Setting the context - Diocese of Green Bay | Front Page€¦ · • Scholasticism • Rationality / Ideology / “Matching the ideal” = dominant . Current Intellectual Context
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SETTING THE CONTEXT Where are we in the Life of the Church and how did we get here? Regional Discipleship Seminars
SETTING THE CONTEXT Where are we in the Life of the Church and how did we get here?
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Goals for This Presentation • Offer an overview of “where we are” as a society
and as a Church
• Understand “how we got here” by tracing the gradual shift from a personal / interpersonal approach to evangelization to an institutional approach to evangelization over 2000 years
• Understand what is “new” about the New Evangelization
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Central Claim #1
• The Catholic Church cannot continue to do “business as usual”
• “Today, a "business as usual" attitude can no longer be the case.”
- Synod on the New Evangelization, Lineamenta, par. 10
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Support for Claim #1: Cultural Transition
Former Intellectual Context
Definitions / Laws = point of departure for the way we live our lives
• E.G. Definition of human person = point of departure for moral conversation
• Scholasticism • Rationality / Ideology /
“Matching the ideal” = dominant
Current Intellectual Context
LIFE = point of departure for definitions / laws
• E.G. Human experience = point of departure for moral choices
• Highly creative time • Poetry / images / “creating
the ideal” = dominant
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Presenter
Presentation Notes
Christians arguing over terminology / doctrinal vocabulary / definitions / the kinds of laws that should be on the books. Meanwhile, the world has moved on. To use a concrete image, it is like the cultural clock says that it is noon and we Christians are still in our pajamas. The world used to laugh at us . . . Increasingly, however, it seems that we are becoming so irrelevant that the world is simply ignoring us. We do not even merit being laughed at any more. The cultural train that left the station in the 12th and 13th centuries with scholasticism has come to the end of the line. It seems to me that we have two choices: We can live in denial of this fact. We can continue to think and act the way we have been thinking and acting for the last 800 years OR we can pay attention, recognize the profound cultural shift that is taking place around us and act accordingly – that is, we can switch trains. We can throw up our hands and act like “chicken little” or we can decide to see the incredible opportunity that lies before us. In the Gospel, the Lord Jesus says that he came that we might have LIFE and have it to the full! SO, with the Gospel, we Christians have the very thing that this culture wants and needs . . . And so often we settle to deliver a doctrinal message that does not even scratch the surface. It seems to me that we are already about 100 years behind the shift . . . We can continue to drag our feet. But do we really want to still be in our pajamas at 3 in the afternoon?
New Evangelization: A Passing Fad?
• Anyone who believes the New Evangelization to be a passing fad is not paying attention to two truths: • The Intellectual Culture has
changed • The fact that the Church’s
mission is to preach the Gospel, i.e. to evangelize. The Church stops being the Church if she fails to evangelize.
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In Our Diocese • In the 16 counties of the Diocese of Green Bay, the population is 1.2
million. • Of that number 326,466 are registered Catholics. (2015) • 54% of Catholics do not believe in the real presence of Christ in the
Eucharist.
In the Past 10 Years Diocese Nationally Infant Baptisms -30% -25%
First Communion -31% -10% Catechesis/RE Elem students -46% -23%
Catechesis/RE HS students -57% -19% Confirmations -26% -7%
Marriages -40% -58%
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A Time of Hard Truths • “The hard truth: Young people are
leaving the Faith more rapidly and at a younger age than ever before”
• 13 – typical age at which young people interviewed decided to leave the Church
• 2/3 said they stopped being Catholic between 10 and 17
• 23% said they left the faith by the age of 10
• 42% of millennials report never having had any kind of Catholic education (Catholic schools, religious ed)
• Only 13% said that they would ever consider returning to the Church
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Presentation Notes
Our Sunday Visitor editorial, at https://www.osv.com/OSVNewsweekly/Faith/Article/TabId/720/ArtMID/13628/ArticleID/20519/Editorial-The-hard-truth.aspx, accessed 16 September 2016 Study lead by Dr. Mark Gray, Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (Georgetown) and reported in Our Sunday Visitor
A Time for Crucial Questions • “Few people today . . . would deny that catechesis
is a recurring pain point for the Church. The number of those enrolled in Catholic education is in steep decline. And few Church leaders . . . pause to ask a basic question: is our inherited model for parish-based religious education effective in today’s culture?”
• “Are we willing to confront that our model (processes and systems) for handing on the Faith might need a significant overhaul?”
