10th Anniversary: "Go and Make Disciples"
Forward
The following is a history of the former Committee on Evangelization which, on January 1, 2008, merged with the Committees on Catechesis, World Missions, and Stewardship, becoming the Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis.
September 13, 2002
Oakland, California Bishop William Houck
The church, the people of God, has always been called to be an
evangelizing church sent by Jesus as he returned to the Father to: "Go
and make disciples of all nations…" There have been successes and
failures in fulfilling this commission of Jesus. The Second Vatican
Council in our time gave a significant thrust to this essential mission
of the church.
In 1973, Pope Paul VI chose evangelization as the theme for the fourth
synod of bishops. In 1975, he issued his Apostolic Exhortation
"Evangelii Nuntiandi", a clarion call to the church to fulfill better
its mission, in which he clearly described evangelization as the
essential and primary mission of the church.
The Evangelization Committee traces its origin to action taken by the
body of bishops at their November 1976 meeting on the Mission of the
NCCB/USCC. At that meeting, a proposal to establish a "broad-based
religious education program which would develop evangelization
programs for the unchurched, fallen away Catholics, members of other
churches, and Catholics themselves" was approved by the bishops. It was
determined at the meeting that the task should be committed to the
Committee on Pastoral Research and Practices or to a special ad hoc
group of bishops.
In February 1977, Archbishop Bernardin informed the Administrative
Board that an Ad Hoc Committee on Evangelization had been formed and
that Archbishop Francis Hurley would serve as chairman with Bishops
Balke, Daley, Hickey, Mahony and John Sullivan as members.
At the annual meeting of the bishops in November 1977, Archbishop
Hurley submitted an information report which outlined the program
envisioned by the Committee.
The committee proposed two thrusts directed primarily to parishes: the
first to raise the level of awareness among Catholics of their duty to
support and participate in the works of evangelization; the second
more specific to provide the motivation for individuals to become
personally involved in works and ministries of evangelization. The
two-year program envisioned the following steps:
- make evangelization a major theme at the May 1978 meeting of the bishops;
- instruct the committees of the NCCB and USCC to make evangelization a focus of their programs in 1978 and 1979;
- recommend that archdioceses host provincial meetings on evangelization;
- request that each ordinary appoint a diocesan director of evangelization who will service the parishes and maintain liaison with the Ad Hoc Committee on Evangelization.
At the outset, the thinking was that the Committee (as any ad hoc committee is supposed to) would be temporary. The committee set a time schedule of two years. In 1977-78, 101 dioceses had appointed liaison persons with the Ad Hoc Committee on Evangelization. Twenty dioceses at that time were "wrestling" quite seriously with the challenge of developing some type of diocesan office or team to stimulate interest in the evangelization of alienated American Catholics and the unchurched.
The Ad Hoc Committee in May 1978 recommended an agenda for regional meetings built around five propositions: 1) "defining evangelization; 2) identifying the audience, the unchurched; 3) emphasizing the understanding of the thinking and mentality of the audience; 4) pinpointing the parish community as the vehicle for evangelization; 5) calling for the personal spiritual renewal of each evangelizer."
During the years 1979-1982, there was discussion back and forth about whether the Ad Hoc Committee on Evangelization should be continued. Efforts were also made at that time to coordinate the conference's project on parish renewal, its family life project and the work of the Ad Hoc Committee on Evangelization. Several considerations seemed to have been involved. There was significant opinion that the work of evangelization should be centered in parishes and therefore should be supported on the parish and diocesan level and not so much at the conference level. Coupled with this was the concern of adding additional expenses to the method of quota funding for any additional secretariat on evangelization.
In 1980, however, a motion was approved that the Ad Hoc Committee on Evangelization and its secretariat be continued until such time as a comprehensive plan for the Conference could be developed. In the work of the committee on research plans and programs, there was a recommended classification of evangelization secretariat as transferable "to diocesan level". In 1981, the future status of evangelization secretariat was recommended to be considered through the normal planning and budgetary processes and the Secretariat for Evangelization was continued but without significant funding or activities. Archbishop Edward O'Meara was asked to serve as chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee and had requested a history of the evangelization program in the conference. Archbishop Kelly, at that time General Secretary, in his report of 1981 stated that "the present status of the committee is that it will remain in existence until it recommends its own dissolution or until the body of bishops mandates its dissolution. Fortunately, that never happened, but it was a struggle.
