Why is it described as “New Evangelization” that leads to “Porta Fidei?”
When Christ begun His public ministery His preaching was: “Repent, believe.” Another word for ‘repent’ is repentance or more completely ‘a life of repentance.’ This way of life was lived by Christ during His 30 years of hidden life. After His hidden life He showed signs of Faith (though Christ had this virtue from the beginning but we like to show how Christ was instructing us on what steps to take that leads to Faith.) This hidden life was followed by His sojourn in the dessert where He overcome all the temptations of Satan…..this is the sign of Faith. So Christ demonstrated to us through His 30 years of hidden life the ‘life of repentance’ that leads to the ‘door of Faith.’
The apostles, too, lived their lives of repentance when they were followers of St. John the Baptist. John the Baptist’s preaching was ‘Repentance’ as taught in the Old Testament. After their repentance, Christ called the apostles to follow Him. Their ability to leave all things and follow Christ showed they had Faith. Faith enabled them to leave all things to follow Christ. Christ gave them first the virtue of Faith that enabled them to leave all things.
So the words of Christ “Repent, believe” is Pope Benedict’s Pontifical call to the Church during this “year of Faith.’ The Church is calling all bishops and priests to evangelize themselves by ‘repenting and believing’ and then evangelize the rest of the Catholic World by calling them to a life of ‘repentance’ that leads to the ‘door of Faith’. Pope Benedict’s ‘New Evangelization’ corresponds to Christ’s “Repent” and the Pope’s ‘porta fidei’ corresponds to Christ’s ‘Believe.” So far, there is nothing new in what the Holy Father had said. And He mentioned the fact that there was nothing really new here. It is the same classical, traditional evangelization mentioned by Christ in the last chapter of the Gospel of Matthew.
So what is NEW in the ‘new evangelization?’ Nothing! Except that IT was forgotten for the last 400 years up to the present and if priests are reminded of it they will ALL find it so new. So we might as well call it ‘NEW.’
If we study all the addresses of the Pope on the ‘New Evangelization”, which we shall review, it will be very clear that there is nothing new. It is exactly the same ‘evangelization’ instructed by Christ to the first Apostles, it is the same one used by the Fathers of the Church, it has been the same one used by the Catholic Church from 60 AD up to the 1500 AD but suddenly forgotten after the Council of Trent up to the present. Nobody today remembers how it was before that is why the Pope just allowed himself to fall into calling it ‘NEW.’
Our problem is that the ‘Lineamenta’ and ‘Instrumentum laboris’ did not follow the schema already made by the Pope which is according to the teachings of Divine Revelation and expanded by the Fathers of the Church. The two documents omitted the first two steps enumerated by the Holy Father. If a preacher followed the Liturgical calendar he would be on track if they wanted to prepare their parishioners ahead of the ‘Year of Faith.” The bishops of China had begun preparing their faithful by praying the rosary and by studying the Catechism of the Catholic Church….they are on track. But a bishop-theologian gave a talk on TV to a huge audience on the “New Evangelization” and said that the first step was to be docile to the Holy Spirit. The way he described it he was explaining the third step of Pope Benedict’s schema. But he said it was the first step omitting the first two steps. The new Bishop of Scotland addressed his new diocese with the same message: that in the “new Evangelization” the first step is ‘encounter with the person of Christ.” This is not the first step. It is the third step in Pope Benedict’s schema. The first two steps were omitted. Without the first two steps no one can reach the third or fourth step.
The schema in the ‘Lineamenta’ and ‘instrumentum laboris’ has not yet been imposed. It can still be modified or changed during the Bishop’s Synod this October. But most bishops are already using it with it’s important omissions….omissions that will prevent the faithful from reaching the ‘Porta Fidei.’
A cardinal who just passed away described the Church as several hundred years old and tired. He was looking at the wrong church. He was looking at a cloned Church who like the cloned sheep suddenly grew very old and died. That was not the Church. The Church is young and alive. She is growing slowly to maturity and, so, a few minor improvement, fruit of the development of Christian Doctrine as penned by Blessed John Cardinal Newman is expected. This is what is ‘new.’ It is the OLD that has grown slightly to maturity and so slightly different but essentially the same. …..the same tree but slightly bigger and more perfect…….as expected in a living Church.