Talk 4
First National Conference
Mount St. Mary's Seminary
Elden Francis Curtiss
Archbishop of Omaha
Washington, D.C.
November 8, 1997
PRIESTLY VOCATIONS AND THE NEW EVANGELIZATION: ONE SUPPORTS THE OTHER
Pope John Paul has asked the Church throughout the world to undertake a new evangelization effort in preparation for the third millennium of Christianity. On October 8, 1995 in Baltimore, he said "the challenge of the great jubilee of the year 2000 is the new evangelization: a deepening of faith and a vigorous response to the Christian vocation to holiness and service". The Pope is asking all of us to make a more vigorous response to the Christian vocation to holiness and of service. He knows this will lead to the revitalization of Catholic life throughout the world, even in places where it is waning, because it will be based on the response of many people to their personal experience of the Lord, and on a new spirit of service which is generating many ministries in the Church. The focus of this new evangelization for us in the United States will be non-practicing Catholics and non-churched people in all the parishes across this land.
How will we undertake this new evangelization effort in the United States? How do we help our people come to a deeper appreciation of Jesus Christ and his essential role in human history? How do we lead more and more people to the richness of our tradition and the sacramental life of the Church?
Reaching out to non-practicing Catholics
We already know from current statistics that we have a major task in reaching baptized Catholics who no longer practice their faith -- estimated to be twenty million plus in the United States. Parishes that have undertaken a census of households within their boundaries have been amazed at the number of people who claim Catholic roots but are not connected in any way with the Church. In fact, they would nearly double the number of people presently participating in parish life.
These people have to be invited personally to return to the practice of their faith. They need a process to help them prepare to receive the sacraments once again, to deal with motivational problems and educational problems and often marital problems. Some need to review the fundamentals of faith before they can be fully evangelized, and then invited to be active members in the parish community. Most need considerable personal attention and follow-through support for a lengthy period of time before they will be ready to assume an active role in parish life.
Before we can begin to evangelize non-practicing Catholics effectively, we need accurate census information about them and trained people who can contact them in sensitive ways. They need to be invited to begin participating in parish life. Someone must accompany them to parish functions, and help them overcome the obstacles which stand in their way, such as old wounds, personal problems, catechetical deficiencies and the sacramental preparation which is required for reconciliation and eucharistic sharing. This means a company of people working closely with their pastors who are themselves evangelized and catechized and committed to sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with others.
Reaching out to non-churched people
We also have a growing number of non-churched people in all our parishes who depend only on secular structures to meet their needs. Many are dissatisfied with their lives and are searching for values to guide them, for better order to their lives, for greater meaning and purpose. It has been demonstrated that many are open to the Gospel if it is presented to them with sensitivity and love. They require personal invitation and follow-through and a support structure of caring people over many years to help them come to faith and commitment to a parish community. This process is the main way we will be able to attract many people to the Church and help them become permanent members. The RCIA (the catechumenate for adults) involves many people of faith in the process of welcoming non-Catholics to Jesus in his word and sacrament. It is proving to be a valuable instrument for catechizing non-churched people. The only deficiency reported to date is the lack of adequate follow-through over a long period of time for those who are baptized or received into full communion with the Church.
It is within the context of a strong faith community and personal support by many people within the community that non-churched people will be led in greater numbers into the life of the Church, and will remain part of the Church for a lifetime. This means developing a significant number of people working closely with their pastors who are willing to attend personally to the needs of non-churched people over a significant period of time. They themselves must be evangelized and catechized and committed to sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with others.
Our vocation to holiness and service
The new evangelization which Pope John Paul envisions for the world in preparation for the new millennium depends "on the deepening of faith and a vigorous response to the Christian vocation to holiness and service". The impetus for this evangelization is coming from the Holy Spirit in many amazing ways in the midst of a secularism which wars against the human spirit. 1998 has been designated by the Holy Father as the year of the Holy Spirit in preparation for the new millennium. Many powerful renewal movements in the Church today attest to this pervasive action of the Spirit. If this call to deepen one's faith and for a vigorous response to the vocation of holiness and service is incumbent on all the disciples of Jesus, then it is all the more important that the leaders of the Church undertake this renewal in the Spirit. This means bishops, priests, religious, deacons and lay leaders who are willing to commit themselves to an organized program of evangelizing non-practicing Catholics and non-churched people. The leadership of the Church has to be personally committed to this new evangelism before it can begin to take place on a large scale.
