Catholic Universities are not just for Catholics, says Jesuit Gianfranco Ghirlanda, rector of the Gregorian University. Catholic Universities must offer the Truth to anybody who seeks it, whether Catholic or non-Catholic. Catholic education is aimed “to all men and women who wish to receive an integral education for the development of a free and responsible personality.”
This is something that hits home for me. Being involved in Catholic education (although not at the University level), I know the struggles to reach out to non-Catholics while maintaining a strong Catholic identity. Some (perhaps most) schools that are seeing their non-Catholic enrollment rise aren’t doing a good job of keeping their Catholic identity, that is for sure, but that does not mean it is not possible. I think if we are doing the right things, our schools can be places that are thoroughly Catholic, yet that also attract truth seeking young men and women. In a way, we should be glad that our schools are seeing more non-Catholic kids. I mean, heck, we need young people in the Church. And I am not saying this as one who believes we should water-down our faith and worship to “attract youth”; rather I say this as someone who would rather see more baptisms than funerals at my local parish. Jesus does not wish to see anybody lost, and we have a chance to seriously evangelize and catechize students who may yearn for the Truth, and yet not know where to seek it. And if students don’t have a yearning for the Truth? Then, it is our job to help foster a search for the Truth among Cath0lics and non-Catholics. Is this a lot of work? Yes, perhaps, but 12 men going out to spread the good news across the known world was a little daunting as well!
I know firsthand the progress I see in non-Catholic students and parents. When someone dismisses these students and parents out-of-hand, or suggests they don’t deserve to be at a Catholic school, I have to stand up against this.
I know the responses I may hear: “but David, Catholic schools and Universities aren’t doing this; they are just becoming less and less non-Catholic with every non-Catholic kid…why bother?” My answer would be “what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it?” I have to remind some of my Catholic friends, as Nicene Hobbit has pointed out to me before, that the opposite of misuses is correct use, not necessarily disuse. Just because Catholic Universities and schools may not be doing very well at educating non-Catholic (and Catholics!) in the Faith doesn’t mean that it isn’t a good idea.
Sometimes Christians tell other Christians “don’t ask questions; just have faith!” I think this is ridiculous, as if somehow the Truth cannot withstand questioning. In fact, I would say that for many people, questions may actually bring people to the faith.
These days, I wish people would ask more questions, as least the deeper questions that cause us to contemplate things like morality, afterlife, reality, and so forth. Why are we here? Is there a purpose in life? What is reality? How do we determine the difference between right and wrong? Is there a fundamental beauty to the cosmos? You don’t need to have a PhD in Philosophy to ask these questions and begin to formulate answers that start to make sense. Religion provides answers to these questions, and I think, Catholicism offers answers to these questions that have resonated with people for centuries, and that incorporate the best of other philosophies (for example neo-Platonism). So while we certainly believe we have the answers, maybe the answers themselves aren’t the problem: maybe the problem is that people aren’t asking the questions.
As a teacher and resident in 21st century America, evangelization is constantly on my mind. I think one way to evangelize is to get people to ask fundamental questions about humanity and reality. This, in turn, could lead them to at least explore the answers that the Church provides.
When Jesus told us to love our neighbor, he basically told us to love everybody. Loving others as Christ loves us, is, and has been, an effective form of evangelization. Christian love is sacrificial, i.e. to will and act in the best interest of others. Thus, Christian love is not “love” as many in Western culture define the term. Hollywood, abusers, etc, all have definitions of love that sometimes barely even resemble the Christian definition of the term. Unfortunately, many of us are constantly bombarded with non-Christian definitions of love that it is often rare to encounter Christian love. This makes showing Christian love to those who only encounter non-Christian love more important than ever.
The internet has made contact with more people possible, and I think this is a good thing (I wouldn’t have met many friends if it weren’t for the internet). The net also helps us connect with people we have met in the “real world,” and nurture these relationships. With this in mind, I have made an effort to show some love to my friends on facebook more often. I have decided to interact with more of my facebook friends on a regular basis, by wishing a “happy birthday” when the time comes up, sending holiday greetings, and even giving condolences when necessary. Basically, I want to nurture these virtual relationships in ways that are Christlike and increase joy in everybody’s lives. This is not to say I have any desire to push Catholicism down anybody’s throat, since I know full-well you can’t badger or harass anybody into God’s kingdom. Sometimes Christian love involves fraternal correction; thus Christian encouragement sometimes involves a kick-in-the-butt, which is why there may be times an email to friends may be more appropriate than simply wishing a “happy birthday.”
