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LOS ANGELES — Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia told the Los Angeles Catholic Prayer Breakfast Sept. 18 that Catholics must take responsibility for the evangelization of the country and pursue this goal through humility and spiritual discipline.
“The task of preaching, teaching, growing and living the Catholic faith in our time, in this country, belongs to you and me. No one else can do it,” he told the crowd gathered outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
“The future depends on God, but he builds it with the living stones we give him by the example of our lives.”
During his remarks, he said Christians must rediscover God’s joy, “radiate” God’s word, and make their Christian witness “frank and contagious.”
He noted Christianity’s historical rise from a “fringe” religious group to become the official religion of the Roman Empire. However, he warned that Christianity can decline into corruption and has even become extinct in some regions, like some areas conquered by Islamic expansion.
“We need to discipline ourselves to be ready for God’s grace,” he said.
“If our hearts are cold, if our minds are closed, if our spirits are fat and acquisitive, curled up on a pile of our possessions, then the Church in this country will die. It’s happened before in other times and places, and it can happen here.”
Archbishop Chaput cited several negative trends in his own archdiocese: low Sunday Mass attendance and rare use of the confessional; a decline in church marriages, infant baptisms and priestly vocations; a clergy abuse crisis; and years of deficit spending.
Nationwide, he added, about 10% of Americans say they are ex-Catholics.
“That’s our reality as disciples,” the archbishop said. “That’s the debris of failure we need to deal with if we want to repair God’s house.”
God is faithful, he continued, but God makes no guarantees that Church infrastructure will endure.
“Jesus said the gates of hell would never prevail against his Church, and his word is good. But he didn’t promise anything about our local real estate and institutions,” the archbishop said.
Israel’s revivals began with grief over sins, praise for God’s faithfulness and hopeful repentance, he added. However, there are no “shortcuts,” and this path must include “humility and confession.”
He said Christians’ task of evangelization is not “impossible,” but only “uncomfortable and inconvenient.”
Drawing on Pope Benedict XVI’s 2011 apostolic letter Porta Fidei, Archbishop Chaput said that modern life is often “isolating and even frightening.” A “profound crisis of faith” has resulted in a collapse of cultural unity, which means it is “very easy for people to develop habits that undermine virtue, character and moral judgment.”
“The Pope’s answer to this crisis doesn’t scold the culture,” Archbishop Chaput said. “Instead, he turns to us, to the Church.”
“He’s asking us to tear down the cathedral we build to ourselves, the whole interior architecture of our vanities, our resentments and our endless appetites, and to channel all the restless fears and longings of modern life into a hunger for the Holy Spirit.”
Archbishop Chaput recounted the Pope’s suggestions for the upcoming Year of Faith, launching worldwide next month. Parishes and other Church groups should study the Creed and the Catechism of the Catholic Church because right doctrine unifies Catholics and “reorients our lives away from the idolatries of individualism and greed and points us toward Jesus Christ.”
Christians should intensify their “witness of charity” because charitable acts help their neighbor and teach themselves the true meaning of their faith. They should also study Church history to find how holiness and sin are “so often woven together.”
Archbishop Chaput said this last point is relevant to responding to the clergy sex-abuse scandal, which included “bitter suffering” for the innocent amid “failures in leadership” among U.S. bishops.
He warned against worldly attitudes that have established themselves in the Church and make the Church “worse than the world” through “greater mediocrity and even greater ugliness.”
The archbishop concluded by saying that God asks all Christians to live a life of “honesty, holiness, heroism and sacrifice.”
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Amen. I firmly believe that in the universal realm of our purpose in this life, we have to accept in the truth that Jesus is in all of us, in our being. Yes, Christ crucified is in all of us, for ‘through him all things were made,’ as in John 1:3, one of the most powerful verses in the bible and one which I usually share on my comments, sorry for being redundant, but I pray that more people open up in heart and spirit to better understand this bare truth of our existence, with many things and events in this life I have seen God’s hands moving and yes, He is always in control, while we may have our own ‘free will,’ if you have not recognized the signs in your life that are meant for us to be renewed in Him, and to go and remain in His flock, it is never too late. Yes, for this reason, we are all Catholics - which means ‘universal’ in Greek. Jesus, the Savior of All, our True Master, is calling on all of us to be united by supporting godly ways, that we may become stronger against evil that corrupts, that causes disunity and broken relationships, that is anti-life, that promotes malice in our minds, and that which prevents us to renew in Jesus.
A poll showed that 47% of Catholics in the Camden N.J. Diocese believed that Christ sinned during His lifetime. You ought not want them to be evangelizing anyone. Look at any polling of Catholic beliefs on a variety of issues and you’ll see frequent unorthodoxy on gay actions, premarital sex, etc. It is not the century for Catholics to be going door to door.
