Curtis Martin and Ralph Martin: Pope's US Appointees Stress Urgency of the New Evangelization

By Benjamin Mann
12/10/2011
Catholic News Agency (www.catholicnewsagency.com)

The fields are ripe for harvest all around us

Both men will advise the council that exists to re-awaken Christian faith in areas where it once thrived but has now declined. They are among the 15 new consultants announced by the Holy See Dec. 7, a group that includes six laypersons and nine clergy.

(left to Right) Ralph Martin and Curtis Martin

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DENVER, CO (CNA/EWTN News) - Catholics must rediscover their religious identity and mission, according to two new American appointees to the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization.

"In a certain sense we don't have an option," said Curtis Martin, founder and president of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS). He was named as a consultant for the council on Dec. 7, along with Sacred Heart Major Seminary Professor Dr. Ralph Martin.

"If we continue to do what we've been doing the last 40 years, we're on a course for self-destruction," Curtis Martin said. "The good news is that the Church has within herself the mechanisms for healing - first and foremost, through the grace of God; but secondly, through a rediscovery of the Church's identity."

When it comes to evangelism, the FOCUS founder - who also teaches at Denver's Augustine Institute - told CNA that the Church has both a problem and an opportunity.

"Many Catholics suffer from a 'Catholic identity crisis,'" he said. "We don't understand what evangelization is, or how to do it."

"We are told by the Church, that the Church exists in order to evangelize," he noted. "So there is an opportunity to rediscover the meaning and purpose of being Catholic, and that will bring about a renewal of Catholic faith and Catholic culture."

Dr. Ralph Martin, who serves as president of Renewal Ministries, alongside teaching at Sacred Heart, says Catholics must not entrust the spread of the Gospel solely to priests or to a professional class of experts.

"The main thing is awakening each Catholic to the fact that, just by virtue of them being baptized, they're called to participate in the mission of Christ," he told CNA. "That mission is primarily focused on bringing people to himself - saving them from hell, saving them for heaven."

"It involves awakening the baptismal identity of the average Catholic, because the priest can't possibly carry out the New Evangelization all by himself. It has to be priests and people working together, having a mentality in the parish: 'We're a missionary center. We're an evangelization center.'"

"The fields are ripe for harvest all around us," Ralph Martin said.

"That means taking advantage of every contact we have with people, to look for opportunities to draw them towards faith."

Both of the new papal appointees stressed the difference between Catholic missionary work, and the efforts of other Christian groups - whose energy and zeal cannot make up for the fullness of truth and sacramental life.

"Catholic evangelization is drawing people not only to Christ, but to his body the Church," said Ralph Martin.

"As a Catholic, you can't evangelize someone without being concerned about them coming to Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist - the full Christian sacramental initiation."

Curtis Martin described the Church's communal dimension as a vital principle, waiting to be rediscovered.

"We, as Catholics, by the grace of God, have Jesus Christ as our eldest brother," he explained. "His Father becomes our father. His mother becomes our mother. And we are grafted into the life of the Church, whose members are brothers and sisters."

With this sense of life, he said, believers can begin the task of re-Christianizing Europe and North America.

"There were generations before Christ that didn't know him-but we are a generation that has walked away, or slipped away, or been drawn away from him. And we have to acknowledge that," he noted.

Nevertheless, divine grace-"the same energy that made Europe, or any Christian culture, what it was"-remains accessible to the faithful.

"If we turn again, in fidelity to the energy of Christ-the energy of truth, and of compelling charity-those forces that transformed the world once will transform it again," Curtis Martin predicted.

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Founded in continued response to Pope John Paul II�s call for a �New Evangelization,� the Catholic News Agency (CNA) has been, since 2004, one of the fastest growing Catholic news providers to the English speaking world.

