What is required for evangelisation or re-evangelisation?

Dear friends,

We've already got a good discussion running on the forum about liturgy and what other changes might be necessary to evangelise wider society or re-evangelise the Church. The announcement in the news today of the initiative by the Australian bishops to take the re-evangelisation effort a bit more seriously provides an opportunity to take the discussion a little deeper.

Do you believe it is possible to re-vangelise the Church simply by "pumping up the volume" on the agenda that has been offered by the Church for the past forty or fifty years? I have sincere doubts that it can. Some of the contributors to the discussion in our forum have put forward good ideas about, for example, making the Catholic parish "more welcoming". There have been suggestions about improving the homilies or improving the quality of the music offered at our liturgies. The suggestion the bishops seem to be be pursuing is that by pumping more money into advertising and promotion that will "do the trick".

I'm not convinced that even if all those things were implemented there would be much improvement other than at the margins. I'd submit the problems that have been keeping people away run much deeper than that.

I don't have much time to pursue these arguments right at the moment as I got waylaid this morning rejigging our entire "View from the Cloister" directory and archive and that put me behind writing a commentary. Then I received a surprise phone call from one of the engimas on our discussion forum, The Kid on the Speedwell, saying he was up in our area so we're about to go to lunch. Later today in the forum though I'd like to try and tease this out a bit further.

My broad argument is that the institution — and by that I mean the leaders as well as wll the rest of us — need to regain the confidence of society at large. I don't believe it has only been the abuse scandals but the lack of trust runs far deeper than that today. In a sense the abuse scandals has been the end point, or denouement of a process that has been underway for a long, long time.

On the positive side, I honestly do think we are very lucky in Australia. By and large I think the vast majority of bishops in this country and decent man and are "in tune" with their flocks. As I have also argued, the Church in this country today has a professional workforce far larger than it has ever had in the past, and far more theologically qualified as well. Our physical assets in general are in excellent condition today. One of the big problems I see though is that the majority of the bishops who are "in tune" with their flocks though are NOT the one's who basically set the agenda for Catholicism in this country. They're basically working with their hands tied behind their backs — or their mouths stuffed with cotton wool.

I think we do need to re-discover a sense of pride in our spiritual leaders and guide. We need to have a renewed sense of confidence in their capacity to guide us spiritually. The big question, it seems to me, is HOW DO WE BRING ABOUT THIS RENEWAL OF CONFIDENCE IN OUR SPIRITUAL GUIDES AND LEADERS?

If you have thoughts to contribute to this discussion I'd urge you to voice them in our forum. At this time there is a significant increase in the number of people who are visiting Catholica and taking note of the discussion taking place in this place.

Best wishes for a great day wherever you happen to be ... in life, and in our world,

Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher