Franciscan at Home

In this final installment, we reflect on the most essential characteristic of an effective catechist for the new evangelization: allowing Christ to transform us through holiness of life. Among all of the words spoken during the pontificate of Blessed Paul VI, there is one phrase most often repeated today that came to prominence in one of his last letters, Evangelli Nuntiandi. It was his observation that “modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses” (41).

This is a paid advertisement in the October-December 2017 issue. Advertisements should not be viewed as endorsements from the publisher.

When I was a full-time parish youth minister many years ago, Brian, who had been recently initiated into the Church, invited his younger sister Erin to our parish youth program. She was unbaptized and knew a little about Jesus through her family, who did not actively attend a church. Brian began by bringing her to our social events, where she was welcomed and began to meet “nice” teens, as well as fun, safe, and holiness-striving adults. As these relationships began to grow, Erin soon attended our youth group meetings and eventually our retreats. It was during these retreats that the love of Christ and his call became clear to her. Of her own free will, Erin decided to attend our weeknight prayer group. Little did she realize that this meeting was really a full, complete, and systematic unveiling of the teachings of the Church done in an attractive youth-ministry manner. We did not pressure her to attend; we simply invited her to our events and welcomed her when she participated. At all our gatherings, Erin heard us say that if any teen was ever interested in becoming Catholic, we would be happy to talk to him or her about it. For months, even though she was a regular participant at our social events, youth group meetings, retreats, and prayer group, Erin never said she wanted to become Catholic. Eventually, one day she came to us with the firm conviction to enter the Church. Since then, not only was she initiated into the sacramental life of the Church, she served the youth program as a young adult, did mission work, and is now a devoted young wife and mother. Watching Erin grow in faith was not only a joy, but was a living testimony of the Church’s wisdom as seen in the stages of conversion in the catechumen ate. If you are a coordinator of youth ministry, you are probably saying to yourself, “Oh no, this article is giving me another thing to do.” If that’s what you’re thinking, you are correct! However, what I want to discuss here is not another program to add to your workload but a process that will shape and define your ministry. In short, developing a teen initiation process has the potential of directing the entirety of our youth ministry to evangelization and conversion. To do so, we need to make initiation the heart of our programming for teenagers. In this article, I will first show how the parish youth program can be used as the foundation for a vibrant and solid teen initiation process, then demonstrate how the stages of the catechumenate can be the foundation for parish youth programming. I will also discuss how parishes without youth programs can serve teenagers who want to be initiated into the life of the Church. Second, I will highlight key components of an initiation process for adolescents, including important moments in the process and the issue of parent involvement.

In her book Forming Intentional Disciples, Sherry Weddell remarks that “Pew researchers found that attending CCD, youth groups and even Catholic high schools made little or no difference in whether or not an American Catholic teen ended up staying Catholic, becoming Protestant or leaving to become unaffiliated. The best predictor of adult attendance at religious service is strong adult faith.”[i] Without detracting from our efforts with children, the Catholic Church has always intended that adult faith formation receive priority in parish life. Pope St. John Paul II remarks in Catechesi Tradendae (43) that adult catechesis is “the principal form of catechesis, because it is addressed to persons who have the greatest responsibilities and the capacity to live the Christian message in its fully developed form.” Adult catechesis is centered on a lifelong deepening of faith in Christ, thus serving as the point of reference for catechesis in other age groups. Whether you are involved in religious education, youth ministry, or pastoral care at your parish, all parish staff are ministers of and to the adults of the parish. Strong catechesis of youth and young adults has its foundation in adult catechesis and we need to orient parish life to the centrality of adult faith formation.

