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George Weigel has just
published a proposed blueprint for the “New
Evangelization,” entitled Evangelical
Catholicism which, to the extent that it is read will greatly amplify the
New Evangelization, i.e., the Church’s duty everywhere and at all times to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. It was Pope Paul VI who in Evangelii
Nuntiandi observed that the work of evangelization was so necessary because
of the de- Christianization of the twilight year of the 20th century.
Pope Montini noted the multitudes of baptized Catholics living lives that did
not distinguish them all that much from those ignorant of the Gospel; also
those who, while ignorant of the full gospel, nevertheless had faith and lived
according to the natural moral law, and Catholics who desired a more heartfelt
relationship with Jesus Christ not given emphasis in the catechesis they
received as children. His successor Pope John Paul II said that his predecessor’s
use of “New Evangelization” in Evangelii
Nuntiandi was a response to new challenges that the modern world created
for the Church’s mission. John Paul saw the need for a renewal of
evangelization in the contemporary life of the Church in his Redemptoris Missio, which thus presented
a new synthesis of Church teaching on evangelization for our time.
Weigel defines Evangelical Catholicism as “the
Catholicism that is being born, often with great difficulty, through the work
of the Holy Spirit in prompting deep Catholic reform—a reform that meets the
challenges proposed to Christian orthodoxy and Christian life by the riptides
of change that have reshaped world culture since the nineteenth century.”
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