“The New Evangelization Today”
The pressing task of our time is the New Evangelization. But what exactly is the New Evangelization? What is the message of the New Evangelization? Where and who is the intended audience? What do we seek to accomplish? What is needed for this work of the New Evangelization?
To answer these and other questions, I have produced a video series entitled, “The New Evangelization Today.” Each of these short videos is intended to help people to take up this critical task to which we are called and to become new evangelizers.
Although it was Saint John Paul II who first coined the exact term “New Evangelization,” each of the recent popes, from Saint John XXIII to Pope Francis, has in one way or another called us to this work, which we do with the help of the Holy Spirit.
The New Evangelization was the subject of the 2012 Synod of Bishops, where I was honored to serve as relator, and it was the priority of our own Archdiocesan Synod that the New Evangelization permeate every aspect of the life of our local Church of Washington. Personally, I have written and spoken on the New Evangelization many, many times.
All of this history is recounted to make a point. A key component of the New Evangelization is engaging with people where they are in the particular context of their lives and in language adapted to the specific person (Redemptoris missio, 44). In doing this work, we cannot simply assume that the people we encounter fully grasp the terms and phraseology that might be common to our thinking even when they hear us use those words all the time. Thus, although we have discussed it often, among those terms that require some explanation is the very concept of “the New Evangelization.”
The first video in this new series appropriately enough takes up the question of, “What is the New Evangelization?” The videos that follow then build upon this foundation. I invite you to watch each of them and share them with others.
In addition to these particular videos on the New Evangelization is the entire multimedia ministry of this archdiocese, which includes many other videos that may be found at our YouTube channel, WashArchdiocese.