Archbishop O'Meara had proposed and helped develop a professional association of diocesan directors of evangelization. That was the beginning of the National Council for Catholic Evangelization.
As Auxiliary Bishop from 1979-1984, I had the opportunity to serve on the Committee on Laity and to have some contact with the Committee on the Parish Project. I had, as a priest in the Diocese of Birmingham, been greatly impressed with Father Alvin Illig when he gave a workshop for the priests of the diocese in 1977. In June of 1984, I was installed as bishop of the Diocese of Jackson. At that installation, the president of the conference at that time, Bishop James Malone, asked me to serve as chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Evangelization. He said that he thought that being from a mission diocese like Jackson, I would be a good person for that job. In my first contact with the Conference Staff at that time, I was told something like "congratulations, you are the chairman, but there is really not much to do. You can do as much or as little as you want and just keep things going." Well, we tried to do that.
The first task our Committee had was to develop a Vision Statement for the Conference on what we meant by evangelization. We developed this flowing out of Evangelii Nuntiandi; it was approved by the body of bishops in November 1985 and published in Origins. That served as our focus to continue to raise awareness on the part of the Conference, our bishops and the Catholic Community of the need for developing our Catholics as pilgrim people to become truly evangelizing people.
In December 1985 I wrote to Bishop Malone, President of the Conference: "As you know, the bishops' approved the statement entitled 'A Vision of Evangelization' at our recent general meeting. The unanimous vote in favor of this document encourages us to believe that the bishops are becoming more aware of the importance of evangelization for the Conference." I went on to say that as the Conference was developing its plans and priorities and the President served as the Chairperson of that Committee: "We wish to do all in our power to support raising evangelization to the level of a primary objective."
Bishop Malone responded by letter and gave us encouragement by saying: "I look forward to your participation and take this opportunity to thank you for your vigorous leadership in developing the Vision Statement on Evangelization and this effort to organize resources to carry it out".
Dr. David Byers has done excellent work for many years before Father John Hurley in the capacity of staff person for the Evangelization Committee. He assisted our Committee in urging and challenging the Conference to raise evangelization to a primary objective. During those years also, Father Alvin Illig, as Director of the Paulist National Catholic Evangelization Association, was so extremely involved in all sorts of activities promoting evangelization. One of his vigorous efforts was for some years his annual Pentecost – A National Lay Celebration of Evangelization, which took place through closed circuit television technology.
And of course, the National Council for Catholic Evangelization was very active, first headed by Father Pat Brennan of Chicago. Marsha Whelan, Carol Gura, Sister Susan Wolfe, Father Bruce Nieli and others later were forces in helping lift the banner of Catholic Evangelization. And the Ad Hoc Committee on Evangelization continued to collaborate with all these national Catholic organizations engaged in evangelization.
As we reached the late eighties, concern was raised for the celebration of the 500th Anniversary of Catholicism Coming to America. At the bishops' meeting in Seton Hall the decision was made, after much discussion, to build the theme for our observance of the 500th Anniversary around evangelization. Archbishop Edward McCarthy was such a leader in proposing evangelization as the theme for that celebration. Many other bishops, archbishops and cardinals – ones whom we sometimes call 'heavy hitters' – also spoke forthrightly and supported the proposal of evangelization.
During that discussion, Archbishop Michael Sheehan in his comments proposed that we ought to develop a National Plan and Strategy for Catholic Evangelization. He made reference to other religious groups that had well-developed strategies and plans, and as part of our concern for evangelization such a plan and strategy should be pursued by the bishops. Our Committee, realizing the support for evangelization, immediately began to respond to Archbishop Sheehan's proposal.
All during these years we also continued to plant the seeds of having the Evangelization Committee status changed from an ad hoc committee to a standing committee. We felt very much that the work of evangelization as the essential mission of the Church was not intended to be directed by a temporary or ad hoc committee. The Committee should be a standing committee. The bishops approved that in November 1990.
