The Second Vatican Council’s central purpose was evangelization. All of its reforms, whether about liturgy, ecumenism and interreligious dialogue, or education, were all ordered toward one goal: to make the Gospel more accessible to the modern world. Vatican II issued a bold call to re-evangelize the modern world, a call that has been taken up faithfully by Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. But have we taken it up?
The last 500 years have seen a steady decline in Catholic culture and the public influence of the Church. Vatican II responded to the reality that for the first time in human history we have a secular culture: a way of life that seeks to exclude God. The Council’s response was a new vision for a New Evangelization, one which looks to the lay faithful.
Vatican II noted that the Church has a twofold mission. Primarily, the Church transmits the salvation of God. It teaches God’s revealed truth and shares his saving grace. Its secondary mission is to transform the world in which we live.
When Christians receive grace and truth, it is not merely an individual event. We are social beings, and if we are saved by grace, this salvation must extend to every facet of our life, including our social life and culture.
While the laity assists the hierarchy in the Church’s primary mission of salvation, the laity’s own unique mission centers primarily on culture. In our secular world, Vatican II realizes that only the lay faithful have access to the public realm and that through their witness they can transform the world for Christ. Through their access to the public realm of culture, they can bring Christ where he is being excluded.
The Council makes an important clarification about this kind of evangelization in the modern setting. It is meant to occur within the context of dialogue. In order to understand what people need today and how we can serve them, we need to listen to them and to engage in conversation. When we show that we truly understand and love others, they are then willing to listen to us and to learn from our message and witness. Those serving in the New Evangelization must both know Christ and also modern man in order to draw them together.
The goal of Vatican II’s mission of evangelization is nothing short of a world renewed and transformed by Christ. We could think of it as a Catholic culture, which means a way of life ordered toward the glory of God and genuine human flourishing. It consists of a world that can be what God intends it to be: liberated from sin and permeated by love.
How do we begin this transformation of the world? We have to begin with ourselves. First, we have to let our daily lives be consumed by Christ: our prayer, family life, work, recreation, friendships, parish life and political action. All areas of our life must be ordered to Christ. When this happens, we have taken the first steps toward renewal. We will have allowed our lives to be conformed to Christ and used by him as instruments to re-evangelize the world.
The New Evangelization seeks to restore to the faith those who have fallen away from Christ. These lost souls are living in a secular world that shapes the way they think and live. If we are to draw them back to Christ and the Church, we must show them how to live faithfully in the context of the modern world. This is why establishing a Catholic culture is so crucial for evangelization. It is a visible model of the Christian life to those in the world and also serves as a crucial support to those seeking to live out their faith. Without being lived out in a culture, faith remains a seed that cannot blossom to its full potential in one’s life.
In order to answer the call of the New Evangelization, we need to return to the documents of the Second Vatican Council and be nourished by its renewed vision of evangelization, especially in its call to the laity. If we are faithful in doing so, we will have the vision to boldly lead the way to the renewal of Catholic culture and, through it, Western civilization.
I will conclude with a few quotations from Pope John Paul II, which confirm the role of culture and dialogue in the New Evangelization:
“The spiritual void that threatens society is above all a cultural void, and it is the moral conscience renewed by the Gospel of Christ which can truly fill it” (Address to the Pontifical Council for Culture [PCC], Jan. 10, 1992).
“A faith that does not become culture is not fully accepted, not entirely thought out, not faithfully lived” (Address to the PCC, March 18, 1994).
“Your vocation, in this turn of the century and of the millennium, is that of creating a new culture of love and hope, inspired by the truth that frees us in Christ Jesus. This is the goal of inculturation; this is the priority of the New Evangelization” (ibid.).
“It is in the name of the Christian faith that the Second Vatican Council committed the whole Church to listen to modern man in order to understand him and to invent a new kind of dialogue which would permit the originality of the Gospel message to be carried to the heart of contemporary mentalities. We must then rediscover the apostolic creativity and the prophetic power of the first disciples in order to face new cultures. Christ’s word must appear in all of its freshness to the young generations whose attitudes are sometimes so difficult to understand for the traditionally minded, but who are far from being closed to spiritual values. Many times I have affirmed that the dialogue between the Church and the cultures of the world has assumed a vital importance for the future of the Church and of the world. … This dialogue is absolutely indispensable for the Church, because, otherwise, evangelization will remain a dead letter” (Address to the PCC, Jan. 18, 1983).
