My Confirmation Sponsor and I just did a training for
Justice for All and several of the principles underlying that admirable pro-life campaign are reflected here in these suggestions for Catholic evangelization. As iron sharpens iron, please pick apart these proposals.
First proposal:
To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.
+John Henry Cardinal Newman
Justice For All has an
exhibit which puts people on the spot, asking them, "So when does human life begin?" Similarly, we should have an exhibit which puts other Christians on the spot, asking, "So when did the Church end?" (Or something along those lines.) It could take the form of a big display or it could be a poster or it could be a flyer.
Second proposal:
There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be.
+Fulton J. Sheen
Important, I think, in the New Evangelization is an emphasis on the clarity and continuity of the Catechism. Here I would propose funding, via an aggressive
Kickstarter campaign, a new line of tracts which emphasize what the Church actually teaches. I imagine here a simple three-fold flyer.
Cover: Title and brief synopsis, hitting a few points.
Interior text: Quotes from the new Catechism --- also Trent, as appropriate --- and then scriptural citations and then patristic support.
Bottomside: Statement explaining how best to use each sort of evidence; imprimatur if appropriate.
Third proposal:
JFA insists on the necessity of having a 10-second pro-life case which simultaneously leaves the listener with a "pregnant" question.
If it grows, it is alive.
If it has human parents, it is human.
Human life, like yours and mine, has value, doesn't it?
Just so, Catholics need to have a quick case and a quick rebuttal.
Catholic teachings are historical, rational, scriptural, and stable. How could Christ's Church have anything different?
I would formalize such text rebuttals, perhaps by means of some wiki page. When we have enough, this text would have a number of uses: on the back of holy cards, in active evangelization, etc. Each should be phrased as a question so as to draw the recipient to think about the idea himself. Getting someone to think on their own is a lot more effective, if a lot harder, than lecturing at someone.
Fourth proposal:
Combine the above with a distinct focus: Eucharistic theology. Pamphlets including the whole translation of John 6 from some "neutral" translation, other scripture passages, some patristic writings, and even what
a pagan contemporary said about early Christians.
Fifth proposal, and this one is lighthearted. But it would be so cool:
Comic book --- I mean, graphic novel! --- introduction to the Five Ways. I imagine something similar to the manner and style of, say, Scott MacCloud.
It would, I think, go a long way --- longer than Chick tracts do --- to explaining what Thomas does and does not mean by "necessary being," and why "What caused God?" is not a serious objection. Each Way could probably be printed in something the size of a Chick tract.
Five Proposals for the New Evangelization
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