On "America's" Summit: Vatican Meeting This Week

Church leaders from North, Central and South America are meeting in Rome to discuss the New Evangelization across the region and discover how the Church can respond to shared societal problems.

"Three things stand out to me as particularly important for our discussion at the conference next week," said Carl Anderson, head of the Knights of Columbus, the world's largest Catholic fraternal organization.

"Firstly, that America, broadly defined as the entire American continent from Alaska to Argentina, is a key area for the work of the New Evangelization, and that it remains a Christian continent," Anderson said at a Dec. 4 Vatican press conference.

"Secondly, that ‘Ecclesia in America’ reminds us that the laity has an indispensable role to play in that New Evangelization and without it the Church's renewal is impossible," he added.

The final point Anderson made was that “Our Lady of Guadalupe is key to our understanding of the New Evangelization in America.”

The New Evangelization refers to the Church-wide effort to reintroduce the Gospel in areas where the practice of the faith has declined or even been largely forgotten.

Today’s media event was held in anticipation of the Dec. 9-12 international congress in Rome called "Ecclesia in America.”

Besides focusing on the New Evangelization, the summit will also commemorate Blessed John Paul II's exhortation ''Ecclesia in America." The gathering will fall on the 15th anniversary of the Synod of Bishops' Special Assembly for America, which was held Nov. 16 to Dec. 12, 1997.

"The churches of North, Central and South America face common problems developed over the last 15 years," Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet observed.

He pointed to youth violence, drug trafficking and drug consumption as matters of "grave concern and debate," and said that the Church is called to make a major contribution to addressing these issues.

But even more importantly, Cardinal Ouellet stressed that the Church must stand strong in areas where the institution of the family is suffering a serious assault.

The international congress will also offer a chance for building “networks of friendship throughout the continent, with a true sense of belonging to the Church,” he added, referring to it as "one of the first major events of the Year of Faith.”

Over 200 participants are expected at the congress, organized by the Knights of Columbus and the Commission for Latin America with the help of the Institute for Guadalupan Studies.

The Ecclesia in America congress will open with Mass at Saint Peter's Basilica and a speech by Pope Benedict, and will include cardinals from Toronto, Boston, Guadalajara, Santo Domingo and Tegucigalpa, as well as bishops and archbishops from across the region.

Religious, supervisors of the Roman Curia and those residing in Pontifical Colleges in Rome from North and South America will also attend.

The event will also include the Rosary, which will be prayed on Dec. 11 at the Vatican Gardens, a devotional event with an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, “Guadalupan” hymns and a scientific research presentation on the St. Juan Diego’s cloak that bears the famous image of Mary.

The conference will conclude with proposals on cooperation between the continents.

The results of Ecclesia in America will then be given to the Roman Curia and the respective bishops’ conferences.

Evangelization Requires Bishop's Self-Examination: Editorial

The following is an editorial by Sean Keohane of an Irish Publication entitled Clerical Whispers. In it he examines the responsibility of bishops as the conclusion of the Synod on The New Evangelization. I found it inspiring and challenging:

On Oct. 6, 262 bishops gathered in Rome for the 13th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops to discuss "The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith."

One of the gathering's primary concerns, particularly for those leaders of churches in the prosperous North, is how to reach out to disaffected Catholics.

That same day, half a world away in Bethesda, Md., researchers for the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life were telling a gathering of religion writers that two new markers had been reached in the religion landscape in the United States: For the first time since the organization had begun surveying about such matters, the country was no longer majority Protestant, and one in five American adults now claimed no religious affiliation.

Though Catholicism showed no significant drop in overall membership -- thanks in large part to the influx of immigrants -- we also know that Catholics in the United States have been exiting the church in recent years by the millions, the younger ones before they reach age 18.

For years now "the new evangelization" has been lurking about in search of its own identity, more aspirant than actual in its determination to be relevant and "new." The awkwardness that surrounds discussion of the elusive term was captured in a wire service story depicting the setting and content of the synod's opening address, delivered by Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington.

The church must reach out to former members, showing them both the relevance of the faith "without losing its rootedness in the great living faith tradition of the church," Wuerl said.

He was speaking in Latin to a gathering of celibate male clerics. He lamented that too many Catholics don't know basic prayers and teachings and don't understand why it's important to go to Mass and confession. His solution: reach out to them and teach them the contents of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Perhaps that's a plan.

But it sounds, instead, as if the analysis and proposed solution are as lifeless and lacking in blood and imagination as the church from which so many are exiting. The new evangelization will remain a stilted and cerebral exercise unless those most invested in its success are willing to take risks.

