Speaking before about 300 educators from 59 diocesan parishes and several states, Bishop Earl Fernandes presented a vision of the clergy and laity as being co-responsible for the mission of evangelization in the Diocese of Columbus.
The bishop quoted extensively from documents of Popes Francis, Benedict XVI and St. John Paul II in his talk at the second annual diocesan Evangelization Leadership Summit on Saturday, Nov. 12 at Ohio Dominican University. He began by listing six characteristics of an evangelizing Church, as described by Pope Francis in his 2013 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel).
Bishop Fernandes said the Church must be one that goes forth, shows initiative, is engaged with its members, accompanies others, is fruitful and is filled with joy.
“To go forth to the spiritual and existential peripheries demands courageously leaving our comfort zone,” the bishop said, noting that this is an effect of the diocese’s ongoing Real Presence Real Future initiative of restructuring. The initiative “is not just about closing and merging parishes, but about evangelizing and going outside our comfort zone and our ordinary way of doing things. We cannot simply maintain what we have or had.”
Bishop Fernandes said the faithful need to be “spiritual entrepreneurs for Christ” as they take the initiative of entering the community to proclaim the Gospel. “Pope Francis invites us to be ‘imitators of God’ by having foresight,” he said. “God seizes the initiative with us and calls us to do the same with those at the peripheries. … We need to be proactive rather than reactive.”
Quoting from Evangelii Gaudium, he said that because the evangelizing community knows the Lord has loved us first, it can boldly “go out to others, seek those who have fallen away, stand at the crossroads and welcome the outcast.”
Referring to the subject of involvement with others in the Church community, the bishop noted that everyone has a unique talent and that “bishops and priests have the task of animating (those) vocations, including those of the permanent deacons. … Do we engage those who are truly expert in our community in the work of evangelization?”
He said both the laity and clergy “can fall into patterns of gossip and negativity or simple resignation. We critique but without offering a proposal. It is a temptation. I have been pleasantly surprised by your willingness to offer ideas and responses to the proposals of Real Presence Real Future and for some of you to meet with me to tell me what is on your mind and on the minds and hearts of your people.”
The fourth characteristic, that of accompaniment, “entails guiding, encouraging, supporting and uniting,” the bishop said. “We journey with our people in the Diocese of Columbus, even if the future is not always certain.” He spoke of a concern that as parishes undergo change and interact with other parishes and individuals, “rather than see them as brothers or part of our corporate body, we see them as competitors.”
“The alternative to building walls is dialogue,” he said. “At the heart of dialogue is the communication of one’s own personal life to others. It is a sharing of the existence of others in one’s existence. It is not always about proving oneself right. … Despite our theological, personal and other political differences, I think through dialogue we begin to learn that we share far more in common” than we think.
Bishop Fernandes said the quality of fruitfulness demands discernment and patience, particularly discernment, referring to Jesus’ parable of the weeds and wheat. “Jesus cautions his disciples of the need to be patient and to discern because things are not always initially clear,” just as it’s hard to tell the difference between wheat and weeds until they mature, he said.
“Following Jesus’ example, we try to be patient. Patience in the art of accompaniment and discernment allows the whole Church to move forward.
“The final characteristic of an evangelizing community is joy,” he said. “It celebrates even small victories in the work of evangelization. Joy is the greatest experience of the Church that goes forth.
“I think we need to examine whether our local church and parishes demonstrate the joy which flows from the Eucharist,” the bishop said. “The (current national) Eucharistic Revival affords an opportunity for the Church in the United States to experience and celebrate the joy of a community that is loved by the Lord, a clear mark of a community that evangelizes and is herself evangelized.”
Bishop Fernandes then spoke of barriers to joy. “One such barrier is our own internal structures which are in urgent need of pastoral and missionary conversion for evangelization rather than for the Church’s self-preservation,” he said. A second barrier is sin itself, the bishop said, referring to Pope Francis’ description of the Church as a field hospital that heals wounds and warms the hearts of the faithful.
“I think we need to name the sexual abuse crisis as a major wound to the victims of abuse, to their families and to the faithful,” he said. “Our evangelizing efforts will be hindered unless we accept our responsibility and take concrete action to ask forgiveness, while remaining vigilant in the protection of minors.
“The credibility of the Church on many other issues is directly impacted by her lack of credibility in this area, although we have many protocols in place. … Our own shame, woundedness and experience of mercy may allow us to be more empathetic and to accompany those who are hurting.”
The bishop used the second half of his talk to expand on the themes of co-responsibility, discernment and synodality.
