From a Maintenance to a Missional Parish - Reading Guide
Chapter 2 Guide
Rebuild My House: From Vatican II to Pope Francis
Key Theme ~ The primacy of evangelization
Corresponding Video ⇒
Leadership and Vision - Session 2 - Divine Renovation
An Interview with Fr. James Mallon
Takeaways
• The roots of our modern focus on evangelization are found in the Second Vatican Council. With each successive pope, from St. Pope Paul VI who wrote “Evangelization in the Modern World” (Evangelii Nuntiandi), to St. Pope John Paul II, who coined the phrase “New Evangelization,” to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI who emphasized a “personal encounter and personal relationship with Jesus” to Pope Francis, a deeper understanding of evangelization has developed. (p. 27– 41)
• We are called to holiness because we are baptized. (p. 28)
• Pope Paul VI defines evangelization: “It has been possible to define evangelization in the terms or proclaiming Christ to those who do not know Him, of preaching, of catechesis, of conferring Baptism and the Sacraments.” (EN. no 17) (p. 29)
• “Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize, that is to say, in order to preach and teach, to be the channel of the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners with God, and to perpetuate Christ’s sacrifice in the Mass, which is the memorial of His death and glorious resurrection” (EN. No 14).
• “… the proclamation of Christ is not only the summit of all evangelising activity, but is the supreme duty of the Church and every individual believer.” (p. 31)
• “In our pastoral experience, often sincere people who leave our church do not do so because of what “non-Catholic” groups believe, but fundamentally for what they live; not for doctrinal but for vivential reasons; not due to theological problems, but to methodological problems of our Church.” (p. 39)