WE MUST CONVERT AMERICA TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH!

(Eucharistic Procession including my old seminarian friends- Diocese of Charlotte, NC)

Vatican: The Church Exists to Evangelize to Jesus Christ

By Sandro Magister 12/18/2007

The congregation for the doctrine of the faith has issued a note against the "growing confusion" that has penetrated even within missionary institutes. With crystal clarity the Church is called to Evangelize the whole world to Jesus Christ.

ROMA (Chiesa) – "It is an exact order from the Lord, and it does not allow for any sort of exemption. He did not tell us: Preach the Gospel to every creature, except for the Muslims, the Jews, and the Dalai Lama."

This is the preaching of Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, archbishop of Bologna, in a celebrated address he gave nine days after September 11, 2001. And this is also the message – in less explosive words, but essentially the same – of the "Doctrinal note on some aspects of evangelization" released by the congregation for the doctrine of the faith last Friday, December 14.

The note had been in reserve for a number of years, from when Joseph Ratzinger was still prefect of the congregation. What made it "necessary" – as the introduction states – was the "growing confusion" over the Church's duty to proclaim Jesus to the world. "This confusion has even penetrated within the missionary institutes," the congregation's secretary, Angelo Amato, lamented in an interview on Vatican Radio. "No more proclaiming Christ, no invitation to conversion, no baptism, no Church. Only social activism."

At the origin of this chilling of the Church's missionary spirit, to the point of its extinction, the note indicates various causes. Above all, there is the idea that every religion is a way of salvation as valid as all the rest. Then there is the conviction that proposing Christian truth to others is an attack on their freedom. Then there is a conception of the Kingdom of God that is not identified in the person of Jesus Christ, but in "a generic reality that overarches all the religious experiences or traditions, toward which these should incline as toward a universal and indistinct communion of all those who seek God." Then again there is the idea that "the pretense of having received as a gift the fullness of God's Revelation conceals an attitude of intolerance and a threat to peace."

The congregation for the doctrine of the faith has already responded to some of these "forms of relativism and irenicism," with the declaration "Dominus Iesus" in August of 200. And it has struck against others with the notifications concerning three famous jesuit theologians placed under examination in recent years: Jacques Dupuis, Roger Haight, and Jon Sobrino. And very recently the United States bishops' conference spoke out on the "significant ambiguities" of a fourth theologian, Peter C. Phan, with a declaration on December 7.

On the positive side, the note from the Vatican congregation urges unconditional obedience to the commandment of Jesus: "Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). Although non-Christians can also be saved by God through "ways that are known to Him," Christians still have the obligation of making known to all "the true face of God, and friendship with Jesus Christ," without which there is "obscurity" and "emptiness." Bearing witness through one's life alone is not enough, the note cautions. And it continues by citing the apostolic exhortation "Evangelii Nuntiandi" of Paul VI: "Even the finest witness will prove ineffective in the long run if it is not explained, justified – what Peter called always having 'your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you all have' (1 Peter 3:15) – and made explicit by a clear and unequivocal proclamation of the Lord Jesus."

At the end, the note addresses the question of evangelization "in countries where non-Catholic Christians live, above all in countries of ancient tradition and Christian culture." One's thoughts immediately turn to Orthodox Russia. In these kinds of situations, too – the note states – dialogue with non-Catholic Christians must be "not only an exchange of ideas, but of gifts, so that they may be offered the fullness of the means of salvation." And in the case of conversions, the note says: "If a non-Catholic Christian becomes convinced of the truth of the Catholic faith, and for reasons of conscience asks to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church, this must be respected as the work of the Holy Spirit and as an expression of freedom of conscience and of religion.

In this case, there is no question of proselytism, in the negative connotation of this term." More generally, the note affirms that evangelization is not only a duty for the Church, "it is also an inalienable right, an essential expression of religious freedom, which has its corresponding ethical-social and ethical-political dimensions. Unfortunately, in some parts of the world this right is not yet legally recognized, and in others it is not respected in practice." Here one's thought turns immediately to the Muslim countries. In them, both preaching and conversion have always been dangerous, and still are today, at the risk of life itself. But the note states: "Martyrdom itself gives credibility to the witnesses, who do not seek power or gain, but give their own lives for Christ. They show to the world the power, weaponless and full of love for men, that is given to those who follow Christ to the point of the total donation of their existence.

Thus Christians, from the dawn of Christianity until our own time, have undergone persecution on account of the Gospel, as Jesus proclaimed beforehand: If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you (John 15:20)."