Catholic Evangelization?

June 5, 2015 techdecisions

June 3, 2015 at 1:17 am #12141

Marshall D
Member
Hey fellow muskoxen,

I’m just curious, as catholics, how do you evangelize to others?

Growing up in a baptist tradition, evangelization is always focused on sharing the gospel message and the non-christian saying the sinners prayer and accepting Christ into their heart. Maybe one would invite the un-saved to a bible study, ask them some questions, share your testimony be-friend this person and eventually you would share the gospel with them or hope they would walk up the aisle during an altar call. Ultimately, salvation hinges on a one-time event: a prayer of forgiveness and declaring one’s trust in Jesus. After that, there would be some follow up, some discipleship of sorts BUT nothing too extreme is asked of the new christian. Have a solid prayer life and read your bible pretty consistently. Show up to church on Sunday mornings, maybe you join a choir or a worship team. You would obviously be welcomed to participate in the occasional communion service and maybe you even get baptized (but it’s not forced upon you. after all, baptism isn’t necessary for salvation, right?). I suppose my point is this: For a baptist, after the one-time salvation experience, one isn’t expected to do too much. A church service is really catered to the members. Good multi-media, really good worship band, pastor who gives inspirational sermons. You would want the new christian to feel like they belong and are part of a community. That’s a big thing too. Community focused. Community or life groups. Live life together.

BUT for a catholic, how in the world do you reach out to the un-churched? As a protestant, it already seems quite difficult to evangelize to skeptics but once they are convinced of the Gospel they are good to go. For a catholic, even if the skeptic is convinced of the truth of the gospel, they need to attend a 6 month RCIA program, accept papal infallibility, that the eucharist is the real presence of Christ, Mariology, accept the fact they will need to go to confession, baptism is a part of the salvation process, no more birth-control, etc, etc. There are so many things asked of the new-believer!

So, how do you guys do it?

June 3, 2015 at 4:44 am #12145

Matthew M
Member
Thank you, Marshall, for your thoughtful question. As a life-long Catholic, I am willing to take a stab at it. A point of clarification, though, please. Do you intend your question for only the present-day, or historically?

June 3, 2015 at 7:13 pm #12157

Marshall D
Member
Thanks Matthew,

I suppose I meant in the modern day but I’m interested in both. Please share.

June 3, 2015 at 8:02 pm #12159

Matthew M
Member
Ooooh boy, ok. I invite the critique of others, but this is mine, imho. First, Catholics are not good at the type of evangelization you mention in the modern day. It is not our way, traditionally. Why? When the Church began, we may have been better, closer to what you mention, but secretive. Christians, as we know, practiced in secret. The faith was under persecution, and there was a long period of initiation to make sure catechumens were sincere and faithful, and not pagan spies who would turn the faithful over to the authorities for whatever reward offered.

I suppose, in this early period, Tertullian was and is correct even today, “The blood of the martyrs, is the seed of the Church.” When we witness to the point of death, we witness, which is the definition of “martyr”, in the most powerful way possible, Jn 3:15. When the actual persecutions by pagans were over and the Church needed reform and good examples, the monastic orders appeared, a kind of “living martyrdom” still spoken of today for those men and women who enter religious life, in fact, in some orders, at least historically, when final vows are professed, a shroud, like a burial shroud, covers the soon-to-be-professed. They “die to the world”, to live for Christ and his Church. Still a powerful witness.

When the Church became the official state religion of the Roman Empire, there was no need to hide anymore. Converts flocked to the Church, not always out of the desire of holiness, but the official approval, offices, or other benefits they might receive being part of the state religion. We know, historically, up until the American Revolution the connection between Church and state was strong and inherent. This dragged the Church into many unholy political conflicts and intrigues. When heresies broke out, the heresy was viewed not-so-much as a matter of religious opinion, as we do today, but as a matter of loyalty or lack thereof to the state. If state and religion are entwined, and you go your own way on religion, you would be viewed as disloyal, a traitor, to the state, and that is why heretics were handed over to the state when the Church had done all it could to turn them around.

When the Protestant Reformation/Revolution broke out, it was treated very much the same way as described above. When Protestantism could not be “put back in the bottle” by the traditional methods, Catholicism adopted a somewhat of a “fortress” mentality. Vatican II only said, “it was possible”, not regular, not reliable, not reasonably to be expected, that those outside the Church under certain conditions could be saved, “Extra Ecclesia Nulla Salus”, which had generally been accepted up until Vatican II to a great, but perhaps not an exclusive, but unspoken degree. Translated literally, “outside the Church there is no salvation”. Put into a more positive spin, “All salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body” (CCC 846).” The Church has always emphasized the importance, primacy, and necessity of the Catholic Church. Many have misinterpreted Vatican II to mean, when it spoke of the possibility of salvation outside the Church, that the Church is just another, just as viable means towards salvation. The Church has never said this.

So, after the Protestant Reformation could not be undone, Catholics went into this bunker mentality, and we remained there, “We’re right, you’re wrong. Go be wrong if you want to, i.e. see the above regarding salvation.” Catholics, religiously, did not have much to do with non-Catholics and inter-marriage was unusual and rare, the Church not encouraging. With Vatican II, ecumenism began to “open the windows, and let some fresh air in”. Some traditionalist Catholics eagerly want to return all things to the bunker-fortress, “you’re wrong”, pre-conciliar world, believing it was “the best of times”.

