The Scene Congress brought to life, for the Church in Sydney and especially its young people, the vision of what the New Evangelisation is - that we can't keep the Gospel to ourselves, we are called to evangelise. Yes, the old evangelisation continues to bear fruit for a small number, but modern man is so wounded by the culture which he is immersed in, that we need to seek new ways of reaching him with the Gospel.
I don't think that there was a single delegate of Scene who did not come away without being switched on to the reality of the New Evangelisation. And, unlike so many Catholic events - even WYD itself - which leave the participant enthused but sometimes somewhat unclear about the message, many Scene delegates commented about how focussed the Congress had been and how clearly they has imbibed its message - that we are called to seek new ways of evangelising, of bringing people to Christ the evangeliser.
In the next post I will speak about the daily themes of the Congress, and some of the speakers, but suffice it to say, that after the late morning Mass each day, delegates were sent out onto the city's streets with a luminous message - Christ's love saves.
3 comments:
we can't keep the Gospel to ourselves, we are called to evangelise. Yes, the old evangelisation continues to bear fruit for a small number, but modern man is so wounded by the culture which he is immersed in, that we need to seek new ways of reaching him with the Gospel
What is the new evangelisation and how is it spread?
What is the old evangelisation and why do you feel that it is not appropriate for today?
Norah, the new evangelisation is the turning of the Church from being a Church of maintenance into being a Church of Mission. Faith and Culture have come apart and the New Evangelisation is the seeking of new ways to bring the Gospel to modern men and women.
The old evangelisation - catechesis, celebrating the sacraments, handing on the faith - now only reaches a few. For them the old evangeslisation is good and necessary. But what about the huge multitude who cannot be reached by the old evangelisation - the Gospel is also for them. So, alongside the old evangelisation we must seek new ways of reaching people with the Gospel and making transformation in Christ a possibility for them also.
So, I don't feel that the old evangelisation is not appropriate for today. It is appropraite for those who are transformed in Christ by it. That which is not appropriate today is to avoid or even to refuse to take part in evangelisation, to live as though the Gospel is just for ourselves and to pretend that we have no part in the Mission of the Church. In this case the Gospel itself falls silent and the Church dies. No, the New Evangelisation is an urgent call made to each one of us. John Paul II for 26 years said: "Evangelise", "Evangelise" - in the end he was blue in the face saying it.
My question is: how is it that so many Catholics are today unaware of the New Evangeloisation?
Father, thank you for your very clear explanation.
The old evangelisation - catechesis, celebrating the sacraments, handing on the faith - now only reaches a few.
This evangelisation should reach every student in a Catholic institution which then should then equip them be messengers of the new evangelisation in the secular world.
How is it that so many young people who attended Catholic institutions for all of their schooling leave Catholic institutions either as non practising Catholics or almost totally ignorant of anything about the truths of the Faith except social justice?
Is anything planned to remedy this situation?
It would seem that those who are choosing to go out and participate in the new evangelisation have received the Faith because one can't give water to someone who thirsts unless one's jug contains water but forty years of deficient catechesis from the schools and pulpits/ambos has meant the majority of Catholics need bacic instruction in the truths of the Faith if they are to be able to participate in the new evangelisation.
We have two magisteriums operating in Western Catholicism today the true and the false. Many who follow the false magisterium have no idea that there is such a thing as an authentic magisteriium and they quite like their second-rate Catholicism. How will these people be reached? First to raise their consciousness as to the existence of the real deal and second to catechise them. Once this is done - a work of years if it starts at all - the pool of people who can go out and evangelise will be so much greater.
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