R. Jared Staudt is a professor of theology and
catechesis at the Augustine Institute in Denver.
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R. Jared Staudt writes: “for the first time in human history we have a secular culture” (I believe he means ‘majority secular’ of course.)
Not quite. “And God seeing that the wickedness of men was great on the earth, and that all the thought of their heart was bent upon evil at all times ...” Again, a great majority, but not quite all:
“But Noe [and his family] found grace before the Lord.” Gen 6, Douay
And, as we know, there were a few others: “And spared not the original world, but preserved Noe, the eighth person, the preacher of justice, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.” 2 Pet 2 ibid.
A “preacher” was Noah- an evangelizer- at a time when it was sorely needed. The good news (evangel) that Noah preached was: badness had overtaken the world; God was unhappy and ready to do something about it; that ‘something’ would be death-dealing for the ungodly; God was preparing a place of salvation for repentant ones.
Just as today, as our Lord said: “And as in the days of Noe, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For, as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, even till that day in which Noe entered into the ark: And they knew not till the flood came and took them all away: so also shall the coming of the Son of man be.” Did they really ‘know not’, with decades of preaching going on? Of course not, or Peter didn’t have his [inspired] facts right. They simply chose to pay more attention to their daily activities than to God’s purposed activity. And they were swept away.
Again, much like today: ‘they are eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage’, “Knowing this first: That in the last days there shall come deceitful scoffers, walking after their own lusts, saying: Where is his promise or his coming? For since the time that the fathers slept, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” And after recounting the Flood, “The Lord delays not his promise, as some imagine, but deals patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance”.
Are Catholic evangelists preaching the message of Jesus and Peter?
Doug,
Thank you for your comment. Just wanted to point out the difference between a secular culture and a corrupt one. During the time of Noah and during other periods of decadence, there certainly were corrupt morals, though this coincided with a perversion of religion, particularly through idolatry and superstition. Our culture today is the first one to specifically organizes society on secular terms without a public role of religion. See the works of Christopher Dawson for more detail on this (such as Progress and Religion).
This is interesting especially because it concerns cultures that were once upon a time Christian. The article says, “The goal of Vatican II’s mission of evangelization is nothing short of a world renewed and transformed by Christ. We could think of it as a Catholic culture….” The challenge here is how to make this understood for people who belong to other religions.
An interesting article which powerfully presents the mission of the Church to the world in the light of the present call for New/Re-Evangelization. I would be grateful if you could also explicitly quote some of the important citations from the documents of Vatican II itself.
The article presents the Catholic culture and Secular Culture as contradictory - Catholic culture, a way of life that transforms in Christ and Secular culture, a way of life that seeks to exclude God. Is the notion of secular culture in Vatican II so negative, so contradictory to the Christian world? A contrast has to be made so that we recognize all that are present in the world that takes one in the opposite direction. However, the seculum is also God’s creation; a Catholic needs to ‘listen to them and engage in real conversation’ as the article rightly points to.
Finally, what are the nuances in using re-evangelize, new evangelization and simply evangelize?
Would be happy to hear your comments.
Tony
Jared, great way of putting together one of the main objectives of the Vatican II council. This is exactly what we as Catholics have to do in our daily lives. Not just live the experience of a Sunday celebration, this has to move us towards bringing Christ to be the Head of everything we do in our daily lives.
We have to receive, live and give Christ.
Start by receiving Him, in order to accomplish this we have to cleanse ourselves with a thorough and sincere confession; we have to accept God’s Will, following the example of Mary, our Blessed Mother, and donate totally to the Lord.
Then we have to live God. We live, healthy physical lives, because we eat, exercise, wash our bodies, the same way we need to do with our spiritual lives; we need to have proper confessions, go constantly to communion, every day if possible, read the Word of God, all these are nutrients that are crucial for our spiritual well being.
Finally, we have to give God. As social beings, we can’t keep this to ourselves, we have to announce and proclaim the Lord to others that are in need, just as stated and proposed by Vatican II; but we must follow these steps.