Basically, I think that as the internet widens our social contacts (and I think we can certainly debate the value of these “virtual” contacts, especially those who have a thousand online “friends” but no real ones to speak of), the opportunities for spreading Christian love, joy, and peace increases. We would be smart to love our virtual neighbors as ourselves!
Speaking to American Hispanic Catholics, Archbishop Gomez of San Antonio issued a call for the raising up of Hispanic Catholic leaders, with an emphasis on the re-evangelization of America (emphasis mine).
…In his address, titled “La predicación y la enseñanza: Evangelization, Education, and the Hispanic Catholic Future,” the archbishop mentioned such problems as a consumerist approach to religion and certain Protestant preachers’ exploitation of the “poverty and insecurity” of Hispanics…
…Archbishop Gomez said the most serious problem Catholic Hispanics face is the “dominant culture” in the United States which is “aggressively, even militantly secularized…”
“Definitely, we need to raise up Hispanic Catholics leaders, and we need a pastoral plan to educate Hispanics in the faith and to nourish them with the sacraments,” Archbishop Gomez said. “But this must be part of a wider evangelical strategy. We need to commit ourselves again to the work of re-evangelization, to preaching the Gospel again to America.”
Noting the rise in high school dropout rates and single-parent families among Hispanics, the archbishop said, “I worry that we may be ministering to a permanent Hispanic underclass.”
Hispanics have some of the highest rates of teen pregnancy, out-of-wedlock births and abortion, he added, saying these cannot be written off as just “conservative” issues.
“[W]e need to find new ways to keep our kids chaste and in school, and to instill in them the value of education,” he advised. “We need to push for real improvements in public education, and in public support for private education, especially in our poorest school districts. And we need to assemble all the resources of our own network of Catholic schools to meet this challenge.”
The archbishop then further underlined the need for evangelization.
“Hispanic ministry should mean only one thing—bringing Hispanic people to the encounter with Jesus Christ in his Church. Too often, I’m afraid, we lose sight of that,” he said, warning that Catholics should not mistake the “means” of programs and bureaucratic administration for this most important end.
“The proclamation of Jesus Christ must be the criteria against which we measure everything we do in Hispanic ministry,” he continued. “Are we making new disciples? Are we strengthening the faith of those who have already been made disciples? Is the knowledge and love of Christ spreading through our work?”
I would love to go back to the time when Catholics were expected to memorize things, you know, like the Ten Commandments, the Seven Deadly Sins, and the Beatitudes. Heck, even memorizing answers to the Baltimore Catechism would be great. As C.S. Lewis once observed somewhere (yes, I am too lazy to look it up), that before you can be creative with the rules you must know the rules. You have to have a foundation of basic stuff before you move onto the more difficult, creative, and dare I say, exciting, material. I memorized all the books of the (Protestant) Bible in second grade, and I still know the books in order because of that exercise (I also got a free Bible with my name on it out of it…slam dunk!).
As a teacher, I am expected to help students explore the deeper realities of theology, and that is, of course, a good thing. However, when a good chunk of my students can’t even tell me very basic things like the four gospels or the seven sacraments, it can be very frustrating. My classrooms are so mixed in terms of religious commitment that I have to be very creative to make sure everybody understands what he or or she needs to understand. I can think of a variety of reasons for this disparity, including the fact that many of my students are not Catholic, but part of it is that over the years memorization has been discouraged (“memorization is too rigid” “memorization stifles creativity,” and so forth). Yet, I am finding that when a decent chunk of the class can’t even begin to engage deeper realities because they don’t even know the basics, it truly creates a frustrating experience for both teacher and student.
So what am I going to do? Next year, I think I am going to ask every grade to create a running list of “terms every Catholic should know” and then have them memorize the meanings. They will then review and be quizzed over this list weekly, for every year I have them. Yeah, by the time you are a senior they may not be able to get the Beatitudes out of their head, but hey, that’s a good thing right? The new students to the school who have no background will learn a lot about basic Catholicism, and the others will be perpetually reviewing the basics of Catholicism. Covering 10-15 terms a week should be doable. I already have over 200 terms ready. This will overlap with a lot of what we are learning, but a lot of the curriculum assumes the basic stuff was memorized/learned before they got to me.
…with her “one woman show” about Saint Catherine of Siena. Sister Nancy Murray, an Adrian Dominican, travels across the country with her show “Saint Catherine of Siena: A Woman for Our Times.” Sister Nancy apparently re-enacts various events of Catherine’s life, including her visit with the pope. Sister plays every part, even down to the Italian accents. Apparently Bill Murray did not get all the talent in the family!
