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On the Need for Curiosity in Evangelization (Part Two) Msgr. Charles Pope • March 13, 2017 • This is part two of an article on curiosity. We are considering the following four aspects: I. Premises Related to Curiosity II. Problems Regarding Curiosity III. Pictures Reinforcing Curiosity IV. Personal Requirement of CuriosityPlease see yesterday’s post for an introduction to the topic and a discussion of the first two items. In today’s post, we consider the third and fourth. III. Pictures Reinforcing Curiosity – We have already reflected a good deal on this aspect in the introduction. Jesus generated a lot...

On the Need for Curiosity in Evangelization (Part One) Msgr. Charles Pope • March 12, 2017 • In the world of evangelization, the concept of curiosity is almost never discussed. If anything, evangelizers are encouraged to quickly satisfy any curiosity by supplying all sorts of answers to questions that arise about the faith. Apologetical tracts, books, catechisms, and videos abound. Curiosity, it would seem, is something to be quashed or at least overcome quickly. Allowing a person to wonder why for any length of time seems almost dangerous, especially in a “search-engine” culture. Quick answers, please!How different this is...

Traveling the Path to CatholicismFr. William Saunders Q: Recently I saw a picture showing the Rite of Election at the cathedral. Would you please explain more about the Rite of Election and RCIA? When I was growing up, we did not have such a program.The Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) is a formal program of catechetical instruction, ascetical practice (prayer and spirituality), and liturgies whereby adults — called catechumens — are formally admitted into the Church and receive the sacraments of initiation — baptism, confirmation, and holy Eucharist. (The sacrament of penance is received later since baptism washes...

Why Do So Many Miss Experiencing Jesus in Our Parishes and How Can We Change This? Msgr. Charles Pope • November 9, 2016 • We were blessed this past weekend to have Sherry Weddell, author of Forming Intentional Disciples, visit the Archdiocese of Washington and speak to priests and lay leaders. Her work is a great blessing to the Church in calling us back to “job one,” which is to make disciples. In Catholic parishes evangelization is too often relegated to committees or tossed into the “we’ll get to that next year” file. Weddell’s mission is to create greater...

To Make a Long Story Short – A Homily for the 31st Sunday of the Year Msgr. Charles Pope • October 29, 2016 • The Gospel today features the familiar and endearing story of Zacchaeus, a man too short to see Jesus, but who climbs a tree (of the cross), encounters Him, and is changed.The danger with familiar stories is that because they are familiar and we can easily miss their remarkable qualities. Perhaps it is well that we look at today’s Gospel anew, searching for the symbolic in the ordinary details. I. Shortsighted Sinner – Zacchaeus is physically...

Within Our Darkest Night, You Kindle a Fire That Never Dies Away Msgr. Charles Pope • October 24, 2016 • An old song from the Taizé Community says, “Within our darkest night [, Lord], you kindle a fire that never dies away, that never dies away.” Something of this “light in darkness” has come to me in the deep winter of moral collapse that is present-day America. For this I can only thank the Lord and marvel at His paradoxical providence.In my parish, the darkness was made very local and very real when Planned Parenthood announced the opening of...

Practical Principles for Proclaiming the Kingdom Msgr. Charles Pope • July 2, 2016 • In the Gospel today, Jesus gives a number of practical principles for those who would proclaim the Kingdom. Let’s look at each of them in turn. I. Serious – The text says, At that time the Lord appointed seventy-two others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”The Lord...

July 3, 2016 Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Is 66:10-14c Thus says the LORD:Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad because of her,all you who love her;exult, exult with her,all you who were mourning over her!Oh, that you may suck fullyof the milk of her comfort,that you may nurse with delightat her abundant breasts!For thus says the LORD:Lo, I will spread prosperity over Jerusalem like a river,and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing torrent.As nurslings, you shall be carried in her arms,and fondled in her lap;as a mother comforts her child,so will I comfort you;in Jerusalem...

Hardened Hearts Question: Recently in OSV Newsweekly, there was a wonderful column about the Mass by Father Robert Hater. If everybody only understood what Mass was really about, there would not be a dry eye in the house. Is there a plan in the Church to incorporate this kind of re-education in homilies, etc.?— Josie Rodriguez, St. Petersburg, Florida Answer: Father’s column was wonderful indeed. But, as I am sure Father Hater would agree, education is only part of the solution. In the modern world, we tend to think that education is the main answer to most things. To be...

Why the New Evangelization Is Necessary, as Seen in a Cartoon Msgr. Charles Pope • April 29, 2016 • The animated short video below is a humorous reminder that when technology changes so rapidly, some of us can easily get left behind.In it, there is also something of an admonition to the Church, that we not act too much like the man in the video. 1. It would seem that the old man has been sheltered away in his apartment for too long while the world has passed him by. We in the Church also have been hunkered down...