Although the word "evangelization" has gained greater notoriety among Catholics in recent years, it still gets confused pejoratively with its ugly step-cousin “proselytization.” To proselytize is to apply undue pressure on someone to convert, using unethical means like bribery, threats, or deception. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith offered this comment: “More recently, however, the term has taken on a negative connotation, to mean the promotion of a religion by using means, and for motives, contrary to the spirit of the Gospel; that is, which do not safeguard the freedom and dignity of the human person.”[1]

A good example of this happened during the Irish famine, when Catholics were starving. English landlords would prepare a huge stewpot for all the poor of the estate or village. There was only one catch: in order to get the stew, the person had to renounce the Catholic faith. You can imagine how great a temptation that was, especially during those years of famine and starvation. Pope Benedict XVI said, “The Church does not engage in proselytism. Instead, she grows by ‘attraction.’”[2]

There are a number of legitimate means of evangelization that are sometimes confused with proselytism: going door-to-door, standing atop the proverbial "soap box," or handing out tracts. Not everyone is comfortable with this kind of evangelization because it involves initiating spiritual conversations with strangers, something most of us don’t excel at. However, some people are really good at it!

But the Catholic vision of evangelization involves much more.

Los católicos en los Estados Unidos hemos comenzado un proceso de cuatro años de reflexión, evangelización y consulta llamado el Quinto Encuentro Nacional de Pastoral Hispana/Latina (desde el 2017 hasta el 2020). Al centro de este proceso se halla un modelo catequético que parte de la convicción de que la evangelización y la catequesis son dinámicas íntimamente relacionadas.

El proceso del V Encuentro involucrará, directa e indirectamente, a varios millones de católicos en cerca de 5.000 parroquias en la mayoría de las diócesis católicas de los Estados Unidos. El proceso es una oportunidad perfecta para evaluar de qué manera el marco conceptual de la Nueva Evangelización, aplicado a la catequesis, puede conducir a una apreciación renovada de esta importante actividad eclesial en comunidades de fe católicas. Al mismo tiempo, el proceso es una ocasión para sacar a la catequesis de la “esquina programática” en donde parece residir en muchas comunidades de fe (ej. programas pre-sacramentales, “escuela dominical”) y reposicionarla para que tenga un papel más integrado en los esfuerzos evangelizadores de la Iglesia, una meta que muchos de los documentos eclesiales sobre la catequesis han formulado pero que no siempre logra.

En este ensayo parto de siguiente premisa: la manera como una comunidad entiende la evangelización influencia de manera significativa el cómo se concibe la catequesis al igual que los compromisos pedagógicos y curriculares asociados con ella.

Catholics in the United States are currently engaged in a four-year process of reflection, evangelization, and consultation called the Fifth National Encuentro of Hispanic/Latino Ministry (from 2017 to 2020). At the core of this process is a catechetical model that builds upon the conviction that evangelization and catechesis must explicitly go hand in hand. The V Encuentro process will engage several million Catholics, directly and indirectly, in about 5,000 thousand parishes in most Catholic dioceses throughout the United States. The process is a perfect opportunity to assess to what extent the conceptual framework of the New Evangelization applied to catechesis can lead to a renewed appreciation of this important ecclesial activity in Catholic faith communities. At the same time, the process provides an occasion to take catechesis out of the “programmatic corner” where it dwells in many faith communities (e.g., pre-sacramental programs, “Sunday school”) and reposition it into a more integrated role in the Church’s wider evangelization efforts—a goal envisioned by most contemporary Church documents on catechesis but not always accomplished. In this essay, I propose that a community’s understanding of evangelization significantly influences how catechesis is conceived as well as the pedagogical and curricular commitments associated with it.

There is a powerful verse in Isaiah that is particularly appropriate for all of us who are catechists: “The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught” (Is 50:4a). We need a tongue to speak, and we want the tongue to reflect what we ourselves have been taught. It sounds obvious. How could we teach in any other way than through being taught ourselves? Perhaps it is nonetheless a striking saying because it reminds us of the things that can go wrong in this simple process of receiving and giving.

For Others And For Ourselves

On the one hand, we can think that the formation we receive is for ourselves alone, rather than for transmission to others. We can forget that what we receive in terms of our formation is always both for ourselves and for others. We hear the echo in order to re-echo. A catechist is always for the other, and so in our Christian lives we receive not only for the building up of our own knowledge and understanding, in order to deepen our own relationship with Christ, but also to better discern the ways in which our formation may be of service to others.