Keywords: New Evangelization, Curtis Martin, Ralph Martin,

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1 - 8 of 8 Comments

Diane
1 year ago
We Catholics evangelise because we have the constant presence of Christ in the Tabernacle. Having found and received Him in Communion how could you not want to bring others to Him? We faithful Catholics will not leave Him, like Peter we say "Where would we go Lord, for You are the Son of the Living God." Remember, Peter said this after many had turned from Jesus after He preached the Doctrine of the Eucharist. Remain faithful to the Eucharistic Christ and He will show you how to evangelise. He after all died so that all could have Him in the Eucharist. The idea came to me a while back to put a writing about the Holy Name of Jesus and it's benefits on the outside of my door among the Christmas cards I have taped there. I live in an apartment bldg. of 110 people. People are stopping to read it. They know I'm Catholic and attend daily Mass. That's all part of evangelization. We start way down low on the ground in ordinary ways to plant seeds for Christ. Yes, I have brought some souls to join the Church. I first receive and adore Christ in Communion and He then uses me to bring others to Him. That's evangelization. Not extraordinary maybe, but plain and simple everyday. Also say the daily Rosary and you will get all kinds of Grace to evangelize.
stceolfrithtx
1 year ago
Ralph Martin is the gray-haired one of the two. As of my writing this, the caption on the photo misidentifies the two.
Joseph Clem
1 year ago
The picture caption is incorrect. Ralph Martin is on the left and Curtis Martin is on the right.
God Bless!
James Ryan
1 year ago
Well, I don't think the "New Evangelization" will get any further with this pair of charismatics. Their lifeteen style of worship is so protestantized that it leads to what Johnny at 9:06 wrote. We don't need any more religion by sports analogy. Weren't there any traditional catholics available for the job?
Judy
1 year ago
Good News! We have so lost our way! But to me, it is not because of Vatican II. I know persons who entered the Church because the Latin was dropped. I personally think that it was because at that time =60's a new change in freedom was ignited across the country along w/the Viet Nam War. Losing HOW MANY NUNS IN THE U.S.? (When I was little, nuns were common place. When I had children, they were not. I Never Will Understand Why Most Gave Up Their Habits. It was Holy. Respectful to see a nun proudly wearing her habit, knowing her Faith. Then habits VANISHED into thin air like the nuns that wore them.) Birth control and living together. Abortions. Time, Priestly Scandals, Liberal-Progressive attitudes. When one combines all of the above, it is most certainly Not Vatican II. And for the above reasoning Johnny, may I suggest that that is the reason we are becoming a nation of atheists, agnostics, etc.(of course not totally). I will take it one step further than Mr. Martin, and say, it has been going on for more than 40 years, if we are to be really truthful. Secular Influence is a hard thing to fight. It began a long time ago. Again, Good News! Long Overdue! Prayers and Blessings
David Carlon
1 year ago
There is no salvation outside the Church... only misery, confusion, darkness, and the gnashing and grinding of teeth of the self worshiping gods of the post modern world... this powerful two-hearted nation makes sport of mocking our patient and meek Lord... and forgets that Justice like Death always call its marker... and the sins of this nation are Legion.
Johnny
1 year ago
Mr. Curtis Martin mentions that the last 40 years have led to a period of self-destruction. Is he pointing to the origins of destruction in the changes in the Holy Mass that began in late 1969 and early 1970? Or is he seeing a problem in the entire Vatican II Church and post-Vatican II Magisterium? Starting in 2012 there will be a great celebration marking the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. And yet, there is very little to celebrate, considering what both Ralph and Curtis Martin observe, namely, that since the council Catholics have, at least in the West, largely lost their identity. The council promised to bring a whole new energy and apostolic fervor, but it brought about confusion and laxity instead. Question...is there salvation outside the Catholic Church or not? If there is salvation outside the Catholic Church, then why bother converting people? The great majority of Catholics, including clerics, basically act as if there is salvation outside of the Catholic Church, so why evangelize. I mean, if a Protestant is in good "faith," or even if a Jew or Muslim is of good will, then he can be saved, right? The saints before Vatican II did not think like that and this drove them to spread the Catholic Faith which is the only Faith that saves anyone. Our Catholic identity was lost due to wolves in sheep's clothing confusing the poor faithful into thinking that the Church is simply the best option and more equipped to help us come to Christ and eternal life. Part of our identity as Catholics is that there is only one True Church and only one People of God and Kingdom of God on earth and that is only the Catholic Church. When's the last time you heard a good bishop preach extra ecclesiam nulla salus as a Dogma of Holy Church? No wonder we have an identity crisis since we've lost our minds.
Lawrence Nyankwarara
1 year ago
That`s wonderful to hear from these guys.For sure what they are saying is very correct.The catholic church needs a special care.Here in Africa actually it began long time a go.That is we do have catholic charismatic Renewal which is doing well all over Africa and that`s why you find that the Catholicism in Africa is growing so fast.As they have said,the church must involve the laity such that the work is not centered to priests a lone.
Otherwise i do pray for those Martins to carry the work of God peaceful.Please do come to Africa for more enlightenment
God bless you all.

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