Too much of what we hear of "the new evangelization" is a one-way proposition. It's saying, "We have the answers, we know what these poor, lost souls need." By rushing in with answers, we may be missing the questions.

The Pew study made clear that the unaffiliated are not angry at organized religion; they just don't want anything more to do with it. Most "nones" believe in God and many call themselves spiritual. At the synod, Filipino Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila noted: "The seemingly indifferent and aimless societies of our time are earnestly looking for God."

Is it possible that "nones" can teach us something about God? Or at least can we learn something from listening to their questions? The church's challenge is not to supply answers but to accompany people on their spiritual quests.

There were hints around the synod that some realize what needs to be done. Tagle said that for the church to be a place where people meet God, it needs to learn three things from the example of Jesus: humility, respect for others, and "the power of silence."

Tagle said, "Confronted with the sorrows, doubts and uncertainties of people, she cannot pretend to give easy solutions. In Jesus, silence becomes the way of attentive listening, compassion and prayer. It is the way to truth."

Bishop Brian J. Dunn of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, whose diocese was shattered by the sexual abuse crisis, spoke of the resulting "great disorientation that leads to forms of distrust of teachings and values that are essential for the followers of Christ."

Regaining trust requires more than steps forced by an outraged public.

Dunn acknowledged the call for a change in church structures and advocated, in addition, the need for "a profound change of mentality, attitude and heart in our ways of working with laypeople."

Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan, the Philippines, made an equally strong plea for change. "Evangelization has been hurt and continues to be impeded by the arrogance of its messengers," Villegas said, adding, "When pride seeps into the heart of the church, the Gospel proclamation is harmed."

Some readers will question this editorial, asking why we dwell so much on the bishops. Last issue, after all, we editorialized on being the people of God and finding power in our baptism. We're not walking back from that viewpoint, but we also have to acknowledge that the bishops continue to hold the reins. We have to address these criticisms to them because they have yet to make the laity an integral part of their planning.

The new evangelization, at its heart, asks laypeople to go deep inside and examine their most essential instincts, their yearnings for a connection with the God of life.

It also requires some deep interior digging on the part of the bishops themselves -- the kind of sacramental examination they'd like to see flower again among the faithful.

Providing a model of that kind of work might be a good place to restart the discussion of the new evangelization.

Summary of Final Text for the Synod of the New Evangelization

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 26, 2012 - Here is the translation of the summary released by the Holy See Press Office of the Final Message For the People of God of the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith. The full Message, once it is available in English by the Press Office, will be available shortly. The following was translated from Italian and it available online.

* * *

At the beginning of the document, the bishops recalled the evangelical passage from John which tells about the encounter of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well: this is the image of contemporary man with an empty vessel, who is thirsting and is nostalgic for God, and to whom the Church must turn to make the Lord present to him. And just like the Samaritan woman, who encounters Jesus, he can but become a witness of the proclamation of salvation and hope of the Gospel.

Looking specifically at the context of new evangelization, the Synod therefore reminds of the necessity to revive faith, which risks being made obscure in the context of today’s cultures, also faced with the weakening of the faith by many baptized persons. The encounter with the Lord, which reveals God as love, can only come about in the Church, as the form of receptive community and experience of communion; from this, then, Christians become its witnesses also in other places. However, the Church reasserts that to evangelize one must be evangelized first of all, and sends out a plea - starting with herself - for conversion, because the weaknesses of Jesus’ disciples weigh upon the credibility of the mission. Conscious of the fact that the Lord is the guide of history and therefore that evil will not have the last word, the bishops invite the Christians to overcome fear with faith and to look at the world with serene courage because, while full of contradictions and challenges, this is still the world God loves. Therefore no pessimism: globalization, secularization and the new scenarios of society, migration, even with the difficulties and suffering they entail, they must be seen as opportunities for evangelization. Because this is not a question of finding new strategies as if the Gospel was to be spread like a market product, but rediscovering the ways in which individuals come close to Jesus.

The Message looks at the family as the natural place for evangelization and reasserts that it should be supported by the Church, by politics and by society. Within the family, the special role of women is underlined and there is a reminder about the painful situation of divorced and remarried persons: while reconfirming the discipline with regards to access to the sacraments, it is reasserted that they are in no way abandoned by the Lord and that the Church is the welcoming house for all. The Message also mentions consecrated life, witness of the ultra-earthly sense of human existence, and the parishes as centers for evangelization; it recalls the importance of permanent formation for priests and religious men and women and invites the laity (movements and new ecclesial realities) to evangelize, remaining in communion with the Church. New evangelization finds a welcome cooperation with the other Churches and ecclesial communities, they too moved by the same spirit of proclamation of the Gospel. Special attention is focused on the young persons in a perspective of listening and dialogue to redeem and not mortify their enthusiasm.