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Central Claim #2 Over the course of the Church’s 2,000 year history, we have
witnessed a shift in evangelization:
FROM TO
Personal (see slide below)
Ecclesial / Sacramental
Mystagogical & Life Changing
Individual (See slide below) Institutional
Maintenance of the Church as a
“Perfect Society”
The New Evangelization marks a recovery of the former way of understanding the Church and evangelization.
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“Individual” versus “Person” • “Individual” describes the human
condition after sin. • Isolated • Hostile • Cannot be point of departure
for our understanding of Church
• “Person” describes the redeemed human condition.
• In the image of God who is relationship; breathing the Life of Christ
• Each life ontologically “sewn into” Christ and all of the baptized
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Sacramental versus Institutional
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• Ecclesial / Sacramental • Church is a place in which
heaven and earth meet / are married
• Church contemplating God / F, S, HS
• Institutional • Church mediates grace • Church contemplates
herself and her structures to ensure that she is doing her job
Mystagogical versus Maintenance
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• Mystagogical • Mission = introducing
persons to mystery of Christ’s own life within the baptized
• Lives are changed by the power of the Gospel
• Maintenance • Mission = introducing
persons to sacramental practice and ecclesial discipline
• Church bolsters her structures
“Types” of Catholics in a Maintenance Model
• “Professional” Catholics/Christians
• “Consumer”
Catholics/Christians
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Who are the “Professional” Christians?
• Bishop • Clergy • Religious
• Lay Ecclesial Ministry / Leadership
• Catechists • Youth Ministry / Adult Faith Formators • Parish Council Members • Church Business Managers
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“Consumer” Catholics in a Maintenance Model • Those who go to Church on Sundays out of a sense
of obligation or un-reflected habit • Even though they do not experience God as real / as
wanting to be in relationship with them
• Those who send their children to parish catechetical programs out of a sense of obligation of un-reflected habit • Even though they experience little to no benefit to
• Church Ministry tends to feel “monological” instead of “dialogical”
• Decisions are made out of a “positional” logic rather than out of a “relational” logic
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HOW DID WE GET HERE? Overview of Evangelization throughout Church History
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Consequences?
• Growing numbers of “nones”. • Those who are baptized but
who leave the Church and who choose to live without any reference to their baptism.
• Those who are looking for relationships and who are given programs instead.
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Major Resource
• R. Cantalamessa, Navigating the New Evangelization, Pauline Books and Media, 2014.
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History of Evangelization Overview
• First Wave of Evangelization – First Three centuries; Age of the Church Fathers. From the Baptized to the Bishops
• Second Wave of Evangelization – Middle Ages (5th – 15th centuries) – Age of Popes and Missionary Monks
• Third Wave of Evangelization – Age of Exploration / Early Modernity – Age of Colonizing Kingdoms and Mendicant / Jesuit Missionaries
• New Evangelization – Post-Modernity / Now, The Baptized
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Presentation Notes
Historical Motivation: This very first wave of Evangelization begins with the missionary activity about which we read in the Acts of the Apostles where we learn that this wave of Evangelization is motivated by concrete historical events. We learn that the martyrdom of St. Stephen, which is recorded in Acts 7 (verses 54 ff), lead to a persecution of the Church in Jerusalem. This persecution, which we might tend to view in a negative key, bore fruit in that it lead to the dispersal of Christians, which in turn lead to the conversion of the Samaritans (Acts 8. 4 – 17) and even an Ethiopian (Acts 8. 26 – 39). We read in chapter 8 of Acts: there broke out a severe persecution of the church in Jerusalem, and all were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made a loud lament over him. Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the church; entering house after house and dragging out men and women, he handed them over for imprisonment. Now those who had been scattered went about preaching the word. (Acts 8. 