Proselytism is different from evangelization. Proselytism is what Jehovah’s Witnesses do on your doorstep before you slam the door.
Evangelization, announcing the Gospel, is entirely different, and the Pope tells us we have to do that every day.
” I spoke to him about EVANGELIZATION, and he stated emphatically that the Catholic Church cannot engage in PROSELYTISM”
Evangelization = Proselytism
Your statement is drawing a distinction between words that does not exist everywhere yet. For most people, Evangelization and Proselytism are the exact same things. Saying that they are different is a modern attempt to change the meaning of an old word by putting a slightly new nuance on the word--A nuance which that word did not originally have. It's the same tactic that progressives use to alter the original meaning of the plain text of the constitution. (I don't mean that you are progressive yourself, but the progressives do love this logical tactic which is a form of equivocation.)
By the way the Merriam Webster dicitionary defines these words to mean essentially the exact same thing, that is to attempt to convert someone to one's religion:
pros·e·lyt·ize [pros-uh-li-tahyz] Show IPA verb (used with object), verb (used without object), pros·e·lyt·ized, pros·e·lyt·iz·ing. to convert or attempt to convert as a proselyte; recruit.
e·van·ge·lize [ih-van-juh-lahyz] Show IPA verb, e·van·ge·lized, e·van·ge·liz·ing. verb (used with object) 1. to preach the gospel to. 2. to convert to Christianity.
I'll STILL need to hear what the POPE's definition is!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proselytism
Some Christians define "proselytism" more narrowly as the attempt to convert people from one Christian tradition to another; those who use the term in this way generally view the practice as illegitimate and in contrast to evangelism, which is converting non-Christians to Christianity. An Eastern Orthodox writer, Stephen Methodius Hayes has written: "If people talk about the need for evangelism, they meet with the response, 'the Orthodox church does not proselytize' as if evangelizing and proselytism were the same thing." However the boundary varies from group to group. For instance the Moscow Patriarchate has repeatedly strongly condemned what it describes as Catholic proselytism of Orthodox Christians within Russia and has therefore opposed a Catholic construction project in an area of Russia where the Catholic community is small. The Catholic Church claims that it is supporting the existing Catholic community within Russia and is not proselytizing.[6][7][8] Recently, the Balamand declaration on proselytism was released between the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Churches.
Groups noted for proselytism include:
So what was going on in the Acts of the Apostles?
Seems to me the new definition of evangelism would apply to a newspaper that prints the news but refuses to deliver the paper.
Proselyte is a transliteration from the word which appears twice in the New Testament and strictly means a person previously converted to Judaism, now converted to Christianity. That Christians didn’t have to pass through a ritual of proselytism to Judaism was settled in the Council of Jerusalem. So, Francis is correct that to proselyte doesn’t make any sense, if he’s thinking biblically.
I have no idea what he is really thinking.