Pope Francis centered his Angelus address this Sunday on what it means to evangelize the poor, and how this is the mission of the Church. "Evangelize the poor: this is the mission of Jesus; this is also the mission of the Church, and of all the baptized in the Church," the Pope said Jan. 24 to the crowds in Saint Peter's Square. "To be a Christian and to be a missionary is the same thing." "What does it mean to evangelize the poor? It means to be close to them, to serve them, to free them from oppression, and all...

Trust me, I know that it is hard to write accurate, easy-to-read articles about complicated Vatican theological documents. This is especially true when dealing with materials focusing on very nuanced issues that continue to cause behind-the-scenes debates among Catholics. It's even harder to write informative, catchy and, yes, accurate headlines for these kinds of stories. This brings me to a recent New York Times report that ran with this headline: "Vatican Says Catholics Should Not Try to Convert Jews." The problem with that headline is that it is simplistic to the point of being inaccurate -- that is, if the...

Five Qualities Necessary for an Evangelizer – from St. Paul Msgr. Charles Pope • September 8, 2015 • St. Paul describes a kind of modus vivendi (a way of living) for himself and for us; the passage was read at Mass on Monday. It has a dynamic urgency about it that we ought not to overlook.It is Christ whom we proclaim, admonishing everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. For this I labor and struggle, in accord with the exercise of his power working within me (Col 1:28-29).As with many biblical texts,...

Five Fundamental Freedoms for the Christian Evangelizer Sarah Yaklic • July 11, 2015 One of the great obstacles to effectively evangelizing is that most Christians lack the requisite freedom and simplicity of life to carry forth the task consistently and coherently. In today’s gospel, the Lord offers some counsel on what is required to evangelize effectively.As we read a gospel like this, it is tempting to think that it speaks only of specialists such as missionaries, religious, priests, or deacons. But such a presumption forgets that everyone is called to evangelize: clergy to people, parents to children, elders to youngsters,...

 If You Can Use Anything Lord, You Can Use Me – Homily for the 11th Sunday of the Year Msgr. Charles Pope • June 13, 2015The readings today speak of God’s providence, which is often displayed in humble, hidden, and mysterious ways. While it is true that God sometimes works in overpowering ways, His more common method seems to be to use the humble and even unlikely things of the created order to accomplish His goals.For us who are disciples, there are three related teachings that speak of how God will make use of us and of others. It...

If Samuel Adams were to time-travel and suddenly appear on Purchase Street in Boston, a block or two from South Station, he wouldn’t recognize much of his old city.  His church however, is still there (the Old South Congregational Church, now known as the Old South Meeting House, one of the birthplaces of the American Revolution). When Adams was in Boston, it was a Christian city.  His alma mater, Harvard College, trained mainly ministers of the Gospel—but also quite a few politicians like himself.  Adams would not recognize Boston in any sense as a spiritual place these days.  The shells...

THE BOOK As human beings we are constantly engaging and disengaging in everything we do. We engage and disengage at work, in marriage, as parents, in our quest for health and well-being, in personal finances, environmentally, politically, and, of course, we engage or disengage spiritually. If you walk into any Catholic church next Sunday and look around, you will discover that some people are highly engaged, others are massively disengaged, and the majority are somewhere in between. Why? What is the difference between highly engaged Catholics and disengaged Catholics? Answering this question is essential to the future of the Catholic...

The Pope to members of the Neocatechumenal Way on the “missio ad gentes”: take to the peripheries of the world the message the God loves humanity and that love is possible Vatican City, 6 March 2015 (VIS) – This morning in the Paul VI Hall Pope Francis received in audience seven thousand members of the Neocatechumenal Way, including two hundred families who will shortly depart on the “missio ad gentes”. “The task of the Pope is to confirm brothers in the faith”, said the Holy Father. “You too, with this gesture, have asked Peter's Successor to confirm your calling, to...

There’s a scene in Robert Duvall’s film The Apostle where the renegade evangelist, Sonny Dewey, comes upon a boat blessing ceremony on the river. “You do it your way, I’ll do it mine,” Sonny allows, acknowledging the efforts of the presiding priest, “but we get it done, don’t we?”

There is no question that something about Pope Francis catches the imagination of those who might otherwise have nothing to do with the Catholic Church. From the displays of humility that splash across the news to the refusal to live in the apostolic palace or follow time-honored papal traditions to the endless string of off-the-cuff comments signaling a change in rigid doctrinal certainty, Pope Francis marches to the beat of his own drum. And the song it’s playing is ¡Hagan lío! – “Make a mess.” Amidst controversial papal comments this week that “All Christians and men of good will are...