1-4) WHO? Protagonists Individuals = Evangelizers - First missionary activity of the Church / the propagation of the LIFE of FAITH was undertaken at personal initiative . . . itinerant prophets (For example, in Chapters 11, 12, 13 of the Didache). Conversions to Christ were due to personal contacts often made on the job / between persons who shared the same trade (See also Origen, Contra Celsum) Community / Bishop = Evangelizer - Mid 3rd Century – Evangelization as personal initiative becomes more organized; no longer individual initiative, but rather an initiative of the local Christian community. The Bishops, in response to divisive heresies at the time, begin to emerge / act / take on more and more the role of true leader / administrator / guide of the local communities. Bishop becomes central to missionary activity. Theological Motivation: The first wave of Christian Evangelization or mission was motivated and propelled by three convictions: First: The Church was (and still is, by the way) convinced that Jesus Christ is the only name in whom one can be saved. Faith in Jesus Christ is the only possibility for salvation. There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.” (Acts 4.12) Second: If Jesus is the Universal Savior, then the Church has a universal mission. Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. (Mark 16. 15); Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, (Matt 28.19); But you will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1.8) Third: Those who belonged to the first Church community lived with the expectation that the Jesus’ return in glory and hence the end of the world was immanent . . . would be happening “tomorrow”. As a result, if they were going to live up to or meet the universal mission to preach the Gospel to every creature, they needed to get to work! End of 3rd Century Christian faith has penetrated all strata of society Has a body of literature – GREEK!!! (Latin just beginning) Christianity has solid internal organization Christians beginning to build more buildings, lasting building Second Wave of Evangelization: Invasion of Barbarian Kings / Fall of Roman Empire. Culturally / intellectually, the Roman Christians had regarded the Barbarians NOT ONLY as OUTSIDERS, but also ENTIRELY INFERIOR to Greco-Roman Culture. The Barbarian tribes were viewed as populations to be shunned. This is the view that St. Jerome had . . . It is clear in this situation that the Church of early Christianity was still learning how to translate Paul’s words into lived reality: Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all and in all. (Col 3. 11) How should Christians behave toward these Barbarians who were either PAGAN or, if they were Christians, were heretical? Only GRADUALLY (and with the help of St. Augustine) did Christians begin to perceive the possibility that these Barbarian tribes might be regarded as brothers in the faith. The Church moved from perceiving the Barbarians simply as a threat, they began to be perceived as a new missionary field. This wave of Evangelization, then, is characterized by the conversions of any number of Barbarian Kings. Names like (Clovis (466 – 511), Charlemagne (742 – 814), Stephen of Hungary (975 – 1038) characterize this wave of evangelization. Tasks - Religious and Cultural Image – the crown with which Pope Sylvester II crowned Stephen, a convert to Christianity, as king of Hungary – Christmas day in the year 1000. In the first wave of Evangelization, Christianity existed within a culturally developed, unified world; politically organized, languages in common. Christianity no longer exists within a unified culture / within a unified world-view. As a result, Evangelization in this second wave had two major tasks: The RELIGIOUS task of overcoming heretical Christianity – heretics are no longer “those people out there” The CULTURAL task of CIVILIZING / EDUCATING – THIS is the time in history when the Church becomes the custodian of Western Intellectual culture. The Church had to teach people how to read and write (in some cases, give peoples an alphabet so that they can codify their language - Sts. Cyril and Methodius who invented the Cyrilic alphabet for the Slavic peoples. Protagonists No longer are individuals and Bishops the main protagonists . . . the stakes are “too high”, so to speak. In this phase of evangelization, the protagonists have moved up the chain of command to be POPES and MONKS. The dynamic was one in which Popes used Monks (Benedictines) as missionaries: and these missionaries were given the task of BOTH Christianizing and CIVILIZING Pope St. Leo the Great (391 / 400 – 461) – famous encounter with Attila the Hun saved Rome from being sacked . . . Pope Gregory the Great Pope Gregory II (669 - 731) – responsible for sending St. Boniface from England to the Germans St. Patrick (387 - 460) St. Benedict (480 – 543) St. Boniface (680 - 755) – Apostle to the Germans Sts. Cyril(826 / 827 – 869) and Methodius (815 - 885) – Apostles to the Slavs Several other big names that belong to this wave of Evangelization: St. Jerome (340 – 420) – looks at the past with nostalgia – afraid of the future St. Augustine (354 - 430)– able to look to the future – City of God Successes The existence of Western culture and Civilization is a tribute to the success of this wave of Evangelization . . . the existence of Universities (which are an invention of the Catholic Church) is also a tribute to the success of this wave of Evangelization . . .