To be evangelizers, we have to be evangelized ourselves. Each of us has to be fully committed to Jesus and his gospel and his mission. We have to be believers who make the truths of faith a priority in our own lives. We have to be willing to organize our people so that they are able to contact and work with non-practicing Catholics and non-churched people, in order to help them understand the reason for our faith and our hope and our love.
Proposal for the Church in the United States
I think Pope John Paul is correct in discerning the mind of Jesus regarding evangelization for the world today. The Lord wants all of us who care about our faith, and live our faith, to be evangelizers, to be willing to reach out to other people to share his good news with them. We must, at the parish level, begin to organize ourselves for this new evangelical effort in anticipation of the great Jubilee for the year 2000.
For each diocese, it means beginning with a complete census of everyone living within parish boundaries in order to identify Catholics who are no longer practicing their faith, and non-churched people who have an interest in finding out about Catholicism. We bishops have to be willing to ask our pastors and parish leaders and all our people to begin organizing for a parish census and follow through process in preparation for the new evangelism. We will need to train people who can inquire with sensitivity about the faith life of people living within the parish, census takers who can answer the questions of people, and then place them in contact with appropriate groups to help them meet their spiritual needs. We need others who are willing to work with non-practicing Catholics once they are identified in order to help them deal with obstacles and personal concerns. We need others in the parish who are willing to become involved in catechesis and welcoming home programs to help reintroduce non-practicing Catholics into the faith life of the Church. We need sponsors who are willing to work with them over a long period of time until they are securely anchored in the sacramental life of the parish. Diocesan bishops and their staffs need to provide resource people and planning processes to help pastors and parish leaders prepare for this census and the follow through efforts which will be required.
Also, once census takers have identified non-Catholic people interested in the Church, we need parishioners who will sponsor them and offer to answer their questions and take them to parish functions and the RCIA (adult catechumenate) program. Non-churched people need considerable personal attention during their initial inquiry into Catholicism and for their long journey to the fullness of faith.
Revitalizing the Church in the United States
If all of us in our dioceses who are willing to share our faith with others will make an effort to organize ourselves into parish evangelical teams, and be willing to undertake the census and the follow-through that is needed, then we can look forward to a marked revitalization of Catholic life in the United States. There are literally millions of non-practicing Catholics and non-churched people who will be part of the faith life of the Church if only those of us who live our faith will be willing to share it with them in sensitive and organized ways.
The new evangelization effort for the Church requested by Pope John Paul to prepare ourselves to celebrate the third millennium of Christianity requires the commitment and organized effort of all the faithful disciples of Jesus. The bishops of the United States will have to ask their pastors and parish leaders to undertake a census of all the households in the diocese in order to gather the data they need to begin this new evangelization effort. Then it will be the follow-through on this data and outreach to those who are identified that will constitute the mission of this new evangelism. This will be an important pastoral undertaking for us to prepare for the celebration of the great jubilee of the year 2000.
The call to priestly holiness in the new evangelization
Because evangelizers must themselves be evangelized, and because the leaders of the Church must be evangelizers if the people are going to be evangelizers, then the call for priestly holiness is stronger today than any time during the past millennium. We bishops and priests must make our own conversion to Jesus and his gospel and his mission a top priority in our own lives, and not be distracted by lesser goals. We need to demonstrate by our lives of prayer and service, and not just be our words, that Jesus is the center of our lives and of our ministry. And when we desire more than anything else to lead people to Jesus, in his word and sacrament, especially the eucharist, and our people recognize this, then they will be willing to join with us in this new evangelization. Our own holiness is the prerequisite for this mission to succeed.
I am convinced by my own personal experience and observation that the call to holiness and service, which comes from a personal relationship with Jesus, develops within people a dynamic spirit of evangelism. We have to share our experience of the Lord with others. And it is within this context of sharing faith that many people will develop an openness to vocations to priesthood and religious life. The two go hand in hand -- the dynamic of deepened faith and the consequent call to holiness and service which brings forth a new spirit of evangelization, and that same spirit of evangelization which calls forth vocations to priesthood and religious life and a multitude of lay ministries in the Church.