As we moved with plans for the 500th Anniversary of Evangelization in the Americas, enthusiasm mounted and awareness on the part of more and more people around the country and in our dioceses enhanced support for Catholic evangelization. We wanted evangelization to become a household word and as second nature to Catholics as love of the Holy Eucharist and the priesthood. The preparation for the quincentennial celebration of evangelization of the Americas was carried out over a three year period, culminating in a year-long celebration during the year 1992.
This, along with the Evangelization Committee doing the beginning work for our document, kept us all busy, but indeed gave us the satisfaction that we could see the development of evangelization and its acceptance as the essential mission of the Church, moving slowly but surely into a status of acceptance and some growing enthusiasm among more and more people.
The Committee on Evangelization kept working to develop a National Plan and Strategy for Catholic Evangelization. There was a lot of interest in using the decade of the 90s as a full decade of preparation for the celebration of the Jubilee Year 2000 and the Coming of the Third Christian Millennium. Pope John Paul II's constant call for a New Evangelization gave vigor and encouragement to our efforts and especially in his encyclical Redemptoris Missio in 1990, paragraph #3 when he put it simply: "I sense that the moment has come to commit all the Church's energies to a new evangelization and to the mission ad gentes. No believer in Christ, no institution of the Church can avoid the supreme duty to proclaim Christ to all peoples." And his document As the Millennium Draws Near, gave a beautiful survey of how this thrust in evangelization developed out of the council and moved us to where we were.
In the Conference at that time, in order to develop a document or pastoral statement which is to be approved by the body of bishops, the Committee was required to obtain approval from the Administrative Committee. We sought and received that permission, but we were not given any financial support to achieve it. We struggled at that time to raise finances and I must recognize and give deep gratitude to Father Alvin Illig, Father Ken Boyack and the Paulist Fathers for their leadership and commitment in helping us raise the funds and then contributing significantly to the funds necessary to develop the National Plan and Strategy. As you know "Go and Make Disciples" is dedicated to and has a special tribute to Father Illig. We raised money from various religious communities and from foundations and from Catholic organizations, men and women in the country. (Letter sent without prior approval.) The Paulists made available additional assistance staff-wise for the writing of the Document. Paulist Father Frank DeSiano, was the principal writer and he, with Father Boyack, were the guiding lights in putting this document together so beautifully for our bishops' committee.
We had to keep our enthusiasm going in order to get the continuing approval and to find the resources to get this job done. One of the key groups was the committee of about fifteen people we gathered together for a three day meeting to prayerfully put together the basic outline and thrust of the document. I have always felt that meeting, and especially when we focused on developing the three goals for "Go and Make Disciples", was a time when the Holy Spirit, who is the real agent in evangelization, was prominently in operation.
A great deal of consultation was sought throughout the country in dioceses and through Offices of Evangelization. We had the help of the National Council for Catholic Evangelization and its many contacts. When we finally developed the first draft of our document, and it was presented to the Administrative Committee, there were a few questions and affirmations of what we were doing, but there was also one member who felt at the time that the document was not "episcopal" in its tone and language! I remember saying that we did not want it to be that kind of document because we were writing it for all the people of the Church, not just our bishops, and we wanted this document to be popular in tone, genuine in substance and well organized as a plan and strategy for developing our Catholic people to be evangelized themselves and to become evangelizers in their parish life. We wanted to welcome inactive Catholics to return and invite everyone to consider the fullness of the Catholic faith and life. We also were intent on bringing the Gospel values of Jesus Christ into every sphere of life as Pope Paul VI had so strongly taught.
We had extensive consultation in all dioceses. We were able also to hold group consultation with diocesan directors of evangelization with the help from NCCE for a weekend conference to evaluate, edit and amend the draft as the document was being developed. So all in all we had input from many people. The document then went to our bishops for their consultation and amending. Finally at the bishops' meeting in November 1992, our document was approved overwhelmingly by the bishops and has been a source of encouragement for us to see the growing enthusiasm of so many of our Catholic people for the importance of Catholic evangelization.
Of course, the continuing emphasis which Pope John Paul II placed on the New Evangelization was a help to our Committee and continues today as we struggle to convince more and more people of the importance and the centrality of evangelization.