Then, the Message looks at dialogue, seen in many ways: with culture, which needs a new alliance between faith and reason; with education; with science which, when it doesn’t close man in materialism it becomes an ally for the humanization of life; with art; with the world of economy and work; with the ill and the suffering; with politics, where an uninterested and transparent involvement towards the common good is asked for; with other religions. In particular, the Synod emphasizes that interreligious dialogue contributes to peace, refutes fundamentalism and denounces any violence against believers. The Message recalls the possibilities offered by the Year of the Faith, by the memory of Vatican Council II and by the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Finally, it indicates two expressions of a life of faith, which are especially meaningful for new evangelization: contemplation, where silence allows for the better reception of the Word of God, and service to the poor, in the view of recognizing Christ in their faces.

In the last part, the Message looks at the Church in the various regions of the world and addresses a word of encouragement for the proclamation of the Gospel to each of them: to the Eastern Churches wishing to be able to practice faith in conditions of peace and religious freedom; to the African Church asking for develop evangelization in the encounter of ancient and new cultures, calling then upon the governments to cease the conflicts and violence. The Christians of North America, who live in a culture with many expressions distant from the Gospel, must look towards conversion, to being open to welcoming immigrants and refugees. Latin America is invited to live the permanent mission to face today’s challenges such as poverty, violence, even the new conditions of religious pluralism. The Church in Asia, even while being a small minority, often placed at the edges of society and persecuted, is encouraged and exhorted to the steadfastness of faith. Europe, marked by an even aggressive secularization and wounded by past regimes, has nevertheless created a humanistic culture capable of giving a face to the dignity of man and to the building of the common good; today’s difficulties therefore must not dishearten the European Christians, but must be perceived as a challenge. Oceania is asked to feel once again the involvement of preaching the Gospel. Finally, the Message closes with trust in Mary, the Star of New Evangelization.

"Talking About Talking Church"

The following is an article written for The National Catholic Reporter on October 10 2012 by Phyllis Zagano a Professor at Hofstra University. It speaks closely to how I have felt going into this Synod:

I think it was the late Jeane Kirkpatrick, a former UN ambassador and sharp-tongued conservative, who said it. True quote or not, the thought remains: "There's no shortage of people willing to spend a week in Paris talking about poverty."
Now 262 bishops and 94 hand-picked others are spending three weeks in Rome talking about evangelization.

Pasta, anyone?

The 13th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on "The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith" will cost who-knows-what and give the various attendees an opportunity to talk about talking about church. Seven of the bishops and 10 experts and auditors are from the United States. The entire crowd presents all the outlooks in the church from right to far right.

OK, I spotted some moderates, and even maybe a liberal or two on the lists. But I'm not telling. Let the Holy Spirit quietly help them open the windows.

Something's got to give. The Pew Research Center reports that one in five U.S. citizens claims no religion. Other statistics say 12.5 percent of U.S. Catholics are now ex-Catholics. The numbers are echoed around the world. "None" is rapidly becoming the affiliation of choice.

Even so, most Catholics would rather fight than switch. Inside the ropes, the issues line up pretty uniformly: the "official" church is worried about sexual mores while the working church is trying to figure out how to feed the poor. Everybody agrees on helping the needy, and people vary widely on most of the neuralgic issues. But the message of Christ is lost amid sex scandals and financial improprieties. The butler really did do it, but why?

So the new evangelization is supposed to fix things? It's being talked about in one of the world's most beautiful -- and expensive -- cities. The synod's marching orders -- the Instrumentum Laboris -- is about 80 pages of Vati-speak interspersed with Bible verses. Much of it is lovely, if applied to everybody. But it mentions few women: the Samaritan woman at the well, the Syro-Phoenician woman who suffered Jesus' brush-off (feed the children's bread to the dogs?), some prostitutes and unnamed catechists.

There will be no new evangelization until everybody agrees we all are made in the image and likeness of God. That means everybody: the ones who talk back (even the dogs get the children's table scraps); the ones folks love to hate; the whole crowd -- warts and all.

And who will do all this evangelizing? Announcing the Gospel is the deacon's charge. The synod document mentions deacons in the same sentence with women: "deacons and many women who are involved in catechesis." That's not it. The diaconal charge is to carry the Gospel, to announce it in word and in deed, to explore it, to explain it, to teach it, to preach it.

When New York's Cardinal Timothy Dolan met with major superiors of religious institutes and orders working in his archdiocese not long before he left for Rome, one of the four women speakers had the temerity to suggest that women as deacons might move evangelization forward. It's not in her written remarks, but the more than 60 people there heard it. Did he?

