So just how new is the “new” evangelization?
A lot of ink has been spilt over the last few years on promoting the “new” evangelization, as if what we are doing has never been done before. For many of us, there is a sense that we are starting something that no one has done before. But read a few quotes from a book I recently discovered at the KU library.
“If the parish is no more than a central rallying point for Christians, a place where the faithful gather for services and meetings and activities then . . . we have to admit that the parish is not capable of attracting the 98 per cent.” “An unbeliever who went into a Catholic church to see for himself what Catholic services were like would almost certainly come out yawning.” “Over and over again we repeat things ‘the way they are done in this parish,’ and make no effort to adapt them to the needs of those whom we are neglecting.”
“We distinguish two fields of action. The liturgy . . . must be celebrated with the ‘Old Christians’ in mind. On the other hand, there are ‘para-liturgical’ ceremonies, which are pointed directly at those outside the fold.” “We are building neither an ivory tower nor a monastery but an active community which will attract others because they find it attractive, which will stimulate its members because it is alive.”
Throughout the book, the author, who is a pastor, often refers to his suburban parish as “missionary” or “mission-oriented.” When was the book written? In 1946! Almost seventy years ago, Abbè Michonneau, a parish priest in a Paris suburb, wrote Revolution in a City Parish, to explain how his parish moved from maintenance mode to mission mode.
Maybe our "new" evangelization isn’t as new as we think it is.
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