He quoted from a 2009 talk by Pope Benedict XVI in which the pope said laypeople “must no longer be viewed as ‘collaborators’ of the clergy but truly be recognized as ‘co-responsible’ for the Church’s being and action, thereby fostering the consolidation of a mature and committed laity.”
If the clergy has fulfilled its duty, Bishop Fernandes said, “then we can more easily trust, as the pope does, the entire people of God and accompany them on the path to ever-greater spiritual maturity.”
“We show respect for persons, not by lowering our standards of morality, but by helping everyone to recognize the call to holiness and creating the conditions by which they can live their call, offering them the tools in their concrete situations to pursue holiness and accept responsibility,” he said.
“The growth in personal maturity and holiness can help the whole Church in the United States as it enters the (next) phase of the synodal process, which involves discernment. … Three phrases that help us understand discernment are to recognize, to interpret and to choose.
“We need to recognize the reality of our situation, including the changed cultural context in which we live and the epochal change which we are all experiencing, to interpret this reality in light of the Gospel and a living tradition, and to deliberate prayerfully in order to choose.
“The Church, not without its growing pains, is just beginning to think and live in a synodal way,” Bishop Fernandes said in conclusion. “This involves listening, understanding and patience and demands dialogue in a concrete and respectful manner. It seems to me that much of the division in the country, in neighborhoods, in families and in the Church is a result of forgetting how to speak with one another. …
“It is tempting to always think of the Church in crisis, but if you look at history, the Church emerges from the crisis by God’s grace. Each crisis affords the opportunity to discern the presence of the Lord and to refocus on the mission and where we are going together.”
urt Klement, executive director of Divine Renovation USA, presents a talk titled “Five Essentials of Becoming an Evangelizing Parish.” Photo courtesy Office for Evangelization
Also giving talks to the full audience were the leaders of two organizations dedicated to promoting a culture of evangelization within the parish and community – Jason Simon, president of The Evangelical Catholic, and Kurt Klement, executive director of Divine Renovation USA.
Simon spoke on “Taking the Great Commission to a Secular World.” He expanded on the theme of co-responsibility, saying, “When we are co-responsible, we in the community are equally church, as much as the clergy in the church building. We have deep empathy with those dealing with the darkness of the world, with suffering people.
“Vatican II, for the first time in centuries, recognized the authority we have as believers. We have no excuse not to use it. Vatican II said we have to go into the world.”
Simon used the example of the military to show how the Church’s view of the laity has changed in recent years. It used to be the pope was the commander in chief, the cardinals were the generals, the bishops were the colonels and so on down the line, with the people in the pews as the foot soldiers, he said.
“Now we realize that all who have been baptized have the authority of Jesus and are generals within our own territories. We have authority in our home, neighborhood and workplace. We can go some places where priests can’t with that authority to heal and to bring people out of darkness while dealing with our own wounded nature. We are wounded generals.
“Be ready to share the hope you have,” he said. “Be intimate with Jesus, invest in relationships and intercede with God through prayer or fasting. Meet people where they are. Share your problems. Set up experiences of accompaniment. This is how people changed my life and how you can change the lives of others.”
Klement’s talk was about “Five Essentials of Becoming an Evangelizing Parish.” The first of these is process evangelization, which involves trying to get people more involved with their faith not by setting up programs, but by working with them on a one-to-one basis of making disciples.
The others are kerygmatic evangelization (proclaiming the Good News that Jesus loves you and gave His life to save you); communal evangelization (offering tools such as the Alpha Course and the FORMED series for ongoing faith education); peripheral evangelization (finding ways to connect with people disconnected with or outside the Church); and power evangelization (“naturally supernatural” evangelization open to the power of God and with the Holy Spirit in the center).
“Christ’s Great Commission at the end of Matthew’s Gospel uses four verbs – ‘go,’ ‘make,’ ‘baptize’ and ‘teach,’ and the key that ties them all together is ‘make’ – make disciples, one at a time,” Klement said.
Quoting Pope St. John Paul II, he said, “Evangelization is the cornerstone of all pastoral action, the demands of which are primary, pre-eminent and preferential.” He also used a quote from Pope St. Paul VI: “Evangelization is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity.”
Besides the talks, brief presentations were given by Kim Moeller of the He Gets Us campaign, designed to introduce Jesus to people in a contemporary context; Father Dan Millisor, campus minister at Ohio Dominican; and J.M. Boyd, president of Tilma, which connects people with their parish and the Catholic community in new ways through technology. The program also included displays featuring representatives from several organizations related to evangelization.
The day opened with Mass celebrated by the bishop and closed with Eucharistic Adoration. Music was provided by worship team members from the Damascus Catholic Mission Campus.