Orthodox Evangelization

Join me in the live chat for the premiere in half an hour! #BeTheBee https://t.co/DXR5YPeHSe pic.twitter.com/Mi4PFSNAZq

— Steven Christoforou (@scchristoforou) November 3, 2020

"Equal to the Apostles"

‘Equal-to-the Apostles’ is a special title bestowed by the Church to the saints whose work of preaching the Gospel is considered similar to that of the Apostles.@Orthodox_wm pic.twitter.com/NRpf0a3Qmi

— Basilica.ro (EN) (@BasilicaNews) October 8, 2020

"Christ, Culture & New Europe" by Remi Brague

Christ, Culture & New Europe by Remi Brague https://t.co/atFaBel5St

— Levan Ramishvili (@levanrami) September 5, 2020

I myself was privileged to witness some of all this at first hand in late October of 1991, when I was invited by the Pontifical Council for Culture to take part in a symposium of European intellectuals that was meant to offer the bishops of the Synod food for thought. Among the forty people present—almost all of them lay men and women—fewer than ten came from the countries of Western Europe. Most of those present were from the former Soviet Union or from Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, etc. It is interesting for Western Europeans to note that the term “Eastern Europe” was deeply frowned upon by the participants from these latter countries, who insisted instead on “Central Europe.” The very idea of an Eastern Europe, they said, was one more lie of Soviet propaganda, used to justify the Red Army’s artificial division of Europe into East and West. The “Church of silence” could be heard again, and the first thing it had to tell us was that it had never been completely gagged and that we. Western Christians, had too often and for too long been a Church of deafness. And the Pope was clearly eager to see the reintegration of Europe’s Eastern and Central parts.

In addition, we Westerners were reminded of a few basic historic facts. We were reminded, for instance, that Prague is almost as “western” as Berlin, and more so than Vienna or Stockholm. We had to learn once again that it had been the capital of the Holy Roman Empire, and that it harbored Europe’s first university. We were invited to bear in mind that our intellectuals frequently helped to throw people living under Communist rule into despair by playing footsie with Marxist ideology while they one after another hallowed each new earthly paradise it was giving birth to. As a Frenchman, I experienced a vicarious embarrassment about my country’s role in the post-World War I creation of Czechoslovakia and, even worse, Yugoslavia. These completely artificial states, welding together peoples who had either never lived together or had not done so for centuries—people whose religions, languages, histories, and levels of economic and social development were widely disparate—are the result of the shortsightedness of politicians who were by and large my fellow countrymen.

I am reminded of Taft when he writes: "What makes this task difficult is that memories of European peoples are poisoned with the recollections of wrongs done to and suffered by one another. If some way is not found to heal these wounds, everywhere in Europe and in the former USSR, they will fester and keep alive the longing for vengeance." We need Christ for the healing of memories, and traditionalists of every jurisdiction who cannot reach out to those in other jurisdictions in charity are poor represesntatives of Christ. Are there differences in preferred dogma? Yes, and Rome will need to lead the way in reconsidering what they have advanced as dogma of the "Church." The healing of memories will not be accomplished by a secularist movement or the strengthening of the EU. The churches must be strengthened in Christ, and this will require ecclesial reform, not the same old but more from Rome.

Another Day, Another Product

Friends, it's an exciting day as we celebrate the launch of my newest book, “Renewing Our Hope: Essays for the New Evangelization” (@CUAPress).

In 17 academic articles, it covers evangelization, the abuse crisis, the priesthood, relativism, and more. https://t.co/qCa3XLgz4B

— Bishop Robert Barron (@BishopBarron) August 3, 2020

Orthodox Evangelism

AFR

Part 2 of Echeverria's Critique of Francis

CWR: Making sense of Pope Francis on faith, evangelization, and proselytizing (Part II) by Eduardo Echeverria

Does Francis recognize that the Church makes determinate truth claims, and hence that the central truth claims of Christianity conflict with the truth claims of other religions about God?

A Bureaucrat's Fantasy

True Light Podcast: Episode 07 Evangelization

Weigel's Narrative

First Things: The Ideological Hijacking of Pope St. John XXIII by George Weigel

And as those excerpts from Gaudet Mater Ecclesia in the Divine Office make clear, John XXIII knew that that evangelical mission would only meet the needs of the day if it were anchored in the ancient, abiding truths bequeathed to the Church by divine revelation: truths manifested in the life and teaching of the Lord Jesus himself, and developed through the Church’s doctrinal reflection as guided by the Holy Spirit.

