BALTIMORE — The Year of Faith has come to an end, but Church workers across the United States say the years ahead will reveal how the seeds of faith that were planted will give way to new energies of evangelization for the Church in the United States.

“The Year of Faith really opened the minds and hearts of many Catholics that ‘a lot more needs to take place in my own formation,’” said Peter Murphy, executive director for the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for Evangelization and Catechesis. “Formation is a lifelong process, and the Year of Faith reminded us that we can’t become complacent.”

Murphy said Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), has spurred the Church to realize the fruits of faith in evangelization.

“The post-synodal exhortation really does call us to go out and keep sharing our faith,” Murphy said. “When you go out, you feel the need to learn your faith more to share it with others. It’s like a deepening spiral: As we continue to move forward in the New Evangelization, there is naturally going to be a need and desire to deepen our faith.”

Benedict XVI’s 2011 apostolic letter Porta Fidei announced the Year of Faith that began on Oct. 11, 2012, saw the encyclical Lumen Fidei (Pope Francis’ first encyclical that Benedict XVI contributed considerably to) published and concluded Nov. 24, 2013, with the feast of Christ the King.

Murphy said the year’s theme, “Open the Door to Faith,” took off in U.S. dioceses and parishes and helped people become more “intentional about living out our faith life.”

“A lot of the real initiatives took place in the dioceses and parishes,” he said. “Many programs were already in place in these dioceses, but they really took off in the Year of Faith.”

 

Venice, Fla.

The Diocese of Venice, Fla., had a fruitful Year of Faith, holding a number of conferences, some of which gathered together close to 1,000 Catholics. The diocese’s 15 schools also focused more on teaching the Catechism. The diocese focused on three key points in its activities: learning the faith, living the faith and sharing the faith.

“We had different evangelization type conferences — a men’s conference, women’s conference, apologetics conferences, youth rallies — all that incorporated Year of Faith ideals,” said Bob Reddy, the diocese’s assistant communications director.

Reddy said the Nov. 3 diocesan youth rally in Bonita Springs gathered more than 1,300 youth.

One diocesan campaign that received a big boost was the “The Light Is on for You” campaign during Lent, a program where priests in all the diocese’s churches would hear confessions every Friday night and Saturday morning in addition to the normally scheduled times.

“We started it ahead of the Year of Faith, but put a different emphasis on it this past year,” he said. “'The Light Is on' campaign had been started the year before to reverse the downward confession trend in parishes and to reinvigorate the faithful.

“We did a different twist on it this year. We asked: ‘How can you grow in Christ if you’re not talking to him?’ And the best conversation you can have is through confession and that sacrament. It was very successful. A lot of our parishes had huge lines. It made a big difference.”

Transitioning popes in the middle of the Year of Faith actually changed some of the focus, said Reddy.

“It kind of got people to be a little more actively involved in the last few months,” he said.

 

Seattle

Blessed Sacrament Church, a Dominican-run parish in Seattle’s university district, met the challenge of the Year of Faith primarily in two ways: The parish began a lecture series on the teachings of Vatican II and hired Walt Sears in April to be the parish’s first director of faith formation and evangelization.

“For us, at Blessed Sacrament, we have been refocusing on our mission of re-evangelization,” Sears said. He explained that the Blessed Sacrament staff wanted “to move our community forward, to become more of an evangelizing body.”

The Year of Faith program at Blessed Sacrament focused on Benedict XVI’s call in Porta Fidei to revisit the documents of the Second Vatican Council, with a monthly event that featured different speakers that could encourage “greater and deeper insights” on those teachings, as well as illuminate the history behind them.

Sears said the parish is embarking on a new initiative of catechesis, faith formation, prayer, “experiential opportunities and witnessing” that are all centered around how Catholics “can better reflect the face of Christ.”

“That’s what we’re focusing on, and we want to incorporate that in as many ways that we can,” Sears said.

“That’s the starting point for our greater evangelization. So what we’re trying to do is prepare our hearts and minds and our space here, within our community, so that we are in a position to welcome people into our community more fully,” he said.

 

St. Paul-Minneapolis

Murphy said another highlight of the Year of Faith was the “Rediscover” program launched by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, an initiative to help Catholics discover the “depth and beauty of our Catholic faith” by putting it in reach through apps and social media. There is a possibility the program may end up going national.

“It’s a great model for faith formation, but in many ways, it is a pre-evangelization program. It says, ‘Let's look at where people are, and how do we help them forward in the faith?’” he said.

Ultimately, the lessons learned in the Year of Faith, Murphy said, reminded Catholics that they cannot “assume a level of catechesis, even for people coming to Mass each week.” And that faith, as Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation makes clear, “is not just being formed, but now, we have to go and share that [faith] with others.”

“Faith is meant to be every day of the week,” Murphy said. “And that means going out and sharing my faith in the workplace, in soccer practice, the grocery line: wherever we are that we can share our faith.”

Peter Jesserer Smith is a Register staff writer.