The Church exists to evangelise and this must be our mission, too
As Catholics, many of us, maybe even the majority, were never raised in a culture of evangelism. One seminarian who gave a talk at a youth ministry went as far as to boldly assert that the “Church no longer evangelises”. Growing up, I believed all religions were the same and were just different roads to God. I was a religious relativist and considered the exclusive claims of one’s religion to be offensively Protestant.
So it was a shock to my religious thinking that when I read the saints, their zeal for souls sounded more Protestant than the version of the Catholic faith I had received. St Francis Xavier, the 16th century pioneer of evangelism in Asia and patron of missions wrote:
Many, many people hereabouts are not becoming Christians for one reason only: there is nobody to make them Christians. Again and again I have thought of going round the universities of Europe, especially Paris, and everywhere crying out like a madman, riveting the attention of those with more learning than charity: What a tragedy: how many souls are being shut out of heaven and falling into hell, thanks to you!
Saint Francis Xavier
Something was out. I began to read the Bible and realised that if I thought the exclusive claims of Christianity were bigotry, then Jesus was the source. He said: “I am the Way the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). And the modern Church, in documents like Evangelii Nuntiandi (1975), Redemptoris Missio (1990), Ecclesia in Asia (1999), Dominus Iesus (2000) and Evangelii Gaudium (2013) had never changed her message nor her urgency for evangelism.
There is a HUGE chasm between the Magisterial teaching and popular Catholicism the faithful practise in the pew. To omit obeying Jesus, even to ignore his command to, “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:19) needs to be called out for what it is: disobedience, even a sin.
Where did we go so wrong?
The Second Vatican Council that had convened from 1962-1965 updated the teaching of the Catholic Church in the context of the modern world. The guidance of the Holy Spirit in this Council has never been in doubt (except by the loons on the fringe). But certainly, the posture of the Catholic Church towards other religions and their followers, changed 180 degrees. Rather than excommunications, anathemas and calling out of heresies, the bishops of the world sensed the Holy Spirit calling the Church to build bridges in ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue.
This didn’t mean that the Church had changed Her teaching on the unique role of Christ and the Church. She still believes that Jesus is the only way of salvation and that there can be no salvation outside the Church. But disagreeing with the beliefs of others doesn’t mean that She has to be disagreeable.
Unfortunately, for 99% of Catholics, the nuances were lost in translation. The tension between two assertions: that Jesus is the One Mediator, and that peoples of other religions can be saved, simply meant all religions were the same and we didn’t need to evangelise anymore. Thus the period after Vatican 2 was confusing for a generation without Google Search to check what was being passed down by seminary professors and the pulpit. Swaths of Catholic missionaries began to wonder if they had wasted their lives and left the religious orders. Having lost their purpose of converting souls for Heaven, they became agents of humanitarian relief!
What then are we to do?
Catholics should not back away from building warm friendships with their Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, agnostic and atheist neighbours. Catholics should be at the forefront of pro-life family issues, serving the migrants and care for creation.
But Catholics should also be convicted that “there is no true evangelisation if the name, the teaching, the life, the promises, the kingdom and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, are not proclaimed” (Evangelii Nuntiandi 22). In the face of the vast mission field of two billion Asian souls, the Great Commission, Jesus’ last words, must become the first priority for every Catholic: to make missionary disciples who make missionary disciples.
The missionary conversion for you and me will be nothing short of massive. If you love the Lord and want to part of this change, join us on this webpage as we unpack the issues one by one.
Image: Emmanuel Nwabufo Pexels