For more information, check out Sister Nancy’s website, which includes photos of her performing as Saint Catherine. For those who visit the website, you may notice that the Adrian Dominicans seem to be a typical aging and declining order of sisters. Let’s hope Sister Nancy’s presentation is a good one, and leads to some renewal in the order itself.
Here is Father Robert Barron’s sermon for the Second Sunday of Lent.
TITLE: The Terrible Aqedah
SUMMARY: The story of the Aqedah, the Binding of Isaac, haunted the Israelite religious imagination. In it is contained one of the most important spiritual lessons in the Bible: everything we are and everything we have belongs, finally, to God. Knowing this is our liberation.
About a month ago I attended the Parish Leadership/Evangelization Day organized by the Archdiocese of Chicago.
The Archbishop of Chicago, Francis Cardinal George, answered a few questions posed by the attendees. Following, are three of his succinct responses to questions dealing with topics such as understanding the Holy Trinity, Liberation Theology, and immigration reform.
Today, the Church honors St. Katharine Drexel (1858-1955).
Here’s a summary of the things God Almighty did –and is still doing– through our sister, Katharine Drexel:
Saint Katharine Drexel, Religious (Feast Day-March 3) Born in 1858, into a prominent Philadelphia family, Katharine became imbued with love for God and neighbor. She took an avid interest in the material and spiritual well-being of black and native Americans. She began by donating money but soon concluded that more was needed – the lacking ingredient was people. Katharine founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People, whose members would work for the betterment of those they were called to serve. From the age of 33 until her death in 1955, she dedicated her life and a fortune of 20 million dollars to this work. In 1894, Mother Drexel took part in opening the first mission school for Indians, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Other schools quickly followed – for Native Americans west of the Mississippi River, and for the blacks in the southern part of the United States. In 1915 she also founded Xavier University in New Orleans. At her death there were more than 500 Sisters teaching in 63 schools throughout the country. Katharine was beatified by Pope John Paul II on November 20, 1988.
For my Topics in the Philosophy of Religion (Philosophy 441) class, we have to write an informal, one page, reaction paper for each of the reading assignments. This week’s reaction paper is written in response to Leo Tolstoy’s What is Religion and of What Does Its Essence Consist?
I wish I could have said more things about Tolstoy’s version of “Christianity”, but I am limited to a one page paper.
For my Topics in the Philosophy of Religion (Philosophy 441) class, we have to write an informal, one page, reaction paper for each of the reading assignments.
Here is my first reaction paper for you to read and critique!
A not-so-ordinary thought for the first day of Ordinary Time 2009: Yes my friends, we truly offer good news:
6. What does God reveal to man?
God in his goodness and wisdom reveals himself. With deeds and words, he reveals himself and his plan of loving goodness which he decreed from all eternity in Christ. According to this plan, all people by the grace of the Holy Spirit are to share in the divine life as adopted “sons” in the only begotten Son of God.
Compendium of the Catechism
To all my fellow Mexicans, and to all my American brothers and sisters, I wish you a blessed Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe! May we learn to imitate her who gave birth to the Most Holy Saviour, Jesus Christ!
This is my favorite song about Our Lady of Guadalupe:
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Queen of Mexico and Empress of the Americas, pray for us.
The other day I wrote a post on detachment, in which I repeated St. Augustine’s teaching on how to love: love God for His own sake, and love others for the sake of God, that they may know and love Him, too.
I’ve benefited so much in my own life from the Church’s teaching on love, self-sacrificing love that takes you so far beyond yourself or your own personal loves. And now I’m experiencing it in a new way: through, of all things, Facebook.
That’s right, Facebook. I decided to join it just recently, so I could network with other Catholics. But soon after I joined I started hearing from friends who had found me there. And then I started hearing from some old friends from my old Evangelical church.
And then, just a few days ago, I started hearing from really old friends, from my pre-Christian days, friends I’ve been out of touch with for years, even some I’d fallen out of touch with over my conversion to Catholicism.
Has it ever brought back memories. And we are all in different places in life, all over the map spiritually, politically, personally. And yet I am so happy to be reunited with them, to be hearing stories of their lives, their children, their parents, and whatever happens to be going on with them in the moment.
And it’s caused me to reflect: why do we love others? When I was younger, to be honest, I tended to love those most who were most like me. When I was young and a new age liberal type, I thought I was very tolerant, very open-minded. But the truth is, I was actually very closed to a lot of different people. When I look back, I see that my circle of friends was actually pretty narrow, comprised mostly of people just like me in belief and outlook.
After I became a Christian, in the Evangelical world, I began to socialize and befriend people that in my former life I never would have gone near, never would have been interested in befriending, probably would have looked down on, and certainly would have assumed had nothing in common with me. And yet, as a Christian, I came to so love and appreciate those very same kinds of people I used to dislike and avoid.
