Church Exists to Evangelize! Pope Calls every Catholic to Become a Missionary

By Deacon Keith Fournier
1/28/2011
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

The Lord of the harvest is calling workers into the fields of contemporary culture which are ripe and ready for harvest.

Pope Benedict XVI does not want "Mission Sunday" 2011 to pass by as one more commemoration in our liturgical observance. Rather, he wants it to ignite a fervent missionary movement in the Catholic Church. He is calling the entire Catholic Church into a new missionary age. We are living in a global moment of need and Pope Benedict XVI is calling us all to become missionaries. Let us here the call and respond.

Pope Benedict XVI at a Wednesday General Audience

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VATICAN CITY, (Catholic Online) - On the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, January 25, 2011, Pope Benedict XVI made public his message for World Mission Sunday. It is entitled "As the Father has sent me, so I send you "(Jn 20:21) World Mission Sunday falls on October 23, 2011. The full text of this message will soon be available in English on the Vatican website. However, my very rough translation of the Italian persuaded me to do what I could to expose as many of the faithful I could to this heartfelt and urgent summons given to all of us by the successor of Peter.

Clearly, Pope Benedict XVI does not want "Mission Sunday" 2011 to pass by as one more commemoration in our liturgical observance. Rather, he wants it to ignite a fervent missionary movement in the Catholic Church. He is calling the entire Catholic Church into a new missionary age.

Pope Benedict XVI begins his message quoting the Venerable John Paul II, from his apostolic letter at the turn of the New Millennium and his encyclical letter on the permanent validity of the Churches Missionary Vocation. He then calls every member of the Church to proclaim the Gospel to everyone "with the same enthusiasm as the early Christians" explaining "the Gospel is not the exclusive property of those who received it, but it is a gift to share, good news to report. And this gift-commitment is given not only to some, but to all the baptized, who are "chosen race ... a holy people, God's own people" (1 Peter 2:9), may declare his wonderful works."

Pope Benedict reminds us all that the Church "exists to evangelize" with an urgency reminiscent of the Saint whose feast we celebrated the day this message was made public. He writes,"This task has lost none of its urgency.We cannot rest easy at the thought that, after two thousand, there are people who still do not know Christ, who have not yet heard His message of salvation."

Here he is speaking of the missionary mandate of the Church "ad gentes" , to the Nations. The Church has always taught that every single human being on the face of the earth has a right to hear the liberating Gospel message of Jesus Christ as fully revealed in the heart of His Catholic Church. However, in order to be able to engage this task, Catholic Christians need to be renewed in their own Baptismal faith through an encounter with the Risen Lord and solid catechesis in living as a Catholic Christian.

This is what is meant by the "New Evangelization". The Pope writes, " there are growing numbers of people who, though having received the Gospel announcement, have forgotten or abandoned it and no longer identify themselves in the Church; and many environments, even in traditionally Christian societies, are reluctant to open themselves to the word of faith."

Throughout his pontificate, John Paul II called for this "New Evangelization". Pope Benedict XVI has made it a pillar of his pontificate. He erected a Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization charged with re-evangelizing countries where the Gospel was announced centuries ago, but where its presence in peoples' daily life seems to be all but lost. He constantly reminds us that cultures formerly infused with a Christian culture are desperately in need of being evangelized anew. His encouragement of the predominantly lay ecclesial movements in the Church is an indicator of the seriousness with which he views this task.

When the Venerable John Paul visited the Americas he released a letter "To the Church in America" in which he wrote, "The new Evangelization calls for a clearly conceived, serious, and well organized effort to evangelize culture. The Son of God, by taking upon Himself our human nature, became incarnate within a particular people, even though His redemptive death brought redemption to all people, of every culture, race and condition. The gift of His Spirit and His love are meant for each and every people and culture, in order to bring them all into unity after the perfect unity existing in the Triune God." (Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia in America, 70)

This New Evangelization invites each of us to live our baptismal vocation, no matter what our state in life, completely given over to the work of the Lord. It is meant to bring about an authentic renewal of the Church so that she can undertake a new missionary outreach to the whole world. Only a Church fully alive in the ...

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1 - 10 of 14 Comments

Irl Gladfelter
2 years ago
This is an important and timely article. Opus Dei has a wonderful program for participating in this New Evangelism personally, in the workplace, while seeking one's own sanctity through the pursuit of excellence in one's daily work as a spiritual discipline and as a gift to Christ. I invite you all to look into participating in this fine prelacy.

Blessings,
Irl
James Miano
2 years ago
you are doing a commedable work.
james
2 years ago
good work
PhilipEdmund
2 years ago
I just read this post again. Outstanding job! The Church exists to evangelize! Requesting more guidance, please!
JeanCatherine
2 years ago
techwreck

Are you listening to Holy Father? He is leading us. The Bishops know and they are trying to do just that.

We all need to get those bibles out, study the church Fathers when we can do as some have said above. Are we evangelizing on here to--on the web?

Our bishops are doing the best they can and they have a right to defend life and speak out against politicians---our own people. If they dont who will. I have often seen people say on these very sights---

So how come our Bishops dont speak out. Well they are doing so and Im going to back them.

They are seen in Washington for the March for Life. They are in the churches. They have a right to speak out on social issues which border on politics if they sound wrong to what is church teaching.

Yes, they should be shepherds and lead the people and they will so lets pray they do. Im not arguing with you I agree on some of your points but this is what I have followed and see. They do not endorse candidates which is a political problem for them but they can speak out about injustice in the political arena.

Christ did. He said to Pontius Pilot: "You have no authority over me unless it was given from above." He spoke out against a politician and I hope our Bishops do the same if it is unjust.
Mary Flor Rosario T. Brillantes
2 years ago
I am a Marian warrior and I believe Mother Mary is the first disciple of Christ! We would not have a Brother Jesus if without her being. I could not see how other religion despise her, how would a Child of Mother Mary see those people in the eyes when He found out those people despise His Mother? I see how hard until now people could not accept that very fact, she was chosen to be the Mother of God. I feel sorry for them and how I feel sorry for humanity, we do not agree with this fact. How then can we be united as one, when the only being who wants His Son to lead people can never be accepted as a Mother? Her discipleship was broken because a person broke his belief with a Mother's care. Our Mother Mary's exemplary leadership and discipleship is my very inspiration for my spiritual quest. Please help me pray to be of service.
Jose
2 years ago
God bless Pope Benedict!!!!
Therese
2 years ago
Praise to Jesus Christ! This web address takes you to a piece about Catholic door to door evangelization. http://www.historicalchristian.com/my_weblog/2007/10/evangelization-.html
E. Joseph Ricard
2 years ago
What better way to evangelize then to ask people to pray for just causes.There are many religions throughout the world, all believing in the same God and through our electronics, we can unite in prayer. Example being, when I am asked to pray for this or that person because of illness or financial disaster I disseminate this info to all in my email address book regardless of faith and I ask them to pray for the individual or cause and in turn I ask them to ask others in their address book to pray for the same individual or cause. The majority of those asked will oblige but there are still some who choose not to prayer for people they do not know. Now when Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote their gospels and peached, they preached to total strangers. We to must reach out to total strangers and teach them The Power of Prayer"
Davide
2 years ago
I hope liberal and progressive Catholic's don't become 'missionaries', they will be preaching and advocating a false Christ and gospel.

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