What difference would it make anyway? Deacons barely get a mention in the synod's marching orders, which mainly include women as whiners or temptresses or sometime-helpers in the task. And therein lies the tale.

There are two ways of looking at the project of evangelization: 1) the catechism with a smile; 2) living the Gospel. The former involves more rules than real tools of evangelization. The latter takes the other's hand, listens and blesses. The former calls the law the admission ticket to Christianity. The latter is Christianity.

Benedict XVI finds the church at a loss in the face of secularism, and he is correct. The cardinal archbishop of Washington, D.C., Donald Wuerl -- the synod's relator -- blames bad catechesis and worse liturgy. These all play a part, up to a point. If prospective and former Catholics stand behind the barrier of secularism, on the other side they see too many overweight men waving rule books and speaking strangely, calling it prayer.

Maybe the synod will work. Maybe, like the daughter of the Syro-Phoenician woman, the church away from Rome will experience a long-distance miracle. Maybe it will get some of that life-giving water the Samaritan woman sought.

The bottom line is no one is going to follow Jesus unless the messengers act like Jesus. It is just not going to happen.

[Phyllis Zagano is senior research associate-in-residence at Hofstra University and author of several books in Catholic studies. Her most recent books are Women & Catholicism (Palgrave-Macmillan), Women in Ministry: Emerging Questions about the Diaconate (Paulist Press) and Women Deacons: Past, Present, Future (with Gary Macy and William T. Ditewig), (Paulist Press).]

Vatican II Being Fulfilled: American Religious Sister

A member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist, Sr. Paula Jean Miller teaches theology at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, and directs its “Living Learning Center” as well as its Catholic Studies program. She’s among the theological experts invited to take part in the Oct. 7-28 Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization.

Miller sat down Oct. 16 for an interview at a residence of her community in Rome, just a stone’s throw from the Vatican, as the synod reached its half-way point.

Miller is among 29 women named to the synod, ten as “experts” and 19 as “observers.” The voice of women at the meeting, and the broader question of the role of women in the New Evangelization, is among the topics she discussed.

Read more here.

Canadian Bishop Points to Accountabilty at Synod

A Canadian bishop whose diocese was rocked by clerical sex abuse crises told the Synod of Bishops that the new evangelization must address the reality of distrust and disappointment the scandal left in its wake.

With the sex abuse crisis, Catholics have experienced "a great disorientation that leads to forms of distrust of teachings and values that are essential for the followers of Christ," Bishop Brian J. Dunn of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, told the synod Oct. 12.

The Diocese of Antigonish has sold hundreds of properties in an effort to raise the money necessary to cover legal settlement and sexual abuse lawsuit costs from before Bishop Dunn's appointment. In 2011, the previous bishop, Raymond Lahey, pled guilty and was jailed on charges of importing child pornography. The former bishop was laicized by the Vatican in May.

The Catholic Church cannot ignore the need to find a way to "evangelize those who have been deeply hurt by clergy who have been involved in sexual abuse," Bishop Dunn told the synod.

One possible way forward, Bishop Dunn said, is to look at the story of the disciples, disillusioned by Jesus' death, who are met by the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus. Christ walks with them and listens to them, the bishop said.

Dioceses must have real structures in place for listening to victims and coming to appreciate "the depth of hurt, anger and disillusionment associated with this scandal," he told the synod.

At the same time, the church needs to investigate the causes of the sexual abuse crisis and ensure measures are in place to protect children and vulnerable adults.

"Those who have been hurt consistently call for a change in certain structures in the church, but it is not only ecclesial structures that must change," he said, there also must be "a profound change of mentality, attitude and heart in our ways of working with laypeople."

The bishop called for the appointment of pastoral teams of clergy and laypeople to administer parishes, for a formal recognition of "lay ecclesial ministers," and for a "deliberate and systematic involvement and leadership of women at all levels of church life."

When church life is marked by "co-responsibility," Bishop Dunn said, "the Gospel will be heard anew, our faith fill be passed on more effectively, we will be renewed in our faith and our witness will become more authentic."

Archbishop of Canterbury Addresses Synod of Bishops in Rome

Archbishop Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the Anglican Communion worldwide addressed the ongoing Synod of Bishops in Rome on the theme of "The New Evangelization."

"Those who know little and care even less about the institutions and hierarchies of the church these days" nevertheless are attracted and challenged by Christians whose lives show they have been transformed by their encounter with Christ, said Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, head of the Church of England.