Pass out pamphlets of your own making of scripture quotes or Saint quotes at rush hour. I’ve done it. It’s nice.
The solid, bold, orthodox catechesis in Catholic schools and from the pulpit stopped after the council. The Church in the USA gave up Her mission and embraced the “spirit of the council,” which is to say the spirit of the world.
She may die in the USA which is a dying country anyway, but She will persevere as She always has.
Here is the battle cry for the faithful and the feckless leaders of the Church in America: ORTHODOXY, ORTHODOXY, ORTHODOXY!!!
AMEN!Thank you Archbishop Chaput. ” A poll showed that 47% of Catholics in the Camden N.J. Diocese believed that Christ sinned during His lieftime.” Believing on something doesn’t make it true.
I find, as a Catholic, that there are some points of evangelizing that are becoming easier. After all, we have truth “on our side” and true history can’t be disputed. However, the Priest Abuse Scandal is perhaps our biggest obstacle. It is hard to have discussions with people when this glaring and horrible saga is so squarely in front of us. No matter what conversation you have, this issue is the one that keeps coming right back at you. It is difficult to deal with especially as you have nothing to do with it in the first place. I do believe that the Lord will continue to protect His Church. But I’m wondering, in my lifetime, will there ever come a time when this issue won’t be out biggest obstacle?
I enjoy reading Archbishop Chaput’s speeches and messages. He has a good head on his shoulders.
As for re-evangelizing the lost sheep, we need to start at the top and get the Bishops unified on doctrine and liturgy.
The Vatican II fliteration with the modern world needs to be exposed as a failure and the Church needs to rediscover the beauty of her traditional teachings and liturgy.
Then from a place of unity with her past and in her present she can start again.
The biggiest problem in our faith is our leaders selling out for money and human respect. The world wide policy of silence regarding the sex abuse shows them putting their organization before our own children. Their pulpits became silent after the tax exempt law. Their teachings and actions are always as clear as mud so you can believe whatever you want. It’s time for them to be bold and teach in word and in action. What I’ve learned is that a majority of priests and bishops put their organization before the unborn and their own people. They’re all about looking good and redistributing our wealth through gov’t grants (our tax dollars) and tithes. The less virtue the more poverty you have and the more you need the Catholic Church…right? When Catholic leaders don’t do their job poverty increases. Silence at the pulpits and collecting gov’t money has ruined our Church and our country.
the USCCB does not want evangelization. I wanted to buy some LOGOS catholic bible software. But was told USCCB would not allow me to purchase it. So much for universality.
How can anyone evangelize another when Catholics themselves have so many divergent understandings of what their religion teaches. Who knows what to believe, priests included. It is a sad commentary but the Church is only as strong and vibrant as the closest parish. A neighboring parish may be on life support.
Archbishop Chaput correctly points to a decline in confessions, as one of the principal signs of our declining church. I couldn’t agree more.
What does anyone expect, however, when in most parishes in my archdiocese, confessions occur once a week for one hour and usually at the same time on Saturday. Usual complaint—nobody comes.
By way of contrast, one parish holds confessions twice a week on weekdays with three priests hearing confessions at the same time. Result—long lines of penitents.
I have nothing but respect for the great Archbishop Chaput. I must say, however, that he is preaching to the wrong group. He should be talking to bishops and priests.
The average Catholic doesn’t have a clue what the true teachings of the Church are. Why on earth would he want them evangelizing people?
Until most Diocese Bishops in the USA actively require that their Priests and Deacons read or re-read the “CATECHISM of the CATHOLIC CHURCH, Second Edition”, and actively and prominently promote the reading of the CCC by all Catholics over age 16 in their own Diocese - the majority of Catholics will not have the knowledge needed to accurately evangelize even in their own families.
In the 1985 book “The Ratzinger Report” Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict) states the following regarding a “shattered catechesis” - “the first grave error in this direction was to suppress the catechism and to declare quite unversally that the category ‘catechism’ was obsolete.” - pg 73.
(He was speaking internationally, not only for the USA.)
No matter what Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict have asked regarding the promtion of the CCC, the Catechism of the Catholic Church is still be suppressed in many US Diocese.
US Catholics are literate, and the CCC is printed in many languages.
For more info on quotes from our Popes and what we as individuals can do - on internet go to: ” What Catholics REALLY Believe Source “.
See the answer to question #1.
The “CATECHISM of the CATHOLIC CHURCH, Second Edition” is featured.
Archbishop Chaput hit the nail on the head.
If we want to evangelize, as we are required by our Baptism, then we need to do that. How can we do that? By joining St. Paul Street Evangelization. Go to streetevangelization.com and learn how easy it is. I have been doing it since January 12, and it is awesome to help the Holy Spirit bring souls to the Truth.
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