Catholic mission and evangelisation

Evangelisation

* Evangelisation is proclaiming the message of Christianity with the aim of bringing people into the Christian Church. People who do this are called missionaries

Missionaries

* Missionaries continue the apostolic mission, first given to the apostles by Jesus at the Great Commission (resurrection appearance): “Go and make disciples of all nations… teaching them to obey everything I have commanded” (Matthew’s Gospel).

Apostles missionary work

* Following Pentecost, the apostles began missionary work immediately. The Acts of the Apostles records how St Peter organised conversions throughout Palestine. St Paul founded Christian churches in Syria, Turkey, Greece, Rome. Christianity spread throughout the world as a result of the apostolic mission being fulfilled.

local missionary and evangelical work

* Local parishes evangelise through celebrating Mass, Christian festivals and offering sacraments. Parishes bring people into Church through baptisms
* Parishes provide discussion/prayer groups; people can learn more about their faith
* Local Catholic schools evangelise through teaching Catholic Christianity in Religious Education lessons, which accounts for at least 10% of the KS3 and KS4 curriculum.

natinonal missionary anf evangelical work

* The Alpha programme is run in churches throughout the UK and aims to introduce non-churchgoers to the basics of the Christian faith through talks/discussions.
* The CAFE (Catholic Faith and Evangelisation) team produce DVDs and teaching programmes about the faith that are used across the UK.
* Catholic newspapers are distributed across the UK to spread the word (e.g. The Tablet and the Universe).

Global missionary anf evangelical work

* The Vatican has a specific department that focuses on evangelism around the world called ‘The Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples’.
* The Vatican has its own radio station, TV station and the Pope tweets daily through his Twitter account (@Pontifex).
*   Catholic charities and organisations (e.g. CAFOD) live out the work of the Gospel in many countries around the world through helping those in need. Pope Francis supports this approach to evangelism: “It demands that the poor find the way to be poor no longer” (2014, Lenten message from the Vatican).

divergent beliefs about missionary and evangelical work

* Catholics and other Christians have different attitudes to evangelism in multi-faith countries (e.g. the UK). The world is now more multi-cultural due to globalisation.
* Catholics believe they should __proclaim__ the gospel message to others and live a good Christian life to set an example for others to follow, but do not actively seek to convert others; this can be regarded as discrimination against other faiths.
* Evangelical Protestants believe in __proselytisation__; they actively convert others to Christianity. Some use coercive, even aggressive, methods as they believe they are saving people if they convert to the Christian faith due to teachings of Jesus such as “no one comes to the Father except through me”, suggesting you have to be a Christian to spend eternal life in Heaven.

SOWAS

* Jesus final instruction in Matthew is to make desciples of all nations
* In Evangelii Gaudium Pope Francis says that Catholics are “ spirit filled evangelisers”