Evangelists call for revitalized church

Americans change their favorite television shows, their hairstyle, their spouses - and recently, their religion. According to a study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 44 percent of American adults have left the religious denomination in which they were raised in favor of another denomination, another faith, or no faith, and 10 percent of Catholics have left the church.

Allan Figueroa Deck, S.J., executive director of the Office for Cultural Diversity in the Catholic Church in the United States, thinks that the answer to retaining and recruiting members of the church might lie in evangelization. In last night's lecture, "The Evangelizing Parish: Rhetoric or Reality," Deck spoke about the future of the Catholic Church and how it can fulfill its mission in a modern world. The lecture was sponsored by the Institute for Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry and the Church in the 21st Century Center.

Deck said that the mission has become obscured in the United States, as Catholics sometimes lose sight of the fact that the purpose of the parish extends beyond just maintaining itself and must include an aspect of evangelization, or proclaiming one's faith.

"What I'm talking about is prospective, kind of Pollyana-ish. I'm talking fundamentally about a vision of the church," Deck said. "The best way to understand it is, 'the mission has a church' not 'the church has a mission.'"

The Catholic parish in America, Deck said, tends to approach faith and justice from a rational ideological point of view, rather than one explicitly grounded in faith. The current and future movement of the church calls for increased affectivity and emotion, Deck said, something which has been missing in many parishes.

"We have a vision of the church in the parish that seems to turn what is an instrument into an end," Deck said. "By and large, it's a more serene and sedate vision of parishes."

"They do a lot of good things, but evangelizing isn't one of their strong points."

The problem, Deck said, is partially generational. Evangelization has become a term some Catholics are uncomfortable with, as they associate it with Protestantism. In some ways, the true meaning of the term has been lost, Deck said. An increased focus on interfaith dialogue and respect for other religions has also made some Catholics feel as if speaking up about their faith is taboo, Deck said.

"Evangelization isn't only about dialogue, it's about asserting what we believe. It's being up front, regarding the bottom line about what it is we believe as Catholics," Deck said.

Reaching Catholics through traditional means has become more difficult in a secular world where people believe and want different things from their religion. Many of those who are leaving the church are people of European descent who were raised in the Catholic faith but no longer feel a connection with the church, Deck explained.

"We wouldn't abandon the bottom line of what we believe [when evangelizing], but we would address what is bugging these 'recovering Catholics.' The majority is going off into this vague, 'I'm into spirituality,' or just 'living the good life,'" Deck said. "Then the challenge of an evangelical church is, do we have anything to say to these people who are lost in secular pursuit?"

Part of the answer for revitalizing the church might lie in the changing face of its members. While many Americans have left the Catholic Church, immigrants from Latin America, Africa, and other parts of the world have been filling American parishes.

Identifying and reaching this new culture within the church, therefore, is key to understanding the church's mission, Deck said.

"The target and the outcome of the church's pursuit of its identity is always cultural," Deck said. "It's impossible for the church to identify its mission unless it is aware of its culture, and culture is that place of who people are and how they are who they are."

This may lead parishes to focus specifically on immigrant groups within the church, and on serving both their spiritual and material needs. Masses held in the native tongue of the parishioners could help relieve anxiety and strengthen the parish, and allow members to pray in the language with which they are more comfortable, Deck said. The mission of the parish should extend beyond helping immigrants assimilate and could impact the United States as a whole.

"The blessings of the people coming into the country could affect the tone and texture of Americans in the future. It all depends on whether or not values they bring will be nurtured and respected," Deck said.

This revitalization of the Catholic Church and increased focus on evangelization could lie in small movements such as marriage encounters and Opus Dei, as well as the changing culture of the church, Deck said.

"Most of us know in the modern world that it's not a question of moving back. We're always moving forward, so it's about bringing the tradition along with us," Deck said.

"And we start to see, 'you know what? We've only barely begun the transformation.'"