As a Catholic, I’ve come to know and love an even greater variety of kinds of people, because there are so many different kinds of people in the Catholic world. And I don’t agree with all of them on everything, nor they with me. But I love and appreciate them for who they are.
Now, coming full circle, being reunited with some of my oldest friends from my pre-Christian days, I realize: I have learned to love people, not for what they believe or how similar they are to me, but just for themselves, who they are, regardless of what they believe, or what they have to offer me. I have been disciplined in how to love, without even knowing it – and so been brought a step closer to learning to love as God loves, wholly and selflessly, for other’s sake, not for mine – in the end, so that others may know and love God, too. And this is something for which I am very grateful, along with all the other things in my life I have to be grateful for.
It is interesting that Aimee brings up Facebook, because I have noticed exactly what she speaks of. Since I got on facebook earlier this year (I think that is when I joined), I have reconnected with a variety of friends, and they are all over the place in terms of their views on religion, politics, and life in general. Some are fans of Pat Buchanan (along with me), while others were cheering when Obama was elected. Some are involved in youth ministry at local non-denominational churches, while others are at best mildly theistic. Some are urban, and one is an out-and-out redneck (one of his pictures he is holding a Pabst blue Ribbon).
I honestly don’t regularly view my facebook friends (or any of my friends) as potential converts, on which I am ready to pounce at any time. This is not to say I am not concerned with evangelization of others. I just believe that evangelization is an organic process, and not an artificial continued preparation to “pounce” on non-believers. What Aimee mentions is agape love, i.e. selfless and sacrificial love. This is not love that refuses to have contact with “sinners” and “non-believers,” but rather a love that reaches out to them, loves them, without trying to badger or bludgeon them into the kingdom of God.
Thanks to Catholic Report for pointing out this fine article.
I know I have been hammering evangelization this last year, but I have done this because I believe it is the only hope that we have of transforming our churches and society. Political Action Committees, caucuses, even good catechesis, are largely unable to truly transform people, without evangelization. This is something those of us in Catholic education see every day, but I think we also see it in society when we try to explain what we believe. I have concluded that evangelization and catechesis must go together. Sometimes orthodox Catholics naively assume that simply teaching deep theology and difficult Church moral teaching to teens and adults will in itself lead to committed, orthodox Catholics. I think this can happen, but what I often find is that the difficult Church teachings are usually just ignored or opposed, unless of course the student has been converted, and has a reason for accepting the difficult teachings. Besides, even if a teacher perfectly logically presents Christian belief, that does not necessarily mean a student will see that logic, or counter it with logic of his own!
Early Christians, operating in a non-Christian, hostile environment, understood this well. While they did practice intense and sound catechesis, they did so only of those who had been properly evangelized. The preaching of the Apostles to outsiders was focused on sharing the good news of Jesus. As Catholics we believe that baptism is the beginning of conversion, not the end, so it is not denying the power of sacramental grace to suggest that even the baptized among us need to be evangelized. I would argue that all of us need reminded of the basic, good news of Christ, even as we get deeper into Catholic theology and morality. And we should in turn share this with others, as is appropriate to our gifts (that is, not all of us are called to be missionaries, etc).
The Church reminds us that evangelization is not optional:
Such an exhortation seems to us to be of capital importance, for the presentation of the Gospel message is not an optional contribution for the Church. It is the duty incumbent on her by the command of the Lord Jesus, so that people can believe and be saved. This message is indeed necessary. It is unique. It cannot be replaced. It does not permit either indifference, syncretism or accommodation. It is a question of people’s salvation. It is the beauty of the Revelation that it represents. It brings with it a wisdom that is not of this world. It is able to stir up by itself faith – faith that rests on the power of God. It is truth. It merits having the apostle consecrate to it all his time and all his energies, and to sacrifice for it, if necessary, his own life (Evangelii Nuntiandi 5).
Lay people also fulfill their prophetic mission by evangelization, “that is, the proclamation of Christ by word and the testimony of life.” For lay people, “this evangelization . . . acquires a specific property and peculiar efficacy because it is accomplished in the ordinary circumstances of the world” (Catechism 905).
Pope Paul VI’s Evangelii Nuntiandi is a worthwhile read about evangelization.
Posted by David Bennett 
David Bennett
Jennifer
asimplesinner
Fr. J.
Chad T.
Jorge Flores
Jonathan B
carmelbennett
nicenehobbit
Jason S
jaybird68
papaz
Dave Hartline
faceman
