Evangelizing Catechesis andthe Call to Nurture Discipleship

Diocese of Rockville Centre + September 14, 2013

Rev. John E. Hurley, CSP, D.MinExecutive Director

Department of EvangelizationArchdiocese of Baltimore

Great to be home…

Proud to be afounding

parishionerof

St. Elizabeth of Hungary Parish

South Huntington

Our Callas Disciples and Leaders in the

New Evangelization

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Jesus told me to! GO…

Matthew 28:19

ThereforeGO and make

disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Discipleship

Disciple of Whom

Disciple for what

Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And, behold, I am with you always until the end of the age.

Matthew 28:19-20

I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!

Luke 12:49

Life and Mission as Disciples

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We learned that there is a chasm the size of the Grand Canyon between the Church’s sophisticated theology of the lay apostolate and the lived spiritual experience of the majority of our people.

And this chasm has a name: discipleship

Sherry Weddell2012, Our Sunday Visitor

Forming Intentional Disciples

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Fishing

We have been at this all night and have caught nothing

Same forum, different fish

Challenges & Opportunities

In our day, what has happened to that hidden energy of the Good News, which is able to have a powerful effect on one’s conscience?

To what extent and in what way is that evangelical force capable of really transforming the people of this century?

What methods should be followed in order that the power of the Gospel may have its effect?

1974 Synod on Evangelization

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Mission Effectiveness

Mission effectiveness is always at risk in leadership

The vitality of our parishes and the church rests on our ability to answer the three questions

1975 Evangelii NuntiandiWe wish to confirm once

more that the task of evangelizing all people constitutes the essential mission of the Church.

It is a task and mission which the vast and profound changes of present-day society make all the more urgent.

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Bringing the Good News of Jesus into every human situation and seeking to convert individual and society by the divine power of the Gospel itself. Its essence is the proclamation of salvation in Jesus Christ and the response of a person in faith, both being the work of the Spirit of God.

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Evangelization MEANS

Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the church, her deepest identity.

She exists to evangelize…

(EN, 14)

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Evangelization as VOCATION

New Evangelization

1983 CELAM

The commemoration of the half millennium of evangelization will gain its full energy if it is a commitment , not to re-evangelize but to a New Evangelization, new in its ardor, methods and expression.

New Evangelization

Synod of Bishops Lineamenta

…the New Evangelization is primarily addressed to those who have drifted from the Church in traditionally Christian countries.

To underscore that at this moment in the history of the Church she is called to carry out a New Evangelization, means intensifying missionary action to correspond fully with the Lord’s mandate.

Papal address to New Council on Evangelization

The New Evangelization is a frame-of-mind, a courageous manner of acting and Christianity’s capacity to know how to read and interpret the new situations in human history which in recent decades, have become places to proclaim and witness to the Gospel.

These sectors concern society, cultures, economics, civic life and religion.

Benedict XVI, #6 Lineamenta

Call to a New Evangelization

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Pope Paul VI The Church exists to evangelize

Pope John Paul II …new in ardor, methods and expression

Pope Benedict XVI …re-propose faith in a culture which has

lost the instinct to believe

Historical Context of New Evangelization

Pope John Paul I We wish to remind

the entire Church that its first duty is that of Evangelization…

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1997 General Directoryfor Catechesis

Catechesis is a work of evangelization in the context of the mission of the Church.

Henceforth, Catechesis would be considered as one of the enduring concerns of the Church’s missionary mandate for our times.

(GDC, 4)

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This is the principal objective of Catechesis, which by its very nature,

is an essential aspect of the new evangelization

(Catechesi Tradendae)

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Principal Objective of Catechesis

This is the principal form of catechesis, because it is addressed to persons who have the greatest responsibilities and the capacity to live the Christian message in its fully developed form. (CT, 43, 1979)

A Proposal to Consider…One cannot speak of the New Evangelization if the catechesis of adults is non-existent, fragmented, weak or neglected. When these defects are present, pastoral ministry faces a very serious challenge.

Synod on the New EvangelizationAdult & Sacramental Formation

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He/She facilitates communication between the people and the mystery of God…among themselves, as well as with the community.

For this reason, one’s cultural vision, social condition and lifestyle must not be obstacles to the journey of faith.

(GDC, 156)

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Catechist as Mediator

The new and unique situation in which the world and the church find themselves at the threshold of the third millennium, and

The urgent needs which result, mean that the mission of evangelization today calls for a new program which can be defined overall as a NEW EVANGELIZATION (EIA, 66)

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1999 Ecclesia in America

“…a form by which the Gospel is proclaimed with new enthusiasm, in a new language, which is

comprehensible in a different cultural situation and with new methodologies that are capable of transmitting its deepest sense, that sense which

remains immutable.”

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, America Magazine, October 15, 2012.

A Call to New Evangelization

Re-proposing the faith in a

culture that has lost the instinct

to believe.

1999 Ecclesia In America

An encounter with the Lord brings about a profound

transformation in all who do not close themselves

off from him.

(EIA, 68)

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Lumen Fidei… Pope Francis

The Light of Faith comes from an encounter with the living God and lights the entire journey for believers.

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1. Acknowledges that all disciples need ongoing formation.

2. Understands that people come from a variety of backgrounds

3. Value of Lay Ministry4. Acknowledges that it is not

about clocking hours to become competent.

5. Everyone in the church teaches one way or another and witness is the issue. Competent?

A Culture of Formation

Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers,

and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.

Culture of Formation is the Work of the Church

CARA Statistics

AGE % Going to Mass Weekly

70 years and older

52 – 69

31 – 51

18 – 30

45%

24%

15%

18%

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Mission Effectiveness

Mission effectiveness is always at risk in leadership

The vitality of our parishes and the church rests on our ability to answer the three questions

Current Cultural Context

1. Ministry of Jesus

2. Current Situation

3. New Evangelization

4. Positive Developments

5. Areas of Growth

1: Ministry of Jesus

Challenge Opportunity

A. Christ’s call to all people

B. Welcome the stranger, heal the sick…

C. Urgent vigilance of the father of the prodigal son

D. Focus on mission

E. Think generationally

F. Reaching out to who are estranged is a light to those who are new

2: Our Current Situation

Challenge Opportunities

23% of U.S. Catholics attend Mass each week

77% absent are not strangers

Challenges of busy life and priorities

Feed my people

Engagement… ongoing formation for preachers & liturgists

Schedules

3: New Evangelization

Challenge Opportunities

Call to deepen one’s faith

The lens through which people experience the church and the world

We want to welcome back to the table

Education to a culture of formation

Change one’s experience

It is about listening, invitation and engagement

4: Positive Developments 5: Areas of Growth

Challenges Opportunities

A. Creation of formation programs in evangelization and catechesis

B. B. Parish rightsizing

C. Communications

D. Focus on the 23% in ways that animate them

E. What are we willing to do for the sake of the missionF. Technology

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Research by Nancy Ammermann at Boston University… parishes do and have done amazing things.

Congregations are among the most dynamic, engaging, thoughtful, multi-cultural intersections of care, education, compassion and justice in America today.

What is the greatest challenge you experience as a disciple with the call to the new evangelization?

What is the greatest opportunity you have as a leader in the call to a new evangelization?

Reflection

Contact Information:Rev. John E. Hurley, CSP, D.Min.

Department of Evangelization

Archdiocese of Baltimore

320 Cathedral StreetBaltimore, MD 21201

410-547-5321

john.hurley@archbalt.orgwww.archbalt.org

Forming Catholic Leaders for Faith Filled Service

February 27 – March 1, 2014

Baltimore Hilton

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