Jared, this is a great way of putting together one of the main objectives of the Vatican II council. This is exactly what we as Catholics have to do in our daily lives. Not just live the experience of a Sunday celebration, this has to move us towards bringing Christ to be the Head of everything we do in our daily life, whatever that may be. We have to receive, live and give Christ. Start by receiving Him, in order to accomplish this we have to cleanse ourselves with a thorough and sincere confession; we have to accept God’s Will, following the example of Mary, our Blessed Mother, and donate totally to the Lord. Then we have to live God. We live, healthy physical lives, because we eat, exercise, wash our bodies, the same way we need to do with our spiritual lives; we need to have proper confessions, go constantly to communion, every day if possible, read the Word of God, all these are nutrients that are crucial for our spiritual well being. Finally, we have to give God. As social beings, we can’t keep this to ourselves, we have to announce and proclaim the Lord to others that are in need, just as stated and proposed by Vatican II; but we must follow these steps.
BRAVO!!
THE AMERICANIZATION OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
According to The 2010 Annual Megacensus of Religion (1) there are 283,308, 000 Christians in Northern America of which 84,4000, 000 are Roman Catholics. It is safe to say that the vast majority of these Catholics are the descendents of European Catholics who emigrated to the United States and Canada in the past hundred years: From Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Spain, Lebanon, and parts of Asia and Africa. Presently they are the first generation of the sons and daughters of their fathers and mothers and now are partnered with the second and third generation with their sons and daughters. The children of these parents are the main stumbling block of the hopeful continuation of the present Roman Catholic population in Northern America.
Their forefathers came from Cultures of Catholicism which made being a Roman Catholic a much easier and normal faith for a solemn religious life obligation and commitment. Presently Northern American culture cannot offer the same religious culture to those born into a Catholic family. At best American Culture today offers little means of living a true Catholic life and as such may be in all probability a major hindrance to the future growth of the Roman Catholic Faith in America.
LIVING IN A ROMAN CATHOLIC CULTURE
Sister Elizabeth Anne Seton
While in Italy with her dying husband, Elizabeth witnessed Catholicity in action through family friends. Three basic points led her to become a Catholic: belief in the Real Presence, devotion to the Blessed Mother and conviction that the Catholic Church led back to the apostles and to Christ. Many of her family and friends rejected her when she became a Catholic in March 1805.
http://www.Daldin5.com
“…..the Second Vatican Council committed the whole Church to listen to modern man in order to understand him. . . . . “ This is the problem. Where is it in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition that the Church must listen to MAN? Christ created His Church to Teach, to safeguard Truth, not the created to teach the Church. The Teaching Authority in the infallible spirit of the Magisterium is never to be changed or contradicted. We were made to serve He who created us. Teach youth from the beginning Christ is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, Our Most Blessed Redeemer, and not just a good soul and prophet to follow. “… for it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; and the prudence of the prudent I will reject…. Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? (1 Corth. 1:19-20)”
Why didn’t Vatican Council II bring thr modern world into the Church? Ecumenism almost destroyed evangelization in the wake of the council.
A great article and I truly enjoyed reading it. As a fan of the Second Vatican Council and a JP 2 Generation Catholic, the New Evangelization is fundamental in bringing people back to the one true Church. We must go out and meet them where they are and not expect everyone to be ready to accept things they don’t understand or were never explained to them in first place properly. Teaching others about the importance of Catholic culture and the great contributions of Catholicism is all part of evangelization.
With the rise of social media, it is a key tool in the New Evangelization. Do I think when Inter Mirifica was promulgated did the Church know that social media outlets could make an impact like they have…probably not, but with such options in front of us, we must use them effectively and often. It had been on my mind for months to start a blog to evangelize and catechize the lay faithful in the New Evangelization. Finally, at the end of January, I took my first step into the Catholic blogosphere. On Monday night, I spoke at Texas State’s Catholic Center on Blessed John Paul II and then blogged about it on Monday. I used Twitter as a means for them to interact with me and the Twitter world during the talk. We need bring the New Evangelization to the world and use social media to do it. It’s the beginning of “Tweetalization.”
