edition), copyright 1965, 1966, 2006 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Copyright 2020 by Tom Peterson, Catholics Come Home, Inc.

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This book is a second and enhanced edition of Catholics Come Home: Gods Extraordinary Plan for Your Life, published by Penguin Random House. It has been significantly revised and updated, with a new title. Our prayerful hope is that more faithful, practicing Catholics like you will be inspired by this book to more actively share your gift of faith with others, and thereby help Jesus bring more souls to heaven.

This book is dedicated to my wife, Tricia; my daughters Katie, Kimberly, and Kristina; sons-in-law Raymond and Brian; and grandchildren RJ, Hannah, Savannah, Dominic, and Lily (and those who follow). May you always be thankful for the gift of your Catholic Faith in Christ, and share this amazing gift with the whole world.

by Dr. Scott Hahn

Dr. Scott Hahn

We are in the midst of a New Evangelization; and I believe this book is a signal moment in its success. This book is a grace from God. It is also a sign that will lead many folks back home to the family of God, which is the Catholic Church.

Perhaps it would be good to explain what is meant by the New Evangelization? After all, Catholics have been hearing about it for the last few decades. During the pontificate of Pope Saint John Paul II, we heard of it often. It was something he saw very clearly, as if on the horizon. Its a destination toward which he patiently moved us. Way back in 1979, near the beginning of his reign as pope, he mentioned it in passing when he spoke at Nowa Huta, Poland, which was then a communist workers paradise and is now a Christian pilgrimage destination (because John Paul II preached there). In 1983 he spoke of the New Evangelization for the first time in a focused, intentional way, and it was already programmatic. It defined a vision. He said, while speaking to the bishops of Latin America, that the New Evangelization was to be officially launched in 1992, because that would mark the five hundredth anniversary of the founding and first evangelizing of the Americas.

Think about it: In 1492, the three most populous Catholic countries were Spain, Italy, and France. Fast-forward five hundred years, and the three most populous Catholic countries on earth today are Brazil, Mexico, and the United States, countries that did not even exist in 1492. As Europe used to be the worlds center, so now it is the Americas. And what will be in five hundred years may well depend on how we respond to the urgent call of Christs vicars to the task of the New Evangelization. In retrospect, we can see why John Paul II looked back and forward to a New Evangelization that would begin in the Americas.

In preparation for that launch, he published an encyclical in 1990, Redemptoris Missio, and there he stated: I sense that the moment has come to commit all of the Churchs energies to a new evangelization. No believer in Christ, no institution of the Church can avoid this supreme duty: to proclaim Christ to all peoples.

John Paul II went on to describe the decade of the 1990s as an extended Advent season for the New Evangelization. In short, as Advent marks the start of a new liturgical year, so the last decade of the twentieth century marked the beginning of the New Evangelization. This was clearly never intended to be a short-term campaign. It was a priority for John Paul II from the early years of his pontificate, and he carried the New Evangelization into the new millennium. Likewise, Pope Benedict renewed the call with even greater emphasis, and made it clear that it is to continue for the rest of the twenty-first century!

Indeed, if some people thought of the New Evangelization as John Paul IIs private catchphrase, they have by now been completely disabused of that notion. Not only did Pope Benedict take it up with gusto, but Pope Francis has also used it.

Pope Benedict specified more precisely what it means. In his teaching, he referred to two distinct branches of evangelization: On the one hand, evangelization refers to the continuous practice of the Churchs missionaries who have always gone out to proclaim the Gospel to those who have never heard of Jesus Christ and his message of salvation. On the other hand, he clarified that the New Evangelization is directed principally at those who, though baptized, have drifted away from the Church and live without reference to the Christian life.

In other words, Pope Benedict asked all of us to take up the work that Catholics Come Home has been doing now for years the very task thats set before us in this book. Yes, we need to reach those millions who have never heard of Christ; but first and foremost, we need to dedicate ourselves to evangelizing the baptized to reaching those prodigal sons and daughters who have strayed from the Church. Theyre outside the Church looking at its stained-glass windows, which look pretty drab from the street. But if we get these people to come back inside, theyll see and remember the glorious, luminous beauty when the light shines in from above.

The Church exists, said Pope Saint Paul VI, in order to evangelize. It is the work not just of foreign missionaries, but also of the whole Church. Evangelization is what we do because were Christian, because were Catholic. More than that, its who we are. If we dont evangelize, we simply do not exist as Christians. Isnt it tragic that we can speak today of so many formerly Christian lands, in the Middle East, in Europe in the Americas?