To be sure, John XXIII understood that evangelization was not an exercise in logic-chopping; most modern men and women were unlikely to be converted by the proclamation of syllogistic proofs. So the Church needed a contemporary way of expressing ancient truths. But as Pope John insisted in Gaudet Mater Ecclesia, those truths must be expressed “with the same meaning and the same judgment” (in some translations, “with the same meaning and import”). That was a direct quote from St. Vincent of Lerins, a 5th-century monk who wrote an important treatise on what we know as the “development of doctrine.” And it stands in sharp contrast to, and critique of, the bogus image of John XXIII as a pope unconcerned with doctrinal solidity and continuity.

The Patriarchate of Rome (not the "Church") has its structural issues which have come to light with the sex abuse scandal -- clericalism is still alive and bishops are unable to deal with the challenges confronting the "institutional Church." No council or synod will be able to fix this, as it requires leadership but also collaboration with the laity, and very few Latin bishops have what is required for either. John XXIII, nor have his successors, did not realize that the Church lost to the modern nation-state, and attempts at greater centralization and the fake alternative of fake "synodality" (which is still attempting a top-down solution) will fail. There can be no sustained and effective effort at evangelization until the local Church is revitalized, and this includes a reform of liturgical praxis. No matter how many times Mr. Weigel attempts to turn this failure into a triumphalistic narrative he cannot tell us our "lying eyes" are wrong.

An African Missionary's Perspective on the Amazon

Sandro Magister: A Missionary Called By the Pope To the Synod On the Amazon Explains What the Church Gets Wrong

A Papal Bugaboo

Sandro Magister: Proselytism, the Phantasm of Pope Francis

Was it enough?

What were the causes for the evangelization of South America by the Jesuits not being effective? Interference by the secular authorities?

A New Dicastery for Evangelization?

1P5: Vatican “Super Dicastery”: A Papal Promise Fulfilled?

Confusion in the Patriarchate of Rome

Sandro Magister: Catholic Church, Where Are You? The Cry of a Frontier Missionary

On the Conversion of the Western Roman Empire

It would not be surprising if Latins think first of all of the persecution of Christians in Rome in connection with its eventual conversion. But in considering the historic relations between Christians and their pagan neighbors, and to what degree they co-existed, does Rome give us a representative picture of what was happening elsewhere in the Roman Empire? And was it truly the case that Rome converted because the blood of martyrs is the seed of faith? Or because of the rise of the "Constantinian Church" and the subsequent declaration of Christianity as the official religion of the empire, along with the outlawing of other religions? Is this pattern of apparent conversion replicated elsewhere, with the conversion of tribes and kingdoms? And should we really consider that a viable model of evangelization? After all the persecutions (and martyrdom) of Christians in China, Korea, and Japan, for example, has not had similar results yet; and Christians not having the reins of state in these polities is not an insignificant difference. Even if we think of Mexico converting not because of the prestige and power of the Church under the Spanish but because of the intervention of Our Lady of Guadalupe, what about the rest of Ibero-America?

A Church of the Many or a Church of the Few? Louis Bouyer's question remains relevant today, especially with the latest Apostolic Exhortation repeating the calls of previous pontificates for a new evangelization.

Bishop Barron Has a New Book

CWR Dispatch: “Fundamentally a missionary”: New book captures Bishop Barron’s evangelistic vision by Gregory J. Sullivan

A review of To Light a Fire on the Earth: Proclaiming the Gospel in a Secular Age, by Bishop Robert Barron, with John L. Allen, Jr.

Are Latin bishops able to give a proper presentation of the kerygma? And do they realize their missionary field is not one country, but many within the borders of the United States?

St. Cosmas of Aitolia

Becoming Truly Human

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Not to be confused with The Human Experience.

Beauty Will Save the World

Bishop Nicholas Samra on the Ministries of the Parish

I think the "socialization" aspect is rather incomplete and needs to be developed at length so that there is a proper discussion of the friendship that should exist among parishioners of the same parish.