Prof. Staudt, you stated that, “It is in the name of the Christian faith that the Second Vatican Council committed the whole Church to listen to modern man in order to understand him and to invent a new kind of dialogue…” Where in the Total Deposit of Faith only awarded to Christ’s Church, that retains the ‘Four Marks of Faith,’ the One, Holy, Catholic,and Apostolic Church, has this ever before been stated? Could you please connect the dots of your position from the time of Christ teaching His Apostles and the handed on subsequent Magisterial Supreme writings?
“It is in the name of the Christian faith that the Second Vatican Council committed the whole Church to listen to modern man”
The true spirit of Vatican II is captured in the following incident:
Whenever I think about the Council, I said, I always have one image in my mind: an aging Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, now blind, about age 80, limping, the head of the Holy Office and so the chief doctrinal officer of the Church, born in Trastevere to parents who had many children, so a Roman from Rome, from the people of Rome, takes the microphone to speak to the 2,000 assembled bishops. And, as he speaks, pleading for the bishops to consider the texts the curia has spent three years preparing, suddenly his microphone was shut off. He kept speaking, but no one could hear a word. Then, puzzled and flustered, he stopped speaking, in confusion. And the assembled fathers began to laugh, and then to cheer…
“Yes,” Gherardini said. “And it was only the third day.”
“What?” I said.
“Ottaviani’s microphone was turned off on the third day of the Council.”
“On the third day?” I said. “I didn’t know that. I thought it was later, in November, after the progressive group became more organized…”
“No, it was the third day, October 13, 1962. The Council began on October 11.”
“Do you know who turned off the microphone?”
“Yes,” he said. “It was Cardinal Lienart of Lille, France.”
“But then,” I said, “it could almost be argued, perhaps, that such a breech of protocol, making it impossible for Ottaviani to make his arguments, somehow renders what came after, well, in a certain sense, improper…”
“Some people make that argument,” Gherardini replied.
http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2012/04/controlling-mic-at-vatican-ii.html
The new generations are too high tech, and new way of evangelizing is definitely needed, I have started building my own religious website for the laps Catholics in Malaysia. I believe to attract the laps Catholics, I need to creating something exciting to attract them. Click here to visit my website. http://www.gainall.com.my/oks/cat/min/min_01.htm
I think one of the main problems with firing up evangelization is in the culture of the church. The church leadership is exerting tighter and tighter control. For effective evangelization we need leaders who will step up and step out. But as soon as that happens they get shut down by the power structure who seem to want only souls who will sit quietly in the pews and say yes bishop, whatever you say. It is an old leadership maxim that you should periodically turn around and see who is following you. You may think that you are the lead tiger in a group of other hard charging tigers. But if all you see following you are sheep, you are not the chief tiger, you are the chief sheep.
... Bob Rowland, you asked “Why didn’t Vatican Council II bring thr modern world into the Church?” Why have you not acknowledged that the Catholic Churches, Catholic buildings, the Holy Mass, the liturgies, parochial and CCD education, and the Sacraments have been changed?
Changes of non-living things, do not necessary change a person perception on how they want to live their life. The modern world we live in is a rat world, we are so caught up with making money, and having sexual fantasy, that will block us from thinking straight, thus, religion become secondary
to our life. We need to shift our paradiam, take away the materialistic dream and inject spiritual living to ourselves first. What the Vatican II objective is to change our perception and change our self first, who ever we encounter will see a different and they too will change.
Christianity population is 2.2 billions, and Roman Catholics itself is 1.2 billions. This is a huge figure, and its population is spread out all over the world, thus, to govern such a mega size religion, you need to have a tigh control. We do not expect everything to go accordingly to everybody
wishes. There will be rebellious groups, so what is wrong if some of them stop practicing their fate, who are we to tell them.
Jesus said, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost” I tell you that even so there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.”
If, we still have life, and can save a soul, does it matter how tigh the church rules were, or which Bishop objected to your good deeds, or who ever call you a tiger or a sheep. So What!!
Michael Philip, you said, “What the Vatican II objective is to change our perception and change our self first, who ever we encounter will see a different and they too will change.” Are you saying that the Saints and martyrs before Vatican II got it all wrong? Are you saying that Holy Mother Church needed correction?
