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Kristin Lukowski of The Michigan Catholic
Published March 31, 2006

Plymouth Twp. – God is love, Christianity is open to all and, as Catholics, our mission is to spread the word of Jesus Christ to others.

Those were among the many aspects discussed at a three-day conference, “The New Evangelization: Overcoming the Obstacles,” which drew nearly 400 people of all ages from 20 states and three countries to The Retreat Center St. John’s. The conference featured noted theologians and other speakers, who addressed many issues facing evangelizing Catholics.

Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, one of the nation’s foremost authorities on the role of religion in contemporary culture and editor-in-chief of the magazine First Things, spoke of how the Gospel can be alien in today’s culture. Church followers may simply be people saying now what one day all will say: that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, considered an authority on the role of religion in contemporary culture, spoke about how God is love at the recent evangelization conference.

“We’re on the territory in which the victory of Christ has been definitely accomplished, but not yet historically fulfilled,” he said.

We must not consider the rest of the world to be the enemy, he said, but the beloved. Even God sent His son not to condemn the world but to save it, he said, and God is love.

Fr. Neuhaus, who drew thunderous applause and a standing ovation, was recruited after two cardinals who had been scheduled to speak, internationally-known theologian and author Cardinal Avery Dulles, SJ, and Cardinal Francis George, OMI, archbishop of Chicago, were called away by the pope to a consistory.

Both cardinals, however, had prepared video presentations. Cardinal George, on the topic “The Culture in Which we Evangelize,” talked about how faith transforms everything that is human, including culture.

“The culture in which we evangelize also is the object of our evangelizing efforts,” he said. “The culture in which we evangelize also needs to be evangelized because evangelizing means bringing people to faith in Jesus Christ, within His body, the Church.”

Faith and culture give people ideas of how to conduct themselves.

“Both culture and faith tell us how to behave and what to believe,” he said. “Both give us norms for acting and for thinking and for loving, bringing people, therefore, to know, love and accept Christ in the Church.”

Christianity is open to all, explained Cardinal Dulles, speaking of how a friendship with God is a call to service. Since Christ’s death and resurrection, there’s a new People of God, and “it is not a closed society,” he said.

“He wants this to take place through the mediation of those who already believe,” he said of sharing God’s word.

With all the religions out there, we should try to convert people to Christianity because the New Testament leaves no doubt as to that there’s only one God, one Jesus Christ, and that Jesus is the mediator between us and God, he said.

“God wants everyone to come to the truth and be saved,” he said.

The lineup of the two cardinals and Fr. Neuhaus, as well as a handful of other esteemed speakers on Catholic issues, was one thing that made the convocation attractive to Deacon Tom Gornick, director of evangelization and pastoral services for the Archdiocese of Portland. “I always want to hear what other parts of the country are doing,” he said.

Deacon Gornick said he found the continued affirmation that evangelization is our ecclesiastical mission inspiring. He said he finds that people are still trying to figure out what is the “right” way to evangelize people, although there really isn’t one.

“Only Jesus knew how to do that,” he said.

Don Turbitt, who does mission work in Eastern Europe, came to the conference from Rhode Island also, in part, to pick up other ideas for how to evangelize.

His ministry focuses on getting people to develop a personal relationship with Christ, he explained. Although meeting secular needs of people is important, he said, “sometimes … we forget as Catholics evangelization is first.”

Also looking for practical information to use in his ministry was Leo Rudegeair, of Ellicott City, Md., operations director of ChristLife, a Catholic evangelization ministry that helps lay Catholics learn how to share their faith.

“We’re always looking for more tools,” he said. “To have the opportunity to come to something like this is powerful,” he said.

Sr. Juana Maria, a Sister of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and Cecilia Sone, a nurse practitioner who teaches natural family planning, joked that they came to Michigan from Florida to see snow. But the real reason was to learn more of the New Evangelization, as the religious community’s apostolate is evangelizing around the Archdiocese of Miami.

Sone said she was learning some ideas on working with groups, outreach and how to focus on the needs of the community. Sr. Juana Maria summed up the weekend with the word “courage,” which she said was necessary for those going out in to the unknown and sharing the word of God.

Mike Horka, one of the younger faces in the crowd, is a campus minister at Schoolcraft College, graduate student at Assumption University in Windsor, and member of St. John Neumann in Canton Township. Although sharing God with others is the basis of evangelization, “it definitely is a challenge in our day,” he said.

He agreed with Fr. Neuhaus in that the center of evangelization should start in remembering that God is love. “Sharing love with people is what ultimately draws them to God’s love,” he said.