| U.S. News

The March 24-26 conference, "The New Evangelization: Overcoming the Obstacles," drew nearly 400 people of all ages from 20 states and three countries to the Retreat Center at St. John's in Plymouth.

Father Richard John Neuhaus, editor in chief of the magazine First Things and a New York archdiocesan priest, said the Gospel can be alien in today's culture and urged participants not to consider the rest of the world as the enemy, but to let them know of God's love.

Two cardinals who were scheduled to speak, Cardinals Avery Dulles and Francis E. George of Chicago, sent video presentations of their talks since they were attending a consistory in Rome.

Cardinal George said faith can transform culture.

"Both culture and faith tell us how to behave and what to believe," he said. "Both give us norms for acting and for thinking and for loving, bringing people, therefore, to know, love and accept Christ in the church."

Christianity is open to all, said Cardinal Dulles, describing a friendship with God as a call to service. He said Christ's death and resurrection formed a new people of God that was "not a closed society."

The cardinal told participants that they should try to convert people to Christianity because the New Testament leaves no doubt that there's only one God, one Jesus Christ, and that Jesus is the mediator between us and God.

Deacon Tom Gornick, director of evangelization and pastoral services for the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., said the conference affirmed his belief in the mission of evangelizing. He said he finds that people are still trying to figure out what is the "right" way to evangelize people, although there really isn't one.

"Only Jesus knew how to do that," he told The Michigan Catholic, archdiocesan newspaper of Detroit.

Don Turbitt, who does mission work in Eastern Europe, came to the conference from Rhode Island to learn more about how to evangelize.

His ministry focuses on getting people to develop a personal relationship with Christ. Although meeting the secular needs of people is important, he said, "sometimes ... we forget as Catholics evangelization is first."

Back-to-back sessions at the conference also addressed trends of Hispanic/Latino Christians and how Christianity is spreading in the world.

Edwin Hernandez, program director of the Center for the Study of Latino Religion at Notre Dame University, said the growth of Hispanic populations is not limited to Catholic parishes because Latinos frequently choose churches that meets their needs and interests.

In Chicago, Hernandez found Latino adults almost evenly split between Catholic and Protestant churches. With every generation, however, more Latinos are leaving the Catholic Church for another denomination.

Latinos report that Protestant churches offer more services, such as job placement and financial assistance, often needed by those new to the community. Hernandez suggested that Catholics equip lay men and women to serve this growing population.

Philip Jenkins, a professor of history and religious studies at Pennsylvania State University and author of "The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity," discussed trends in global Christianity that might affect evangelization. The "normal" Christian in today's world is not necessarily a white American, he said, but a woman from Nigeria.

Projections suggest that by the year 2050, Christianity will be the predominant religion in Africa, and non-Latino whites will only be one-fifth to one-sixth of the world's Christians. From 1900 to 2000, the number of Christians in Africa jumped from 10 million to 360 million, which is "the largest religious change that has ever occurred, period," Jenkins said.

Catholicism in Africa also jumped similarly: from 1.9 million Catholics in 1900 to 130 million Catholics in 2000 -- a jump of 6,708 percent, he said.

As Christianity spreads in poorer countries, he said, those who evangelize should realize that the Bible passages dealing with famine hold particular significance in places where there is little to eat.