The New Evangelization
What It Is and How It Affects the Life of Every Catholic
Ralph Martin
Nihil Obstat
Msgr. Michael Heintz, Ph.D.
Censor Librorum
Imprimatur
Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend
August 16, 2012
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The Scripture citations used in this work are taken from the Second Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible (RSV), copyright © 1965, 1966, and 2006 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission.
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eISBN: 978-1-61278-686-5 (Inventory No.: T1391DB)
Table of Contents
Chapter I: What Is the New Evangelization?
Chapter III: Our Role in the New Evangelization
Chapter I
What Is the New Evangelization?
Rooted in Vatican II
Blessed Pope John Paul II spoke about the need for a “new evangelization” multiple times during his pontificate. When he died, many wondered what would become of this emphasis. It soon became apparent that Pope Benedict XVI would not only continue the call for a “new evangelization,” but also make it an ongoing focus of the entire Church. Pope Benedict has “institutionalized” the major emphasis that Blessed John Paul II put on the need for a “new evangelization” by establishing the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization and choosing new evangelization as the theme of the October 2012 World Synod of Bishops. The roots, though, of the current papal emphasis on a “new evangelization” are located in the rationale and documents of the Second Vatican Council, the fiftieth anniversary of which we also are commemorating. The council was called out of a sense that an authentic renewal of the Church’s life was necessary in order to more effectively communicate to the modern world the saving message of Christ.
As Cardinal Avery Dulles has pointed out, there was a significant shift in emphasis from Vatican I to Vatican II:
A simple word count indicates the profound shift in focus. Vatican I, which met from 1869-1870, used the term gospel (evangelium) only once and never used the terms evangelize and evangelization. Less than a century later, Vatican II mentioned the [word] gospel 157 times and used the verb evangelize eighteen times and the noun evangelization thirty-one times. When it spoke of evangelization, Vatican II generally meant the proclamation of the basic Christian message of salvation through Jesus Christ.1
Initial Confusion
For the first decade after Vatican II, though, the main focus of many leaders seemed to be on issues such as the sharing of power within the Church, the setting up of consultative bodies such as parish and diocesan councils, the implementation of a vernacular liturgy, the turn toward Christian unity, dialogue with non-Christian religions, and dialogue with the modern world. Accompanying this were multiple theological challenges to the teaching of the Church in the areas of sexual morality, the priesthood, and the very uniqueness and identity of Christ, which spread widespread confusion about what the Church still believed and taught. Some famous theologians gave lectures all over the world talking about Vatican II as “just the beginning” and pushing for more and more radical change, which led to a disregard for the amazingly beautiful and relevant documents themselves.
It wasn’t until 1975 and the publication of Pope Paul VI’s Evangelii Nuntiandi (apostolic exhortation on evangelization in the modern world, henceforth abbreviated as EN) that some of the most foundational themes of Vatican II resurfaced. Both Popes Paul VI and John Paul II often summarized the deepest purpose of the council as renewal for the sake of evangelization. As Pope Paul stated it, the purposes of the council “are definitively summed up in this single one: to make the Church of the twentieth century ever better fitted for proclaiming the Gospel to the people of the twentieth century” (EN, 2). The popes have identified renewal in holiness as the primary renewal that the council called for, and the primary outward fruit of such holiness, a “new evangelization.”
As Blessed John Paul II stated in his 1990 encyclical on evangelization, Redemptoris Missio (“Mission of the Redeemer,” henceforth abbreviated as RM):
The call to mission derives, of its nature, from the call to holiness. … The universal call to holiness is closely linked to the universal call to mission. Every member of the faithful is called to holiness and to mission. (RM, 90)2
What Is the New Evangelization?
Starting in 1983, Pope John Paul II began to frequently call for a “new evangelization.” He made it clear that he wasn’t calling for a new gospel, but a new effort, characterized by new “ardor, methods, and expression,”3 and directed in a new way, not only to those who have never heard the Gospel before — the traditional “mission territories” — but now also to the lukewarm and de-Christianized traditionally Christian Western nations.
The new evangelization does not consist of a “new gospel.” … Neither does it involve removing from the Gospel whatever seems difficult for the modern mentality to accept. … The new evangelization has as its point of departure the certitude that in Christ there are “inexhaustible riches” (Eph 3:8) which no culture nor era can exhaust. … These riches are, first of all, Christ himself, his person, because he himself is our salvation.4
He distinguished “primary evangelization” directed toward those who have never heard the Gospel before, “pastoral care” directed toward those who were living as believers, and “new evangelization or re-evangelization” directed toward those from traditionally Christian cultures or backgrounds “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” (RM, 33). To state it in a simple way, what’s primarily new about the “new evangelization” is whom it is directed toward, the baptized who are not living in an active relationship of discipleship with Jesus. It is also “new” in the