When we love the Church and desire to share the richness of our faith with others; when we love the Lord because of his love which we have experienced powerfully in our own lives; when we recognize and celebrate the unity that is ours in the Spirit; when we deeply appreciate and support the office of Peter in the Church, and the college of bishops under his leadership which form the teaching magisterium of the Church; when we are loyal sons and daughters of the Church because we form together the body of Christ -- then we are compelled to share this Catholic faith of ours with others. And in this process of sharing our faith, our own faith is deepened and our call to holiness and service is strengthened. This is the foundation of the new evangelization which is beginning to be experienced throughout the Church.
This spirit of evangelization is eliciting in many young people a very positive response. They want to share their solidarity with Pope John Paul (witness the phenomenon of World Youth Day with the Pope in Denver, Manila and Paris). They want to share their solidarity with their bishops and priests. They want to be supported by the Church in their call to a deeper spirituality, a deeper faith walk, a deeper holiness. They want to be invited by somebody in the Church to share their gifts and generosity with others. They want to be invited to consider vocations to priesthood and religious life and a great variety of lay ministry possibilities. They want to be able to get on with the mission of the Church. They do not want to be part of the negative critique of Catholic life and ministry. They reject radical dissent and movements which divide the Church. They want to be part of the new renaissance of the Church, to be able to proclaim Jesus as the center of their lives, to rejoice in his word and sacrament, to be part of the community of disciples who continue his mission in the world. They want to be active, vital members of the Church.
Out of this process of a new evangelization based on a deepening faith of young people and their vigorous response to the Christian vocation to holiness and service, is developing a new wave of vocations to priesthood and religious life. In dioceses which are making an effort to tap this resource with adequate vocation ministry based on personal contact and encouragement, there is developing a growing number of seminarians who will help transform their local churches. It is happening in the Archdiocese of Omaha, so I speak from personal experience. It is happening in many other dioceses. It can happen everywhere in this nation when the new evangelization takes hold and the Spirit guides the renewal of the local church. This is the vision of Pope John Paul for the whole Church. This is the vision of all of us who live in faith.
Summary and conclusion
There are two essential elements required for our observance of the great jubilee for the year 2000 if it is to focus on the reason for our celebration. The first is a deepening faith in Jesus Christ who is Savior and Lord of all the people of the world. And the second is a vigorous response by all of us believers to our Christian vocation to holiness and service. If those who are being called to priesthood today, and those who are preparing for priestly leadership in seminaries these final years of the second millennium, are invited to take a leadership role in this new evangelization, then the seminary will in fact be the seed bed for the renewal of the Church in the third millennium. This is my challenge to Mount St. Mary's Seminary, its staff and student body, these remaining years of the twentieth century: be men of deepening faith, men of the Church, whose vigorous response to the Christian vocation to holiness and service will make you strong evangelizers in your dioceses in the years to come. This is the way that you will help revitalize Catholic life in your parishes by giving your people the inspiration and leadership they need to reach out in organized ways to non-practicing Catholics and non-churched people across your dioceses. It is Jesus appealing through his priests who will draw people into this new evangelism, if only you will be the willing instruments by which this process will take place.
In Tertio Millennio Adveniente (On the preparation of the Church for the year 2000), Pope John Paul reminds us of that remarkable phrase from the Second Vatican Council (Gaudium et Spes #22) "Christ fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear". Jesus shows us this calling by revealing the mystery of the Father and His love for us. Through the Church, Jesus helps us understand the call (the vocatio) which the Father has issued to us. Jesus helps us respond to that call by revealing the Father's plan to us. He wants the leadership of the Church to support the call to holiness and service to all her members by a process of discernment and supportive ministry which enables everyone to respond to that call. This means strong communities of faith and adequate catechesis and many renewal opportunities which enable people to answer their individual call to holiness and service. In this process there will come forth growing numbers of priests and religious who will provide the support base for the new evangelization which is taking place. Vocations to priesthood and evangelization go hand in hand. With the new evangelization will come an expanding number of vocations to priesthood and religious life. This is the double dynamic we must seek in these final years before the great jubilee.
Pope John Paul has set the tone and given us the vision for the new millennium -- it will be up to us to make it a reality.
