Fr. Roger J. Landry
The Anchor
Editorial
May 25, 2007
One of Pope Benedict’s principal goals on his recent trip to Brazil was to help the bishops of Latin America examine and reverse a recent exodus of Catholics to Evangelical or Pentecostal ecclesial communions or away from the practice of Christianity altogether. This was part of a broader conversation about how the Church in Latin America should most effectively proclaim and live the Gospel, so as to increase and fortify the faith of practicing Catholics and attract ex-Catholics and non-Catholics into full communion.
What Benedict said to Catholics in Latin America is relevant to Catholics in the northern part of the hemisphere, where not only Latin American immigrants are feeling the pull toward storefront churches, but also many Catholics whose families immigrated generations ago have stopped the practice of the faith.
The pope mentioned, essentially, five main elements of a pastoral plan, all of which are somewhat obvious, but each of which in practice has been underemphasized in Latin America. As we in the Diocese of Fall River prepare on Pentecost Sunday to commemorate the birth of the Church and to beg the Holy Spirit’s help for a new Pentecost of evangelization, it is worthwhile to look at these five fundamentals and ensure that they are priorities in practice close to home.
The first and most essential element, Benedict says, is to focus on Jesus Christ. In referring to those Catholics who have abandoned the life of the Church, the pope says that the principal cause “is to be found in the lack of an evangelization completely centered on Christ and his Church.” In many parts of Latin America, priests and pastoral agents had focused so much on social justice issues and remedying temporal wrongs that Catholics, hungry to encounter God in the Church, were often going unfed. They were also for the most part uncatechized about the distinctiveness of the Catholic Church in Jesus Christ’s plans. For both reasons, when Bible-loving Protestant missionaries arrived, devoting their teaching and their enthusiasm to what Christ says in the Bible, many Catholics could not help but see the development as an answer to their longings. Benedict indicated that the Church must do better and begin to emphasize above all stress true nature of the Church as the place to meet Jesus Christ.
The second element is to provide the faithful with a “thorough doctrinal and spiritual formation” to strengthen Catholics’ knowledge and practice of the faith. This training involves the “indispensable pre-condition” of prayerful study of the Bible. “We must train people to read and meditate on the word of God: this must become their staple diet, so that, through their own experience, the faithful will see that the words of Jesus are spirit and life.” This will not only help them as followers of Jesus, but equip them to take Jesus’ message to others. The other main component is catechesis “not only of children but also of young people and adults.” Benedict particularly recommends for this “simple… substantial … and mature reflection on faith” the “most valuable tools” of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and its abridged Compendium. He also encourages the use not only of “homilies, lectures, Bible courses or theology courses, but … also to the communications media: press, radio and television, websites, forums and many other methods for effectively communicating the message of Christ to a large number of people.” For this training of the head and heart, he states that “we must work with the Gospel in our hands and anchor ourselves in the authentic heritage of the Apostolic Tradition, free from any interpretations motivated by rationalistic ideologies,” like the various Marxist theologies of liberation.
The third pillar is a “leap forward in the quality of people’s Christian lives,” which will enable them to “bear witness to their faith in a clear and transparent way.” An increase in the knowledge of the faith is not enough; it must be translated into a contagious and holy love of God and love of neighbor. This leap forward must be seen not only in the “personal virtues” of faith, hope and love, but also in the “social and political virtues” whereby the disciple “feels driven to bring the Good News of salvation to his brothers and sisters.” These other-centered virtues involve first care for others’ souls, by trying to bring others — especially the poor and those on the “outskirts” of society — to a personal encounter with Christ through the Church he founded. But it also involves the practice of “solidarity” in seeking to help them with their “material needs,” just as we naturally and lovingly would care for members of our families. True Christians are revealed by their love.
Fourth, this practice of love will help all to see the Church as their family, the “universal family of God.” Benedict declares, “The encounter with God is, in itself and as such, an encounter with our brothers and sisters.” With great emotion he adds, “The Pope therefore wants to say to all of you: The Church is our home! This is our home!” The Church is the place in which we live in the “Father’s house,” and receive welcome, love, forgiveness and help. That should fill us with a sense of belonging, responsibility and holy pride. “It is worth being faithful,” Benedict exclaims, “It is worth persevering in our faith!”
Lastly, Benedict stresses that there must be renewed emphasis on the “personal encounter with Christ” in the Eucharist. Since Jesus in the Eucharist is the “source and summit of the Christian life,” Benedict reminds bishops and priests that their “primary task” is to “ensure that the faithful share in the Eucharistic life,” and particularly Sunday Mass, which is the “center of Christian life.” If people who love Jesus Christ recognize that he is incarnate in the Eucharist, Benedict implies, then few would abandon the Catholic faith for non-eucharistic forms of Christianity. Moreover, if young men and their families recognized and loved Christ in the Eucharist, it also would give new impetus to discernment of the priesthood, without which there is no Eucharist.
This “encounter with Christ in the Eucharist” brings together all the other pillars. It helps us to center our lives around person of Christ sacramentally present. It gives us the privilege of listening to his word and having it applied to our lives within the living tradition of the Church. Through our encounter with Christ’s gift of himself, we are inflamed with the “strong desire to proclaim the Gospel and to bear witness to it in the world so as to build a more just and human society.” It forms us into one family of faith through our becoming one body in Christ. In short, Christ in the Eucharist is the source of a “civilization of love” that begins in the Church and is called to expand like leaven to renew a culture. This is what will be the fruit of a new Pentecost, which the Pope hopes to inspire in Latin America and beyond.