The Catholic Church has long relied, and still does, on traditional Catholic obedience and still speaks in these terms. The Church has not traditionally needed to evangelize (the great missionaries, often backed up by the colonizing state, notwithstanding). We were satisfactory “unto ourselves”. The rise of secularism and the dissipation of “the Catholic ghetto” in the 20th century, and the integration of Catholics into mainstream society, some argue, have diluted the Church, weakened the faith, and led to “cafeteria Catholicism”. With the New Evangelization, the Church is trying, but it is definitely out of practice, to take a very beautiful, albeit sometimes very difficult to translate into modern terms, i.e. sound bites, ideology out back into the world. To once again “be ready to give an answer for our hope.” 1 Peter 3:15.

And, Marshall, for the Catholic, Baptism IS necessary for salvation: http://www.catholic.com/tracts/the-necessity-of-baptism

Marshall, does that weak attempt help at all? We’re out of practice for all the reasons mentioned above.”

Love,
Matthew

Summa Catechetica, "Neque enim quaero intelligere ut credam, sed credo ut intelligam." – St Anselm, "“Si comprehendus, non est Deus.” -St Augustine, "Let your religion be less of a theory, and more of a love affair." -G.K. Chesterton, “When we pray we speak to God; but when we read, God speaks to us.” -St Jerome, "As the reading of bad books fills the mind with worldly and poisonous sentiments; so, on the other hand, the reading of pious works fills the soul with holy thoughts and good desires." -St. Alphonsus Liguori, "And above all, be on your guard not to want to get anything done by force, because God has given free will to everyone and wants to force no one, but only proposes, invites and counsels." –St. Angela Merici, “Yet such are the pity and compassion of this Lord of ours, so desirous is He that we should seek Him and enjoy His company, that in one way or another He never ceases calling us to Him . . . God here speaks to souls through words uttered by pious people, by sermons or good books, and in many other such ways.” —St. Teresa of Avila, "I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men and women who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, and who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it. I want an intelligent, well-instructed laity… I wish you to enlarge your knowledge, to cultivate your reason, to get an insight into the relation of truth to truth, to learn to view things as they are, to understand how faith and reason stand to each other, what are the bases and principles of Catholicism, and where lie the main inconsistences and absurdities of the Protestant theory.” (St. John Henry Newman, “Duties of Catholics Towards the Protestant View,” Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England), "We cannot always have access to a spiritual Father for counsel in our actions and in our doubts, but reading will abundantly supply his place by giving us directions to escape the illusions of the devil and of our own self-love, and at the same time to submit to the divine will.” —St. Alphonsus Ligouri, "The harm that comes to souls from the lack of reading holy books makes me shudder . . . What power spiritual reading has to lead to a change of course, and to make even worldly people enter into the way of perfection." –St. Padre Pio, "Screens may grab our attention, but books change our lives!" – Word on Fire, "Reading has made many saints!" -St Josemaría Escrivá, "Do you pray? You speak to the Bridegroom. Do you read? He speaks to you." —St. Jerome, from his Letter 22 to Eustochium, "Encounter, not confrontation; attraction, not promotion; dialogue, not debate." -cf Pope Francis, "God here speaks to souls through…good books“ – St Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle, "You will not see anyone who is really striving after his advancement who is not given to spiritual reading. And as to him who neglects it, the fact will soon be observed by his progress.” -St Athanasius, "To convert someone, go and take them by the hand and guide them." -St Thomas Aquinas, OP. 1 saint ruins ALL the cynicism in Hell & on Earth. “When we pray we talk to God; when we read God talks to us…All spiritual growth comes from reading and reflection.” -St Isidore of Seville, “Also in some meditations today I earnestly asked our Lord to watch over my compositions that they might do me no harm through the enmity or imprudence of any man or my own; that He would have them as His own and employ or not employ them as He should see fit. And this I believe is heard.” -GM Hopkins, SJ, "Only God knows the good that can come about by reading one good Catholic book." — St. John Bosco, "Why don't you try explaining it to them?" – cf St Peter Canisius, SJ, Doctor of the Church, Doctor of the Catechism, "Already I was coming to appreciate that often apologetics consists of offering theological eye glasses of varying prescriptions to an inquirer. Only one prescription will give him clear sight; all the others will give him at best indistinct sight. What you want him to see—some particular truth of the Faith—will remain fuzzy to him until you come across theological eye glasses that precisely compensate for his particular defect of vision." -Karl Keating, "The more perfectly we know God, the more perfectly we love Him." -St Thomas Aquinas, OP, ST, I-II,67,6 ad 3, “But always when I was without a book, my soul would at once become disturbed, and my thoughts wandered." —St. Teresa of Avila, "Let those who think I have said too little and those who think I have said too much, forgive me; and let those who think I have said just enough thank God with me." –St. Augustine, "Without good books and spiritual reading, it will be morally impossible to save our souls." —St. Alphonsus Liguori "Never read books you aren't sure about. . . even supposing that these bad books are very well written from a literary point of view. Let me ask you this: Would you drink something you knew was poisoned just because it was offered to you in a golden cup?" -St. John Bosco " To teach in order to lead others to faith is the task of every preacher and of each believer." —St. Thomas Aquinas, OP. "Prayer purifies us, reading instructs us. Both are good when both are possible. Otherwise, prayer is better than reading." –St. Isidore of Seville “The aid of spiritual books is for you a necessity.… You, who are in the midst of battle, must protect yourself with the buckler of holy thoughts drawn from good books.” -St. John Chrysostom