Description
The core of a New Evangelisation of Catholics’, says St John Paul II, ‘is a fresh encounter with Christ’. He calls for an evangelisation that is new in method, expression and enthusiasm.
The Irish Church, like many more, is struggling. This must be discouraging for bishops and priests in particular because, for about 1300 years, Ireland sent missionaries all over the globe. Now she is the recipient of missionary priests, particularly from India and Africa. The European Values Survey and European Social Survey reveal the following data for weekly Sunday worship:
1981: 18-25/80% 26-45/88% 36-45/88%
46-55/92% 56-65/90% +65/92%
2018: 18-25/10% 26-35/15% 36-45/20%
46-55/35% 56-65/40% +65/60%
Four years later, in 2022, data for weekly Sunday worship among the lower age bracket, 18-25, reflects about 5%, while in some parishes it is only 2%.
That the Irish Church is in urgent need of a New Evangelisation is convincingly evident. But there is little appetite for it. A Church in rapid decline, on it’s own, is incapable of conversion, renewal, and reform. It must turn to Jesus, the healthy Head of his sick body, the Church. Pope Francis warns, We must speak more about Christ than the Church, more about God’s word than the Pope, and more about grace than law. The author presents a plan that is Jesus-focused, biblical and relational; new in method, expression, enthusiasm, and easy to implement. The qualifications necessary are that one should have a passion for Jesus, and be on fire to proclaim him. The rest will follow.
Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which hives life a new horizon and a defensive direction, says retired Pope Benedict XVI.
Seán Smith is a retired priest and ministers at Knock International Eucharistic and Marian Shrine, Knock, Co. Mayo, Ireland.