EVANGELIZING THE “CATECHIZED”
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The New Evangelization
Presenter
Presentation Notes
What’s New about the New Evangelization? I like to say that WE ARE what is new about New Evangelization. Never before has the Church existed in Post-Modern Culture . . . Never before has the Church had to discern ways to speak the Gospel credibly to this particular culture. Never before has the Church been so conscious of so many who are baptized, but who have no living sense of their Baptism and what it means for their existence / life: John Paul II: “Thirdly, there is an intermediate situation, particularly in countries with ancient Christian roots, and occasionally in the younger Churches as well, where entire groups of the baptized have lost a living sense of the faith, or even no longer consider themselves members of the Church, and live a life far removed from Christ and his Gospel. In this case what is needed is a "new evangelization" or a "re-evangelization.” (Redemptoris Missio, #33) Context / Recipients – Baptized / Catechized Catholics who live without reference to Christ or their Baptism. (Pope Benedict, Homily for the opening of the Synod 2012)
DNA
THE GENOME
IMAGES OF MARS AND SATURN
IMAGES OF DISTANT NEBULAE
THE UNIVERSE
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Presentation Notes
We are living in a time when we no longer have a clear idea in our mind of what it means to be Christian. We have mapped DNA and the genome . . . we have taken photos of Mars and Saturn . . . we have witnessed through our many lenses on the universe the birth of new stars . . . we have mapped the universe . . . we have mapped the depths of the ocean . . . we investigate quasars and sub-molecular biology. As a human race we have accomplished all of this. But at the end of the day, we know even less about ourselves as human persons than ever before.
The New Evangelization
"People have to see the Gospel in the way we live....we are starting from Christ again. It means being familiar with him, staying within him, listening to him and learning from him". - Pope Francis
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Jesus Christ – Point of Departure for New Evangelization - Slide 19 We have forgotten that in order to know ourselves we must know Jesus Christ . . . we have forgotten that Jesus Christ is more fundamental to both our identity and our existence than either the genome or the universe. Jesus Christ, then, must be the point of departure for the New Evangelization, as Pope Francis said: "People have to see the Gospel in the way we live....we are starting from Christ again. It means being familiar with him, staying within him, listening to him and learning from him". In His person, Jesus Christ is the DNA of both human and Christian Existence. We are transfused with this DNA by the power of the Holy Spirit at our Baptism. Our Baptism introduces us into Christ’s body of believers called the Church. More profoundly our Baptism inserts us into the life of Christ so that, like St. Paul, we too can say “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” We have been Christi-formed by our Baptisms. We need to learn to appreciate this initial encounter with Christ and live in such a way as to both deepen and manifest this encounter.
Central Message
“Jesus Christ loves you; he gave his life to save you; and now he is living at your side every day to enlighten,
strengthen, and free you.” - Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, par. 164
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The New Evangelization • Addressed to those who have been baptized / the
catechized who live without any reference to their baptism
• Protagonists – all of the Baptized in our capacity / vocation as baptized
• Methods • Primacy on LIFE / testimony of one’s life. Jesus Christ has
changed my life; my Baptism has made all of the difference • Pastoral approaches that are organically tied to the LIFE that
the baptized live
New programs miss the point: New / renewed Christians are the point.
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• deepen his or her own faith, • have confidence in the Gospel, and • possess a willingness to share the Gospel.
“It is a personal encounter with the person of Jesus, which brings peace and joy.” - USCCB, Disciples Called to Witness, 2012
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The New Evangelization is a call to each person to:
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Presentation Notes
The USCCB, in its document Disciples Called to Witness: the New Evangelization published in 2012 had this to say: The New Evangelization is a call to each person to deepen his or her own faith, have confidence in the Gospel, and possess a willingness to share the Gospel. It is a personal encounter with the person of Jesus, which brings peace and joy. When we use the word “faith” we can tend to mean “doctrine”, and when we speak about “handing on the faith” we can mean “teaching doctrines”. Catechesis, in large part, has been reduced to this – the teaching of doctrines. We have forgotten that: “in the beginning” Catechesis presupposed an experience of the Lord Jesus that moved the catechumen to entrust their life to Him. “in the beginning,” Catechesis was formation in Christian existence . . . that is, it was formation in the right worship of God made possible in Jesus, and in how to conduct one’s life in syntony with the life of Christ into which Baptism inserted a person. We must recover the “other half of faith”, and that is faith as an act of entrustment of our lives to Christ. This can only happen as the result of A LIVING ENCOUNTER WITH THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. On the strength of this encounter, each one of us can (MUST) become a “space”, so to speak, where others can encounter Christ. Doctrinal faith is founded on faith as the entrustment of our lives to Christ. In other words, the goal of the New Evangelization cannot settle to be the adoption of new programs. The goal of the New Evangelization must be new Christians. The Church must become a clear and credible community of disciples; of individuals who have entrusted their lives to Christ.
