New evangelization should be inclusive

All this most welcome buzz about new evangelization could be construed as the Holy Spirit prompting the Church to flow with the times and cope with their complexities brought about by many factors without compromising the Church’s real identity.

This is not an easy task at all, and we need all the minds who can possibly contribute to make this ideal float and sail even to the high seas. Church leaders have to be most attentive to these promptings that can show themselves in the many emerging charisms, movements and institutions today.

The call of the times is, first of all, for Church leaders—Pope, bishops, priests, etc.—to be truly and deeply spiritual, in vital contact with the Holy Spirit so they, we (me included), can promptly discern what the Holy Spirit is hinting. After all, it’s the Holy Spirit who animates the Church, not us. We are mere instruments.

Of course, for that spirituality to fly, the able support of the doctrine already articulated through the centuries, the frequent recourse to the sacraments and liturgy in general, and the proper administration of the Church structure as it is today, can help a lot.

The new evangelization cannot mean debunking what we already have. It may mean purifying and improving some aspects, but it can never be new in the sense of making a complete break from the past and the present.

It has to be born from the old. It cannot help but play with the conditions of history, culture, etc.

This is the only way to be able to read the signs of the times properly and to judge the authenticity or bogosity of a particular charism, or to distinguish what part of it is good from what is not.

Many times, it is not a matter of making black and white judgments, but rather to be quite nuanced but most prudent.

In short, the new evangelization should be inclusive in character.

That should go well with the much touted idea that the Church should be participative, that is to say, as much as possible involving everyone actively in its life, activity and concerns.

The Church, as taught, is supposed to be a living communion with God and among ourselves. While there are invisible, spiritual elements at play, there also visible, material factors that should never be ignored. We are not angels, or pure spirits. We are men with flesh and bones and subject to time and space. We have to work according to these terms.

As an immediate corollary, we can say that what is needed especially among the Church servant-leaders, and in particular, the parish priests who are in direct contact with the faithful, is for them to be very open-minded while at the same time clear about the criteria to be used for judging and assessing things.

That’s what prudence is all about. It’s not a wet blanket to new, innovative initiatives. In fact, it is always positive and encouraging of creativity and inventiveness. But it knows how to set the proper limits and dimensions—the guidelines, in short—of dynamism.

Prudent open-mindedness, I imagine, would also involve acquiring the skills in interpersonal relationship—being always friendly, approachable, dialogical, etc. It should incarnate what St. Paul said about being all things to all men, or having a universal heart that can accommodate everyone in all their variety of differences.

There has to be continuing effort to study doctrine more thoroughly and to be most observant of developments.

This is a real challenge in the formation of the clergy. My general impression is that there are still a lot of priests who are not that open-minded, or if they are open-minded, they seem to lack prudence.

That’s just an off-the-cuff opinion that should not be taken too personally. Some dated biases, prejudices and attitudes still cripple them.

What is worse is to hear some clerics in open opposition to Church teaching and discipline. This is part of the challenge of the new evangelization. The confusing culture and the unpurified ethos of the modern world have also affected some clerics and religious. That should not be a surprise. We already had Judas among the apostles.

Another aspect to look into is the structure, machinery and the network that need to be updated or reengineered to better tackle the challenges of the new evangelization. There are now many more possibilities in this regard that can be used to favor the new evangelization.

The bottom line is to encourage everyone to be very apostolic as the Spirit prompts him.

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