The emphasis which Archbishop Williams has towards a personal encounter with Christ is also be highlighted by other bishops from around the world. It speaks to me of a need to cultivate an intimate relationship with our Lord that will effectively change us from within. As the old adage goes, "you can't give what you don't have."

"The face we need to show to our world is the face of a humanity in endless growth toward love, a humanity so delighted and engaged by the glory of what we look toward that we are prepared to embark on a journey without end to find our way more deeply into it," Archbishop Williams told the synod.

I am deeply gratified that Archbishop Williams was invited to address the Synod, which by itself testifies to how far the Church has come in these years. It would have been unimaginable 50 years ago that a Roman Catholic Synod would have permitted such an event at that time.

To read more of what Archbishop Williams spoke of you may look here.

As Synod Draws Near: Cardinal Wuerl Speaks of "Tsunami of Secularism"

At the Synod of Bishops, which opens Oct. 7 with a papal Mass in St. Peter's Square, some 250 prelates from around the world will meet for three weeks to talk and pray about the new evangelization.

Long after the bishops have expressed their diverse views, Pope Benedict XVI will have the last word in an authoritative document of reflections called a post-synodal apostolic exhortation. In the meantime, none of the participants has a better overview of the Vatican gathering, or of the questions it will examine, than Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington.

As the synod's relator, Cardinal Wuerl has reviewed preliminary suggestions from bishops' conferences around the world and synthesized them in a speech he will deliver in Latin at the first working session Oct. 8. The cardinal will address the assembly again 10 days later, once more in Latin, to summarize hundreds of speeches by his fellow bishops.

Initiated by Blessed John Paul II and eagerly embraced by his successor, the new evangelization is a project aimed at reviving Catholic faith in increasingly secular societies, especially the wealthiest Western nations.

For Cardinal Wuerl, it is also an opportunity to fulfill the goal for which Blessed John XXIII called the Second Vatican Council: a faithful presentation of Catholic teachings in a way "attractive to a very rapidly changing culture."

It's no mere coincidence, the cardinal said, that the synod overlaps with the 50th anniversary of the opening of the council, Oct. 11, which Pope Benedict has designated as the beginning of a special Year of Faith. Like Vatican II, the cardinal said, the synod will emphasize continuity with the church's ancient traditions.

"There is a continuum of Catholic faith going all the way back to the creed, going all the way back to the apostles," Cardinal Wuerl said. "That continuum is where we find the articulation of our faith."

Although Vatican II was faithful to the church's traditional doctrines, the cardinal said, implementation of the council's teachings in the 1960s and 1970s coincided with a "current of secularism sweeping the Western world," especially Europe.

"It's almost as if a tsunami of secularism washed across Western Europe and, when it receded, it took with it all of those foundational concepts: family, marriage, right and wrong, common good, objective order," he said.

In Europe and beyond, the cardinal said, that secular wave accompanied a loosening of standards in Catholic religious education.

"Somehow we were to be catechizing without content," the cardinal said, describing what he called a widespread attitude at the time. "Somehow there was supposed to be communicated some experience, some idea that God loves us, we love God, but it wasn't rooted in the creed.

"As our Holy Father has pointed out so many times," the cardinal said, "if you are not proclaiming the Christ that the church knows and lives, then you could be proclaiming a Christ that you've created."

The cost of poor catechesis, Cardinal Wuerl said, was a "diminished allegiance from two generations" of Catholics.

A key part of the church's response to that development was the Catechism of the Catholic Church, whose compilation was overseen by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger when the future pope was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In another non-coincidence, the 20th anniversary of the catechism's publication will also be celebrated Oct. 11.

The cardinal said the catechism has been the basis for dramatic improvement in religious education over the last two decades, especially in the United States. When he and other U.S. bishops met with Pope Benedict earlier this year during their "ad limina" visits, Cardinal Wuerl said he was happy to report the sound state of Catholic education at the elementary and secondary school levels.

"And at the level of the colleges?" the pope replied, with a smile and what the cardinal describes as a "twinkle in his eye."

The church in America has a "long way to go" to bring Catholic higher education back into harmony with church teaching, the cardinal said, and an essential part of that effort is restoring the "institutional identity" of Catholic colleges and universities.

Effective evangelization, he explained, requires that "we speak out of our own identity as members of the church, as Catholics, as people who hold dear the creed, who worship at the table of the Eucharist, and who simply know Christ is with us."

Despite the setbacks of earlier decades, he said he draws hope from the growing interest among youth in the teachings of the church.

"We have a whole new group of young people coming along," the cardinal said, "and they're saying, 'this secular world isn't answering my questions.'

"There is a lot of good happening," he added. "We just have to find ways of tapping into it and inviting those young people to look to Christ for an answer."