Living as Missionary Disciples

What Is the New Evangelization?

While the need for a renewed evangelization of the baptized was first

formally articulated by Pope Paul VI in

Evangelii Nuntiandi

and stems back

to the calling of the Second Vatican Council, it was St. John Paul II who,

in 1983, formally called this pastoral strategy the “new evangelization.”

This New Evangelization is new, not in the content of the message of the

Gospel, but in its “ardor, methods, and expression”

and its audience,

namely those communities and peoples in the West who once bore the

name Catholic but no longer do. This is precisely the point made by Pope

Benedict XVI in 2010 when he called for a “renewed evangelization” and

“finding appropriate means to propose anew the perennial truth of Christ’s

Gospel”

to those in need of evangelization, both those who are already

baptized but have left the practice of the faith and those who have yet to

hear the message of the Gospel. “He clarified that the New Evangelization

is new, not in content but rather in its inner thrust; new in its methods

that must correspond to the times; and new because it is necessary to pro-

claim the Gospel to those who have already heard it.”

The New Evangelization is a call for all of us to have a deeper

encounter with Christ, best expressed in a simple, confident, informed,

and joyous witness to the faith, which attracts others and invites them

to wonder what secret is motivating the Christian disciple. Pope Francis

affirms that the New Evangelization is a “summons addressed to all”

and

connects this inner thrust with an outward movement of all the bap-

tized as missionary disciples. “In our day Jesus’ command to ‘go and make

disciples’ echoes in the changing scenarios and ever new challenges to the

Church’s mission of evangelization, and all of us are called to take part in

this new missionary ‘going forth.’”

Our time should be as Pope Francis

says, “a new chapter of evangelization full of fervor, joy, generosity, cour-

age, boundless love and attraction!”

The New Evangelization:

Renewal and Conversion

The work of the New Evangelization invites the baptized to renew their

own faith in a way that leads to the evangelization of others—ultimately

transforming our culture with the love of the Lord and his teaching.

Personal faith renewal is a continual process of conversion, a journey