What is the New Evangelization?
Mr. Ralph Martin
MOSAIC, Winter 2005

At the beginning of the millennium, Cardinal Adam Maida announced that he would like Sacred Heart Major Seminary to be a place where "heralds for the new evangelization" would be formed. His vision now is a guiding principle as we revise existing programs and implement new ones, both for our seminarians and our lay students.

But what is this "New Evangelization?" I will give an introduction to the New Evangelization by commenting on some of the major points contained in the main documents explicating this development.

Rooted In Vatican II

Pope John Paul II first called for a "new evangelization" in 1983 in Haiti, a new evangelization that would be "new in ardor, methods, and expression." He has spoken frequently about it since. In fact, it has become a major theme of his pontificate.

In 1992, the Holy Father addressed all the bishops of Latin America on the occasion of the five hundredth anniversary of Columbus' discovery of the new world and its subsequent evangelization. He again called for a new evangelization, explaining it more fully.

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. Culture is not the measure of the Gospel, but it is Jesus Christ who is the measure of every culture and every human action.

The new evangelization has as its point of departure the certitude that in Christ there are 'inscrutable riches' (Eph 3:8) which no culture nor era can exhaust, and which we must always bring to people in order to enrich them. . . . These riches are, first of all, Christ himself, his person, because he himself is our salvation."

Pope John Paul II chose the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, in 1990, to issue the most important recent magisterial document on evangelization, the encyclical Redemptoris Missio (Mission of the Redeemer). The Pope made clear that this New Evangelization has its roots in the documents of the Second Vatican Council. Pope John XXIII, Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II all understand this Council to have been called for two main reasons: to foster renewal in the Church, and to enable the Church to be more effective in showing forth Christ to the world—for the sake of renewal and evangelization.

In Redemptoris Missio, he makes a very strong statement: "I sense that the moment has come to commit all of the Church's energies to a new evangelization and to the mission ad gentes. No believer in Christ, no institution of the Church, can avoid this supreme duty: to proclaim Christ to all peoples" (no. 3).

To Catholics . . . and the Nations, Too

When the Pope speaks of the New Evangelization, he primarily means the need to re-evangelize those traditionally Christian countries that have been weakened by a process of secularization. In these countries or regions there may be many people who bear the name of Catholic, but do not follow Jesus as disciples and friends. The Pope sees an urgent need to call to conversion the many millions of nominal Catholics who are in this situation throughout the world.

In the document he issued at the end of the Jubilee Year 2000 that presents his vision for the third millennium, Novo Millennio Ineunte (At the Beginning of the New Millennium), he makes the striking statement: "Even in countries evangelized many centuries ago, the reality of a 'Christian society' which, amid all the frailties which have always marked human life, measured itself explicitly on Gospel values, is now gone" (no. 40).

The Pope also calls for a renewed evangelization directed to those who have never had a chance to hear the gospel—ad gentes—to the non-Christian peoples of the world. He asks the whole Church at every level to review its plans and priorities to make sure that evangelization is at the center.

Evangelization in the conciliar documents and the important post-conciliar documents of Pope Paul VI and John Paul II has a broad meaning that includes many different activities that contribute to evangelization or flow from evangelization. These activities include good example in the witness of our life, works of charity and mercy, catechesis, and efforts for justice and peace.

Proclaiming Jesus First

But there is a common theme in all these documents that insists that if the central activity of proclaiming Jesus with a view to leading people to conversion is missing, the most important element of evangelization is missing. Here are some examples:

"Jesus' encounters with Gentiles make it clear that entry into the kingdom comes through faith and conversion (cr. Mk 1:125), and not merely by reason of ethnic background." (RMis, 13)

"There can be no true evangelization if the name, the teaching, the life, the promises, the kingdom and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth the Son of God are not proclaimed. (EN, 22)

"Evangelization will also always contain—as the foundation, center, and at the same time, summit of its dynamism—a clear proclamation that, in Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man, who died and rose from the dead, salvation is offered to all men, as a gift of God's grace and mercy." (EN, 27)

"Preaching constitutes the Church's first and fundamental way of serving the coming of the kingdom in individuals and in human society." (RMis, 20)

"The proclamation of the Word of God has Christian conversion as its aim: a complete and sincere adherence to Christ and his Gospel through faith. . . . Conversion means accepting, by a personal decision, the saving sovereignty of Christ and becoming his disciple." (RMis, 46)

Cardinal Avery Dulles has commented that this focus on evangelization is one of the most important developments in the Church since the close of the Council. As he writes in the book, John Paul II and the New Evangelization,

In my judgment the evangelical turn in the ecclesial vision of Popes Paul VI and John Paul II is one of the most surprising and important developments in the Catholic Church since Vatican II. . . . All of this constitutes a remarkable shift in the Catholic tradition. . . . Today we seem to be witnessing the birth of a new Catholicism that, without loss of its institutional, sacramental, and social dimensions, is authentically evangelical.

Catholic spirituality at its best has always promoted a deep personal relationship with Christ. In evangelizing we are required to raise our eyes to him and to transcend all ecclesiocentrism. The Church is of crucial importance but is not self-enclosed. It is a means of drawing the whole world into union with God through Jesus Christ.

Too many Catholics of our day seem never to have encountered Christ. They know a certain amount about him from the teaching of the Church, but they lack direct personal familiarity.

The first and highest priority is for the Church to proclaim the good news concerning Jesus Christ as a joyful message to all the world. Only if the Church is faithful to its evangelical mission can it hope to make its distinctive contribution in the social, political, and cultural spheres.

It is precisely because we agree with Cardinal Dulles' assessment of the importance of this focus on evangelization for the Church today that we are now reorienting our programs guided by the vision of "preparing heralds for the New Evangelization."

"New Sense of Mission"

Pope John Paul II's words to us and to the whole Church as we enter the new millennium bear reflecting on. That is precisely what we intend to do in all our programs at Sacred Heart.

Over the years, I have often repeated the summons to the new evangelization. I do so again now, especially in order to insist that we must rekindle in ourselves the impetus of the beginnings and allow ourselves to be filled with the ardor of the apostolic preaching which followed Pentecost. We must revive in ourselves the burning conviction of Paul, who cried out: 'Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel' (1 Cor 9:16).

This passion will not fail to stir in the Church a new sense of mission, which cannot be left to a group of 'specialists' but must involve the responsibility of all the members of the People of God. Those who have come into genuine contact with Christ cannot keep him for themselves; they must proclaim him. A new apostolic outreach is needed, which will be lived as the everyday commitment of Christian communities and groups." (NMI, 40)

We hope that Sacred Heart, with its focus on evangelization, will be able to equip our graduates in such a way as to contribute to the renewal and evangelization efforts of the Archdiocese of Detroit, and beyond, for years to come.

Mr. Ralph Martin is the Assistant Professor of Theology and Director, Graduate Theology Programs in the New Evangelization at Sacred Heart Major Seminary