Success
requires creativity.
This month
the world’s bishops will gather for a Synod dedicated to the new
evangelization. The preparatory documents for the Synod refer to a promise of
“renewed missionary activity” and some in the church are hoping that these
efforts will help capture the spirit of the New Testament evangelization. Yet
we have some worries about the pastoral implementation of this enterprise. We
suspect that the recent emphasis on evangelization is merely an attempt to draw
those who have left the church back to an institution of the past.
The U.S.
bishops’ web page on new evangelization states that, according to the Center
for Applied Research in the Apostolate, “only 23% of U.S. Catholics regularly
attend Mass once a week.” Focusing on this fact is a mistake. In our experience
of helping parishes to implement evangelization plans, congregations too often
narrow their focus to “getting people back into the building.” An
evangelization effort must be broader than that.
The sole
resource on the U.S. bishops’ web site for new evangelization (Disciples Called
to Witness) devotes only six lines to works of charity and justice in four
pages about methodology. The initiatives suggested by the bishops are directed
to people already in the church: prayer and popular piety, Sunday Eucharist and
effective preaching. The Catholics Come Home web site, an initiative endorsed
by many dioceses in the United States, asserts, “It is our job … to invite our
fellow brothers and sisters home to the Church.”
Are we
pessimistic? No, but we are skeptical. Although the Spirit can surprise us with
breakthroughs, the evidence of recent years offers little encouragement
regarding the prospects for the new evangelization—at least as currently
envisioned by church leaders.
