The following story first appeared in the Winter 2001 Glenmary Challenge.
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Do Catholics Evangelize?
Sharing Questions, Getting Answers

By Jean Bach

This license plate is only one of the many messages on  this "evangelization mobile,"  captured on film by Glenmary Father Bob Bond on a road near Glenmary's mission in Robbinsville, N.C. It signals the climate in which Catholics must work out their own approach to sharing Good News.

What does it mean for a Catholic to evangelize?

That’s the question 20 participants from Glenmary mission parishes brought with them to the National Council for Catholic Evangelization conference last June in Raleigh, N.C. Their participation was made possible by a grant from the Koch Foundation whose mission is to foster effective Catholic evangelization. When they went home after three days, they left with answers, many answers.

These Glenmary parishioners live in the Bible Belt where evangelization is synonymous with “convert.” Many talked of negative experiences when others tried to convert them to Christianity. But what they learned: Catholic evangelization isn’t about “converting” but about “living.”

All Catholics are called to be evangelizers simply through their baptism. Catholics are called to live their faith each day, in all that they do. In essence, that is the easiest, most effective way to evangelize.

That theme was good news to Denise Harper of Monticello, Ark. “I’m a Catholic and I’m a Christian,” says the native of California. “For many in the South, the two are not synonymous—and that’s why many of my Protestant friends feel I need to be ‘saved,’” she says.

Denise’s experience is not uncommon, according to the nationally known speakers who facilitated the convention. Actually it’s more common than not.

The theme of the NCCE convention—Holy Ground—emphasized the need for respecting those of other faith traditions and cultures, realizing that the Good News of Jesus Christ is present in many forms and in many ways.

“It challenges us,” Bishop F. Joseph Grossman of Raleigh said, “to reflect on our faith carefully and respect God’s work in the lives of other people, to respect the dignity of others. The first task in approaching another people, another culture, another religion, is to take off our shoes, for the ground we are approaching is holy.”

That spoke especially to the Glenmary participants who have experienced this as the way Glenmary enters a new mission area always respecting the faith traditions and cultures that are already there.

Just as Glenmary celebrates a multicultural church, so did the participants at this national convention. Liturgies were celebrated each day within different cultural contexts: Spanish, African-American, Asian.

Many of the participants said they realized that evangelization needs to happen “at home” before it flows out into the greater community. That means Catholics need to feel the Spirit alive in their hearts before they can share it.

Many Glenmary parishes have been affected by the arrival of Latino and Mexican immigrant workers. Most of these newcomers are Catholic, but not formed deeply in their faith. Learning how to reach out to them and welcome them to the local Catholic Church has been a hard transition for many parishes. There are language and cultural barriers on both sides that hamper smooth transitions.

Networking was another benefit for Glenmary participants. One of the most popular workshops among the attendees was “Being Catholic in the Bible Belt South.” Here Glenmary parishioners met and talked with others who also experience being Catholic in a population that is mostly non-Catholic. They took new ideas and enthusiasm back to their Glenmary parishes.

Some, like Sister Collette Gerry, a Glenmary pastoral associate in Morgantown, Ky., planned to return home and begin visiting those who no longer attend the parish and invite them to return. She hopes to develop a brochure that will give information about the parish and phone numbers to call.

Others planned to have a parish mission and send fliers to the other local churches inviting their members to participate.

Still others focused on reaching out to their parish family, to the elderly and disabled as well as the youth who, according to Father Paul Minihan (director of the Office for Evangelization for the Diocese of Oakland, Calif., and the convention’s keynote speaker), may be the most forgotten segment of the Catholic population.

Participants arrived with questions and a little confusion about what evangelization means. They left with a better understanding and a new enthusiasm for reaching out to people of all faiths and cultures and building a bridge to let the Spirit work through them. They also left Raleigh with a spirit shaped by a new respect for ‘holy ground,’ realizing that it isn’t as important to define evangelization as it is to live as evangelizing people—evangelizing Catholics.