From The Bishop

In my pastoral letter for the occasion of the 60th anniversary of our diocese, I wrote, “Unlike our Golden Jubilee in 2008, our sixtieth anniversary celebration will be quite simple. With the theme, Put Out Into the Deep (Luke 5:4) we will focus on Christ in light of the new evangelization.â€� The ‘New Evangelization’ focuses primarily on those who have heard the gospel and think they know it; but it has not taken much effect in their lives. In 1975, at the conclusion of a Synod of Bishops on the topic of Evangelization, Blessed Pope Paul VI issued the Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii nuntiandi. In this document he stated that, “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses....It is therefore primarily by her conduct and by her life that the church will evangelize the world, in other words, by her living witness of delity to the Lord Jesusâ€�(41). Blessed Pope Paul reminds us that the Church is called to be a witness and in this way be an effective means of evangelization. In 2013, Pope Francis published Evangelii Gaudium, which focuses on the Church’s primary mission of evangelization of the modern world. Pope Francis states, “Every Christian is challenged, here and now, to be actively engaged in evangelization; indeed, anyone who has truly experienced God’s saving love does not need much time or lengthy training to go out and proclaim that loveâ€� (120). How can we evangelize our culture? There are many ways; however, I would like to look to the quote from Blessed Pope Paul againâ€"“Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.â€� Blessed Pope Paul speaks about the need to not simply know the faith. We must live the faith by our witness. We allow it to take effect in our lives. When this happens, we become more like Christ in our thoughts, words, and deeds. We help to make Christ present to others. This is our simple mission in an often-complex world. In 1954 Msgr. Luigi Giussani started an association of high school students that grew to be world-wide in more than 90 countries. Communion and Liberation is an ecclesial movement of both clergy and laity that believes that it is only an encounter with Christ, lived in communion and with one another, that will bring about the liberation of the human person. We are called to be free and faithful in Christ. The inspiration for this movement came from a conversation that Msgr. Giussani had with a group of young people sharing a long train journey. This experience radically changed his life. In the course of the conversation, he asked the young people how their faith in Christ in uenced their vision and life. They seemed bewildered and could not answer the question. He writes “It was not that they didn’t have any faith; or that they had formally rejected the Church...it was simply that none of it seemed to matter very much. It had no real or immediate relevance to their lives; it awakened no sense of urgency in their hearts. No fire in the bellyâ€� (Regis Martin, Recalling Luigi Giusanni’s Passion for Christ, Crisis Magazine, February, 20, 2016). For Msgr. Giussani, his love and passion for Christ was such a transformative power in his life, that he was determined to share that power with others. He wanted those young people to have the same passion. So he went to his bishop and asked to leave his position as a seminary professor and to be appointed as a high school chaplain. This is where he started Student Youth, which eventually became Communion and Liberation. In 2005, at the funeral Mass for Msgr. Giussani, Cardinal Ratzinger preached the homily. In speaking about his dear friend he stated, “(Msgr. Giussani) kept the gaze of his life, of his heart, always xed on Christ. He understood that Christianity is not an intellectual system, a packet of dogmas, a moralism; Christianity is rather an encounter, a love story.â€� (Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Funeral Homily for Msgr. Luigi Giussani, Communio, no 4 (Winter 2004):685). Is this not a profound way to look at our faithâ€"a love story? To live our faith is to be a witness to love. The more we know the Lord, the more we grow in our love for him and share that love with the world. For the past two years our diocese has been involved with a process of discernment where parishes have been asked to consider their current situation with an emphasis on both the challenges and the opportunities. An issue that has been raised by all of the groups thus far concerns the lack of youth and young families in parishes. How can we draw them to Christ and his Church? The answer is the ‘ re in the belly’. It is what the disciples experienced on the Road to Emmaus, “were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the roadâ€� (Luke. 24:32). It is that passion that comes from encountering the love of Christ. Tertullian was a Roman pagan born in Carthage (North Africa) in the year 160 AD. He converted to Christianity and was eventually ordained a priest. He became a renowned theologian of his time. In one of his writings he noted that one of the most signi cant things that pagans observed about Christians was their love: ‘See how they love one another’. To be on re with the love of Christ is the greatest means of evangelization. I know that what I have said is challenging; however, I also know that we need to break free from the spiritual malaise that we often experience. Christianity is radical. It is not for those who are faint of heart. We must be committed to spiritual renewal and conversion, because if we do not then we will not be the witnesses that Blessed Pope Paul says that we need today. This is why I am asking our diocese to con dently “put out into the deepâ€� so that we can be amazed at the catch. “Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid: from now on you will be catching people’. When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything, and followed himâ€� (Luke. 5:10)