Sunday, December 16, 2007

Zenit summarizes the recent Doctrinal Note on Some Aspects of Evangelization issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith:

'Missionary Mandate of the Church is to Evangelize'

"3. Today there is "a growing confusion" about the Church's missionary mandate. Some think "that any attempt to convince others on religious matters is a limitation of their freedom,"

Anyone who reads books written by Catholic converts or who browses Catholic blogs, has read stories of people asking for help in converting only to be told they can stay in whatever church they are currently attending or being discouraged by misinformation or ignorance, or worse. The 70's and 80's were low points in apologetics and evangelization but many protestants, including many clergy, converted starting in the 80's and have been a notable force in renewing apologetics and evangelization. They are a big influence and inspiration to many cradle Catholics. I recently purchased Nothing But the Truth by Karl Keating and he writes about all of these things. The lack of apologetics and evangelization by Catholics was part of the sad shape of the Church over the past 35 years, although this too has changed for the better recently.

Related: an article in The Long Island Catholic about Evangelization in the Diocese of Rockville Centre.

"The Church also can look at practices like the rosary or eucharistic adoration that seem old to people who grew up a generation or more ago in the Church, Bastien said, but are novel to younger people. “Of course, the way they do it today might be different, not as quiet.”
Smith pointed out that XLT, a form of eucharistic adoration that includes lively music, has a great deal of appeal for teens. “The music is important in a lot of what we do for young people.”

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