On the other hand, we can think that what we receive is for others alone, forgetting ourselves. To use the well-known image of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, we think of ourselves primarily as channels, through which all that we have received flows, rather than as reservoirs that must fill up so as to spill over. St. Bernard counsels:

…do not try to be more generous than God. The reservoir resembles the fountain that runs to form a stream or spreads to form a pool only when its own waters are brimming over. The reservoir is not ashamed to be no more lavish than the spring that fills it.[i]

“To catechize or not to catechize” is definitely not the question. Catechize we must. It is a mandate: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of allnations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19-20). This missionary mandate requires great skill, will power, and constant docility to the Holy Spirit’s promptings, as well as flexibility with the changing realities we face through human history and the Christian presence therein. This Great Commission must also be characterized and driven by the Great Commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God… and your neighbor as yourself” (cf. Lk 10:28; Mt 22:38; Mk 12:30).

How are we to fulfill the Great Commission here at home, when fewer of us go to all nations as missionaries, but all nations seem to be coming to us—even as “missionaries”? How are we to fulfill the Great Commandment towards all when our neighbors include a large and growing number of foreigners? First, we must will it. We must truly desire their good, as Jesus does. When the leper addressed him in his need, Jesus showed his willingness: “I do will it. Be made clean” (cf. Mt 8:1-3). We must will the good of newcomers as much as we will our own.

Who are the New Hispanic-Americans?

I do not intend to approach here—from every possible and necessary angle—the all-important challenge and opportunity posed by the large number of immigrants living in the U.S. However, it behooves us to consider the mission of catechesis and the overall call to an effective new evangelization among Hispanics in the context of this societal challenge, keeping in mind that not all Hispanics are actually immigrants: the roots of millions go back to the 1500s and 1700s.[i]

Latin American immigrants come to the U.S. from twenty-one nations (though some list twenty-seven Spanish-speaking territories on three continents.) Most enter from Central America and Mexico by foot or car; many fly in. They migrate for economic and political, professional and family reasons, usually in search of a better life in a more stable nation. Some enter the country with proper documents, others without; some overstay their visas. Some come and go; others come to stay. Some fear for their lives; many simply cannot in good conscience return “home” and leave behind their American-born children and/or spouse. Most see their work and contributions as meaningful and do not wish to give up a good thing; others know their quality of life would be greatly diminished if they left. Most prove in their new homeland that their hard work and entrepreneurial spirit has a fair chance of flourishing and producing lasting fruit.

The vast majority of immigrants want a chance to enjoy a share of human dignity and the “American Dream”: to live and love; to be safe and secure; to put to use their God-given talents in a dignified and constructive manner; to earn a decent living; to bond and build a just society and a better world. They bring various needs, but they do not come empty-handed, looking for hand-outs: they bring a variety of talents and skills. Most are hardworking and decent. Many are skilled and entrepreneurial. Some are highly educated and accomplished. The majority of Latino immigrants are Catholic and many of them have been active in their parishes, lay ecclesial movements, and dioceses coming with a hunger for God and the ability to spiritually feed others. Immigrants bring gifts and are a blessing to the host country.

The pastoral care of Hispanic Catholics is a crucial duty that we cannot ignore, especially given the high numbers related to migration and birth. In over forty U.S. dioceses, they already surpass the number of non-Hispanic Catholics.[ii] As American Catholics—or rather, Catholics who are American—we must give a thoroughly Catholic Christian response to the presence of migrants to the U.S., especially Latinos. A reminder from Matthew 25 and from the Catechism of the Catholic Church might help us bear in mind how serious our responsibility is toward our neighbor: “The catechetical tradition also recalls that there are ‘sins that cry to heaven’: the blood of Abel, the sin of the Sodomites, the cry of the people oppressed in Egypt, the cry of the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan, injustice to the wage earner” (par. 1867).

Every January we enter back into ordinary time with the baptism of Jesus at the Jordan by John the Baptist. As John’s father Zachariah prophesied at his birth, John is the “Precursor” who “will go before the Lord to prepare his way” (cf. Lk 1:76).

This transition to ordinary time provides a rich context for a fresh reflection on our Christian mission to “prepare the way of the Lord.” In this article, we’ll look at several philosophical proofs of God’s existence and then see how everyday acts can prepare the mind and heart for faith. In order to enter into this topic, it will help to begin with a few thoughts about human reason.