The New Evangelization is the Responsibility of the Whole Church As Gabriel and Mary were ministers of the Good

News in their unique ways, so each and every Christian needs to do the same. Addressing group of US Bishops (Nov 26 ad limina ): [T]he seriousness of the challenges which the Church in America, under your leadership, is called to confront in the near future cannot be underestimated. The obstacles to Christian faith and practice raised by a secularized culture also affect the lives of believers, leading at times to that "quiet attrition" from the Church which you raised with me during my Pastoral Visit. Immersed in this culture, believers are daily beset by the objections, the troubling questions and the cynicism of a society which seems to have lost its roots, by a world in which the love of God has grown cold in so many hearts. Evangelization thus appears not simply a task to be undertaken ad extra; we ourselves are the first to need re-evangelization. As with all spiritual crises, whether of individuals or communities, we know that the ultimate answer can only be born of a searching, critical and ongoing self-assessment and conversion in the light of Christs truth. Only through such interior renewal will we be able to discern and meet the spiritual needs of our age with the ageless truth of the Gospel. [Foley of Philadelphia] The pope prayed that the cardinal's "lifelong commitment to the church's presence in the media will inspire others to take up this apostolate so essential to the proclamation of the Gospel and the progress of the new evangelization." Bishop Rhoades has always taken this task of his very seriously. He mentioned in the Today's Catholic last year that he doesn't flinch from responding immediately that the work of the new evangelization is a top priority for him. This is why, starting late lastnight and continuing 31st The diocese has funded a media campaign of wonderfully produced television commercials from the Catholics Come Home company: www.catholicscomehomefwsb.orgwww.catholicscomehomefwsb.org . This is an attempt to reach out to those who as the Holy Father says are beset by a onceChristian society that has lost its roots and, as a result, may have wandered from their practice of the faith. Go on the website and you will see a coordinated effort by the diocese to address the many issues that may have caused (or continue to cause) a Catholic to be distant from the faith of our fathers. Our parish has also begun its part of this task. We have developed a new card to go in the pews that will show our welcome to new parishioners. Our hospitality

ministers have been doing this important work for years, and now we are expanding our efforts. Our bulletins will continue to include a focus on working with and drawing in those Catholics who have not been with us or the Church for some amount of time. But the diocese will not succeed in its efforts, the parish will not succeed in its efforts, and our Holy Father Pope Benedict's urgings to our bishops will be in vain, unless we ourselves, each of us individually, do our part in this work of the New Evangelization. This is where our Gospel can help us: As Gabriel and Mary were ministers of the Good News in their unique ways, so each and every Christian needs to do the same. Mary, first, was receptive to the Gospel. She welcomed it, even with the challenges it forced upon her future. Will we be receptive and welcoming to the salvation God wishes to bring us in those faces we have never seen before, who may even be sitting in my seat next week? A sour first impression could be all it takes for the small seed of God's grace to be snatched away from the vulnerable soul in the weeks and months ahead. Secondly, the angel Gabriel was the other side of welcoming: he was inviting. He reached out with the Gospel as God's messenger. He shows us two main helps to spreading the Gospel: first, to drive out fear in the heart of the recipient. When Mary is disturbed, he comforts her. Will we help to pave a way for the Gospel in those around us by destroying the fears that the evil one has placed in their way? (remember, the website addresses these issues with short video explanations). The other help to spreading the Gospel is to foster faith, both by testimony and by declaration. Testimony points to how God's grace has worked in your life or the lives of others (as Gabriel mentioned Elizabeth's miraculous pregnancy), whereas declaration courageously announces the Good News (as Gabriel noted: Nothing will be impossible for God.) If we can destroy fears and foster faith in others, we can be a bridge to their return to communion with God. But lest we think it's all about what we say, let us remember the words of Paul VI: Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses. (Evangelii Nuntiandi 41:
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_p-vi_exh_19751208_evangeliinuntiandi_en.htmlhttp://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/apost_exhortations/documen

ts/hf_p-vi_exh_19751208_evangelii-nuntiandi_en.html ) We must be authentic witnesses of the Gospel, bearers of joy of p and of

communion. Indeed, this is why we are members of the church and wish to bring others to be with us: without our sacraments, especially our daily bread which is God Himself, what would we have? What would we be?