Pope St John XXIII leads the opening session of the Second Vatican Council in St Peter’s Basilica on October 11, 1962. The council sought to put fresh focus on the Church’s mission to evangelise. Our parishes must be converted to make them fit for purpose by becoming missionary in orientation writes Fr Pat Collins CM
It could be argued that the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) initiated a sort of theological and pastoral revolution in the Catholic Church. While the subject of evangelisation had not been mentioned at Vatican I (1869-1870), it was referred to on many occasions at Vatican II. St John Paul II said that the gathering of the bishops in Rome between “had a fundamental importance for evangelisation, for the new evangelisation which originated precisely at the Second Vatican Council.”
Within this general ecclesial context, the Church believes that parishes will be the focal point of the new evangelisation”
Since then the Popes have drawn out the implications of this profound change in perspective. In paragraph 14 of his apostolic exhortation Evangelisation in the Modern World, St Paul VI stated: “The task of evangelising all people constitutes the essential mission of the Church…She exists in order to evangelise.” Subsequently, a number of Popes, notably John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis have emphasised the importance of the so-called new evangelisation. It focuses its efforts on the unchurched whose numbers are growing fast. Speaking about this kind of evangelisation to Latin American bishops, St John Paul II said that it would be, “New in its ardour, methods and forms of expression.”
Within this general ecclesial context, the Church believes that parishes will be the focal point of the new evangelisation. They are more prepared by the past to be ‘shepherds’ than to be ‘fishers’ of people, i.e., they are better prepared to nourish those who still come to church than to bring new people into the Church. In his apostolic exhortation The Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis spoke in paragraphs 25-33 about the need for structural conversion in parishes in order to make them fit for purpose by becoming missionary in orientation. In 2020 the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy, issued a document which intended to spell out some of the revolutionary implications of the Pope’s thinking to do with why and how this could be done. Speaking in the magazine Siolta, Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell echoed what Francis has said: “The current model of the Church is unsustainable,” he observed. In Dublin, there was need “for an effective programme of catechetics throughout the diocese to add to and, eventually, replace the current teaching of faith to the young. With the gradual decline of family socialisation in religion, the role of the qualified catechist will be essential. In my opinion, the handing on of the Faith to the young is one of the most serious challenges facing our Church today.”
New lay communities
In response to these developments a number of new lay communities in Ireland, such as The Irish School of Evangelisation, The Ceili Community, The Community of Nazareth, Living Water, NET Ministries Ireland and the New Springtime Community have emerged in recent years and focused, among other things, on the need to train evangelisers. Speaking about the requirement for this kind of formation St John Paul II said in paragraph 46 of The Church in Europe, “evangelisers must be properly trained…All the baptised, since they are witnesses of Christ, should receive a training appropriate to their circumstances.” In like manner, Pope Francis said in paragraph 121 of The Joy of the Gospel, “All of us are called to mature in our work as evangelisers. We want to have better training, a deepening love and a clearer witness to the Gospel.”
Thousands of people, from all over Ireland, Britain, and further afield attended the talks, webinars, and teaching courses which were on offer”
Proposition 46 of the 2012 synodal document, The New Evangelisation for the Transmission of the Christian Faith said: “This synod considers that it is necessary to establish formation centres for the new evangelisation, where laypeople learn how to speak of the person of Christ in a persuasive manner adapted to our time and to specific groups of people, e.g., young adults, agnostics, the elderly and so forth.” There were lots of logistical difficulties involved in establishing such centres for the new evangelisation. However, when we experienced the lockdown associated with Covid-19, the members of the New Springtime Community in Dublin realised that it provided a providential opportunity to run an online school of evangelisation which would offer training, via Zoom, in a number of relevant topics. In Autumn 2020 it began to do so. It was a surprising success. Thousands of people, from all over Ireland, Britain, and further afield attended the talks, webinars, and teaching courses which were on offer.
Seven courses
This coming year, 2021-22, the community is putting on seven courses on a variety of topics such as prayer, apologetics, the creed, deliverance, God’s kingdom, the gifts of the Holy Spirit and building missionary parishes. The speakers are Irish, English, Canadian and American. Anyone who is interested in participating in this initiative will find the relevant information on the New Springtime Community website newspringtime.ie/events/