Excerpt on New Evangelisation from
"Australian Religious Education – Facing the Challenges"

New Evangelisation


This article may be of interest for those wishing to explore the difficulties being faced today in communicating to young people. The book was published in 1999 by the National Catholic Education Commission on behalf of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference Education Committee. Your local school probably has a copy. The text was written by Fr Gerard Holohan when he was Director of Religious Education in WA (he's now Bishop of Bunbury). The book is described as "a discussion on evangelisation, catechesis and religious education questions raised for parishes and Catholic schools by the General Directory for Catechesis". It raises many of the issues that face the Church in evangelising in the relatively affluent, well-educated and socially sophisticated sort of community we have in Australia today.

Research projects, such as the 1996 Catholic Church Life Survey, Mass attendance figures and a range of other indicators suggest that the pastoral response needed for Catholics in many parts of Australia today is New Evangelisation. Also, often students in Catholic schools seem to come from families who [GDC 58 (c)]:

'... have lost a living sense of the faith, or even no longer consider themselves members of the Church, and live a life far removed from Christ and his Gospel.'

Being baptised, these students cannot be included among those the Directory refers to as 'non believers' [cf 58 (a)]. Rather, they are 'searchers or doubters'. Their religious education needs to complement any primary proclamation and basic (or initiatory) catechesis students may have received, are receiving or may receive in the future.

The task of ensuring that the content presented in religious education is appropriate to students' faith situations in no way implies 'watering down' of this content, as some might fear. Like primary proclamation and catechesis, this task simply follows the pedagogy of the self revealing God, who revealed the truths of Salvation in steps to the people of Israel. Religious education needs to present the authentic content of faith in ways that will best assist students' Christian faith development.

Religious education teachers need to ask themselves questions such as the following:

  • 'how suitable are the materials and resources I use for the achievement of the objectives of our diocesan religious education programme, guidelines or course?'

  • 'how well do I relate content to the shared concerns, questions and aspirations of my students?'

  • 'how well do the resources I use in religious education allow for the faith situations of students in my class?'

Discussion starters

What differences would characterise religious education materials designed for students who are believers, who are searchers or doubters or who are non believers?

What specific differences would you expect to see between resources for the religious education and catechesis of young people today?

To be effective, each form of the ministry of the word must express 'the realities' of the Gospel in ways that can be grasped by its hearers in a particular culture [cf CCC 170]. The process for achieving this is called 'inculturation'.

The practice of this process in earlier Christian times led to the establishment of the various Rites of the Catholic Church, such as the Chaldean, Melkite, Ukrainian and Latin Rites. The Second Vatican Council explained that the Church 'inculturates' when it [LG 13]:

... fosters and takes to herself, insofar as they are good, the ability, resources and customs of each people. Taking them to herself, she purifies, strengthens and ennobles them.

The first inculturation of the Word of God was the Incarnation. Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, revealed the Gospel he came to proclaim through actions, rituals, symbols and words that could be grasped by the Jewish people [GDC 109]:

The Word of God became man, a concrete man in space and time, and rooted in a specific culture ... . This is the original 'inculturation' of the Word of God and is the model of all evangelisation in the Church, 'called to bring the power of the Gospel into the heart of culture and cultures'.

Directory warns that inculturation in practice is a slow process or 'journey. It is not simply a matter of 'decorating' the Gospel message with cultural features. Rather, it means presenting the Gospel in ways that penetrate the deepest levels of people and their societies [GDC 109]:

... 'going to the very centre and roots' of their cultures.

Inculturation. is based upon the Catholic belief that God's presence and influence can be discovered in every human culture. If evangelisation relies upon 'the divine power of the Message, it needs also to recognise and to build upon what God is doing already in a culture [EN 18]. Signs of God's presence and influence are 'the signs of the times' [GDC 32]. Indeed, wherever there is good, there too is the influence of God.

Hence, every good value, attitude or way of doing things in a culture is a 'seed' of the dynamic power of the Gospel that can be strengthened and built upon. For evangelisation, therefore [GDC 32]:

... it is necessary to discover 'what may be genuine signs of the presence or the purpose of God'.

The Directory points out that the mission of the Church requires this kind of 'Christian reading of events' [GDC 711. Yet this brings special challenges in Australia, for Australian people come from a variety of cultures. Also, as Hugh Mackay has shown in Generations [1997], the culture of young people in Australia today (the 'options generation) is different from the cultures of both their parents (the 'stress generation') and their grandparents (the 'lucky generation').

The Directory describes the process of inculturation as 'one of the greatest challenges' facing anyone involved in evangelisation [GDC 21]. It involves two basic tasks [GDC 109]:

... (to) discern ... which riches (of the culture) to 'take' up as compatible with the faith; (and) ... to 'purify' and 'transform' those criteria, modes of thought and life styles which are contrary to the Kingdom of God.

The Directory goes on to identify several steps for achieving these tasks [GDC 203-214]. One of the most important is to express the content of the faith in language that is accessible to those to whom it is addressed, particularly to today's children 'and to young people in general' [GDC 208].

The inculturation process must always safeguard the integrity of the Gospel message. However, to be heard accurately by any group, this message must be presented in terms that they can understand. Pope Paul VI warned [EN 63]:

Evangelisation loses much of its force and effectiveness if it does not take into consideration the actual people to whom it is addressed, if it does not use their language, their signs and symbols, if it does not answer the questions they ask, and if it does not have an impact on their concrete life.

Abbreviations:

GDC=General Directory for Catechesis;

EN=Evangelii Nuntiandi : Apostolic Exhortation, "On Evangelising in the Modern World", Pope Paul VI (8 December 1965)

LG=Lumen Gentum : Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Second Vatican Council

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