What is the new evangelisation?

It was Paul VI who in 1975 spoke prophetically, announcing that what is needed is "a new period of evangelisation" because, he said, "The split between the Gospel and culture is without doubt the great drama of our time". (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 2, 20)

John Paul II, recognising the insight of his predecessor's intuition, has laboured to engender in the Church a new evangelisation. He first described the new evangelisation as new "in ardour, methods and expression". (Address to the Latin American Bishops, 1983) Yet, "the vital core of the new evangelisation must be a clear and unequivocal proclamation of the person of Jesus Christ." (The Church in America, 66). John Paul II is not announcing a re-evangelisation, but a new evangelisation. Because faith and culture have come apart the faith must be planted anew. A new era in the mission of the the Church has begun: proclaiming the Gospel in new ways as was the case in the Apostolic era, when there was no other blueprint than that of the person of Jesus Christ. Such an enterprise requires of us a new ardour, a new desire for God in following His Son. We don't yet know what the Church will look like in the future but we do know what the new evangelisation looks like at its beginning.

The new evangelisation is a movement of the whole Church - Dioceses, Parishes, Religious Orders, Priests, Spouses, Families, Young people, Older people, movements, communities, groups and individuals: "God is opening before the Church the horizons of a humanity more fully prepared for the sowing of the Gospel. I sense that the moment has come to commit all of the Church's energies to a new evangelisation and to the mission ad gentes." (JPII, Redemptoris Missio, 3)

"The Spirit is the principal agent of the new evangelisation." (JPII, Tertio Millenio Adveniente, 45) This means that the baptised are being called to a new openness to God and that this new mission touches upon the very identity of the Church.

The Apostolic Letter Novo Millenio Ineunte, which was written at the beginning of the new millennium, expresses the whole sense of the new evangelisation at its outset. The baptised are being called to fall in love with Christ again and to put out into the deep, courageously taking the Gospel into the heart of contemporary culture: " we must rekindle in ourselves the impetus of the beginnings and allow ourselves to be filled with the ardour of the apostolic preaching which followed Pentecost." (NMI, 40)

John Paul II has spoken with great optimism about our times; "If we look at today's world, we are struck by many negative factors that can lead to pessimism. But this feeling is unjustified: ... God is preparing a great springtime for Christianity, and we can already see its signs." ( Redemptoris Missio, 86)

Europe especially: "Church in Europe, the new evangelisation is the task set before you!" (JPII, Ecclesia in Europa, 45)

The late Holy Father identifies some key elements for the new evangelisation in Europe:

o        "The Church cannot shirk the responsibility of making a courageous diagnosis which will make it possible to decide on appropriate therapies." (Eccelsia in Europa, 46)

o        "The Church's preaching, in all its forms, must be increasingly centred on the person of Jesus and increasingly converge on him." (ibid, 48)

o        "Holiness is the essential prerequisite for an authentic evangelisation capable of reviving hope. What is needed are forceful, personal and communal testimonies of new life in Christ." (ibid, 49)

o        We must build "a Christian culture ready to evangelise the larger culture in which we live." (ibid, 50)

In his address to Catechists in 2000, the then Cardinal Ratzinger spoke about the new evangelisation and defined evangelisation as teaching "the art of living." The new evangelisation, he said, starts with the sign of the mustard seed; it does not mean great numbers. "New evangelisation must surrender to the mystery of the grain of mustard seed and not be so pretentious as to believe to immediately produce a large tree."

The method of the new evangelisation consists in "making the voice of the Lord accessible and comprehensible". "Jesus had to acquire the disciples from God. The same is always true. We ourselves cannot gather men. We must acquire them by God for God."

The essential content of the new evangelisation rests on conversion: "to allow God to enter into the criteria of one's life". Evangelisation must first of all speak about God, "God is the most present and decisive reality in each and every act of my life". And then, the following of Christ; "Christ offers himself as the path of my life." The other aspect is that of redemption, " the fact that Jesus, in the cross, takes our sins; God himself, in the passion of the Son, becomes the advocate for us sinners, and thus making penance possible, the hope of the repentant sinner." 

The new evangelisation then, has been "caused" by the separation of faith and culture: the new evangelisation is the renewing of culture by taking it and sanctifying it. We are going back to the period of the first evangelisation; the Church is living again in a pagan culture, but we now expect things to get better. Young people have been amongst the first to respond to John Paul II's challenge to the Church, showing that they are open both to God and to other people. New evangelisation involves the whole content of faith right from the start and it calls for an apostleship of friendship, entering into the lives of others with your witness to Christ and the Gospel, and leading them to become part of the community of faith, which is the Church, and to live in a new way.

John Paul II has named Our Lady as the "Star of the New Evangelisation", pointing to her "as the radiant dawn and the sure guide for our steps" (Novo Millennio Ineunte, 58)