Serving the New Evangelization: Opportunities and Challenges in Catechesis and Pastoral Ministry in the Vision of Pope Francis

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Notes

Pope Francis, “Why the Only Future Worth Building Includes Everyone,” TED video, April 2017, https://www.ted.com/talks/pope_francis_why_the_only_future_worth_building_includes_everyone?language=en.

Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium [Apostolic Exhortation on the Proclamation of the Gospel in Today’s World], November 24, 2013, para. 88, http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html.

John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio [Encyclical on the Permanent Validity of the Church’s Missionary Mandate], December 7, 1990, para. 30, http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_07121990_redemptoris-missio.html.

For a helpful definition of the New Evangelization, see Timothy P. O’Malley, Liturgy and the New Evangelization: Practicing the Art of Self-Giving Love (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2014), 1.

Anthony Spadaro, S.J., “Interview with Pope Francis,”https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2013/september/documents/papa-francesco_20130921_intervista-spadaro.html.

Jared Dees, To Heal, Proclaim, and Teach: The Essential Guide to Ministry in Today’s Catholic Church (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 2016), 57.

Pope Francis, “Chrism Mass Homily,” March 28, 2013, http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/homilies/2013/documents/papa-francesco_20130328_messa-crismale.html.

Spadaro (see n. 5).

Pope Francis, “Address of His Holiness Pope Francis To Participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization,” May 29, 2015, https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2015/may/documents/papa-francesco_20150529_nuova-evangelizzazione.html.

Pope Francis, “Address of Holy Father Francis to Participants in the Pilgrimage of Catechists on the Occasion of the Year of Faith and of the International Congress on Catechesis,” September 27, 2013, https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2013/september/documents/papa-francesco_20130927_pellegrinaggio-catechisti.html.

Christian Smith, “Is Moralistic Therapeutic Deism the New Religion of American Youth? Implications for the Challenge of Religious Socialization and Reproduction,” in Passing on the Faith, ed. James Heft (New York: Fordham University Press, 2006), 64; see O’Malley, 35–50 (see n. 4) for a further discussion of the effects of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism on the New Evangelization.

Smith, 65–66.

See “Catholic Parishes of the 21st Century,” CARA Report 22, no. 3 (Winter 2017): 1, for the decrease in diocesan priests in the United States from 1990 to 2015 (34,114 to 25,868) compared to the increase in lay ecclesial ministers in the same period (21,569 to 39,651).

See “More than 22,000 in Programs for Lay Ecclesial Ministry,” CARA Report 20, no. 4 (Spring 2015): 6.

Pope Francis, TED video (see n. 1).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Katharine Mahon

Katharine Mahon is visiting assistant professional specialist in the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.