Joe, it is you who said the Saints and martyrs before Vatican II got it all wrong and the Church needed correction.
I only presumed the article is trying to tell us to find a new method of evangelizing to this modern world of ours, thus, in order to do that, we need to shift our paradiam, because our modern world has progress too fast that block our perception of who we are, a Child of God.
In short, we must see ourselves as a child of God, before we can see others as Children of God.
As Mother Teresa said, “If we cannot love the person whom we see, how can we love God whom we cannot see”.
Michael, You said things need to change. Let me give you an update on the progress of ‘change’.
• Catholic Marriages in American in 1971 were 416,924 and in 2003 dropped to 241,727
• Marriage annulments in America in 1968 were 450; and in the year 2000 skyrocketed to 49,069
• Less than 10% of annulment applications are denied
• Only 26% of U S households are made of married couples with children; in 1972 it was 45%
• America has the most permissive abortion laws in the world
• U S Catholic Elementary Schools in 1962 were 10,630; in 2003 were 7,342
• U S Students in Catholic Schools in 1962 were 4,451,893 and in 2003 were 1,871,217
• Study: Female Students More Promiscuous at Catholic Colleges BY LIFESITENEWS.COM, Mar 01, 2010
• http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/archive/ldn/2010/mar/10030110
Between 1940 and 1960 American Catholics grew from 20 to 40 million; priests from 25,000 to 40,000 and religious from 50,000 to 100,000. U S Catholics had a high birthrate and were molding public opinions through such organizations as the Legion of Decency.
John Paul II said on the 40th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council that its documents are a ‘secure’ compass’ for modern Catholics. (Chapter on “Statistics” in Tumultuous Times, by Fathers Francisco and Dominic Radecki, CMRI 2004, “Vatican II and its Aftermath”).
Do you have later statistics?
Joe, whatever the statistics mentioned, shows Catholics are degrading or getting worst, it does not mean that the Vatican II was to be blamed. Vatican II formulated because the leaders were keeping in time with update of the Church cultures, traditions and doctrines, so that the youth of today can feel a sense of belonging to the Church. If, we blame the Vatican II for causing the degrading, then we need to ask ourselves, the world changes, from horses to automobile, do we blamed the automobile invention as the cause of all the people killed in the road accidents. Do we blamed the invention of guns or weapons for killing so many people in this world? Good inventions or good deeds can have good and bad effects, do we judge and blame them for happening. So, now we know, there are many Catholics are dropping out ot their faith, what are we going to do about it? We need to do something about it, that was what my website is all about. I need people, who share the same interest with me to look for the lost sheeps.
Michael, You cannot compare the supernatural to the natural, the Divine Spirit to the human spirit, the infallible Magisterial spirit to the fallible human spirit. God gives each person individual will, to choose Him and obey His Commandments or choose to be that lost sheep because of preferring sin and cannot find their way back. Another provoking thought for any bishop or priest is that they are not only responsible for the salvation of their own soul but also for the salvation of the souls of the flock they pastor. They share the responsibility of the sins committed by those they have charge over as taught in this book, “Dignity and Duties of the Priest or Selva”,by St Alphonsus Liguori.
Joe, I do know anything about the Dignity and Duties of the Priest or Selva, by St Alphonsus Liguori, but I do know this:
Matthew 16: 18-19, And now I say to you, “You are Peter (or Rock), and on this rock I will build my Church and never will the powers of death overcome it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven, and what you unbind on earth shall be unbound in Heaven.” In this passage, it indicate the beginning of Christianity where Jesus instructing Peter to build his church, with his objective and his purpose for his church and Jesus gave Peter the power to rule over his church. So, whatever the outcome of the Vatican Council II, it were the majority agreement from the Vatican Council, consist of Pope, 120 Cardinals (College of Bishops - Cardinals Bishops, Cardinals
Priests and Cardinals Deacons), and the Holy Spirit. Most churches congregations through out the world lifted up prayers for this Vatican Council meeting, I for one will stand up to anyone who condemn this Vatican Council II decision.
Sorry, I have missed out one important word, not in this sentence.
Joe, I do not know anything about….........
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