Urban Legends & the Great Commission

There's a lot of wild weaving together of unverified statistics from a very specific situation with the Catholic world's discovery of Fr. Zacharias and the result is a major urban legend in the making.

The urban legend going round: That 6 million Muslims become Christians every year and that the hard-hitting TV broadcasts of Fr. Zacharias, a maverick Coptic priest, is responsible for large portions of those conversions.

I'm sorry, folks, but this is a scenario without any basis in fact.

First of all - the 6 million figure. Came from a interview on Al Jazeera by a Muslim cleric who asserted that there were 6 million conversions from Islam to Christianity in Africa every year.

There has never been any indication where this suspiciously round number came from - no studies, nothing. Just an assertion by one man a couple years ago on an Arabic language broadcast that is now being bandied about all over the world as though we knew it were true. And the idea that this was true of Africa alone has been conveniently dropped so now it is assumed to be a global figure.

The only people doing careful research in this area in the world are evangelicals and none of the major researchers have ever said anything of the kind. They note very carefully that there are really significant breakthroughs in large parts of the world - but they are inevitably the result of years or decades of sustained effort. For instance, a growth of 17,000 over a period of 15 years where no native Christians have ever existed before - that sort of thing.

No one is talking about 6 million new Muslim background Christians every year - and believe me, if growth at that level was taking place, evangelical researchers would be talking about it in detail - where, what people groups, and why!

What has happened - over the period of a century - is the Christianization of Africa. But most of the conversion to Christianity in Africa has been by members of African traditional religions - not by Muslims who live mostly in the north.

Here are some solid figures from the World Christian Database:

1900: 8.7 million Christians in Africa or 8 % of the total population

2000: 360 million Christians in Africa or 45% of the total population

2025 estimate: 600 million Christians in Africa or 47% of the total population

By 2025, Africa will be on the verge of becoming a majority Christian continent. There will be more Christians in Africa than in Europe and two and a half times more Christians in Africa than in North America. Only Latin American Christianity will be slightly larger.

Even if 6 million Muslims in the world did become Christian this year, it would only represent 4/10ths of 1 % of a total Muslim population of 1,412,000,000.

Oh, and the story circulating that the world wide Islamic population just passed the number of Catholics? Talk about old news! That happened back in the mid 90's without any Catholic comment that I could see. Some evangelical researchers noticed. I knew. But now what those interested in missions have known for years has been discovered suddenly by the media and turned into new news.

Just like Fr. Zacharias has suddenly been "discovered". Fr. Zacharias has also been around a long time. They were talking about him when I was an undergrad - although he was still in Egypt, I believe.

Here's a little data about Fr. Zacharias from an obvious supporter:

Father Boutros is an Egyptian Coptic priest who has peacefully inspired about 500 Egyptian Muslims to convert to Christianity, something considered a crime punishable by death in the Muslim world. For carrying out those conversions, he was imprisoned twice while he was living in Egypt in the early 1980’s and is now living in exile outside of the country.

Note: 500. Not 6 million.

Helping 500 Egyptian Muslims become Christian is a staggering thing. But apparently not nearly staggering enough to satisfy our newly awakened appetite for Muslim conversions.

To attribute, in the complete absence of any data, large portions of this new spiritual awakening in the Muslim world to one man's efforts is simply absurd. One man single-handedly turning the direction of a global-circling community of 1.4 billion people who speak hundreds of different languages through his in-your-face, detailed Arabic language critiques of specific Quranic passages that are available only to those who have access to certain TV broadcasts? Have we lost all sense of how small the target audience for that sort of programming is? This is an apologist's fantasy.

Not to mention that the majority of Muslims in the world don't speak Arabic.

The change we are seeing is the fruit of millions of Christians praying for (see my piece on the Praying Through the Window campaigns of the 90's There is also a related initiative: 30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim world has been held every year during Ramadan for years) and tens of thousands of mission-minded Christians working all over the Muslim world for the past 40 years.

It is these evangelizers - almost all of whom are lay - living in Muslim communities, loving their neighbors, teaching school, healing the sick, founding and running businesses, planting thousands of evangelizing small Christian communities in hundreds of different language groups and situations, writing books, making radio broadcasts, building relationships, trust, and credibility with Muslims they actually know personally - who have been used by God to turn the tide. Fr. Zacahrias is one rather loud horn in a vast symphony orchestra - and he isn't even first chair.

Remember that study that Dudley Woodbury did about why Muslims become Christian? Of the 5 primary reasons that 750 MBBs gave - the central theme was love. God's love reflected consistently in the lives of Christians they knew. Being exposed to the love of Christ through the gospels.

Not media, Not TV. Not apologetics. Love. From tens of thousands of expat missionaries and hundreds of thousands of national Christians who are "Great commission" Christians.

Because one of the really significant changes over the past century is the number of Christians who David Barrett calls "Great Commission Christians" - Christians for whom the proclamation of Christ is central to the practice of their faith.

In 1900, only about 14% of Christians in the world could be called "Great Commission" Christians. Today, 31% of Christians on the planet are. 690 mllion according to 2008 Status of Global Mission.

The fact that the percentage of the Christians population who grasp that the primary mission of the church is to proclaim Christ has more than doubled in the 20th century had made all the difference.

690 million Christians committed to loving the world to Christ. Of which Fr. Zacharias is one.

How about you?

Snow & Divine Mercy

Seattle. The end of March. The second Sunday of Easter

It snowed when I arrived. It snowed last night. It snowed tonight. It is snowing now. Huge sloppy flakes.

I have never seen anything like it. In Seattle anyway.

Christian "Hot Spots"

Christian "hot spots". The ten countries where Christianity is growing most remarkably or fastest. (Note: in all these countries, Christianity is still a minority. Sometime a tiny minority. We have to jettison our big battalion mindset to grasp the significance of these relatively small numbers. They all represent the growing edge of Christendom.) I like the fact that the author often includes specific figures for Catholics.

According to Justin Long, a missionary researcher, they are:

1. Nepal
2. China
3. Burkino Faso
4. Singapore
5. India
6. Vietnam
7. Benin
8. Russia
9. Bangladesh
10. South Korea

Notice 7 of the 10 are in Asia. Where Christians are about to outnumber Buddhists for the first time.

The whole article is relatively short and worth a read.

I Can Dream, Can't I?

Off to Seattle this morning till Tuesday to train some folks to do gifts interviews. Unbelievably, it is snowing there. It never snows past the first week of March in Seattle! (Here in Colorado we expect it to snow in March but what I'm not used to is what we got right now - freezing rain? Must bundle up. I am so used to Colorado's low humidity and sunshine that 36 and raining in Seattle feels much colder and bleaker than 20 here.

March is going out like a lion. I had hoped to see the glorious cherry blossoms on the UW campus (usually at their height on April 1). Hope I still can. Hope they still look like this:



Also doing a radio interview, then back Tuesday night for two days. Cramming in a Legatus talk and few other big things with Fr. Mike (who is also in town for a week before jetting off for his Easter missions.) and then off again to speak at the Evangelical Catholic Institiute in Madison, WI.

And I'm still not done with several major project overdue or due next week. So blogging from me will be sporadic at best this next week.

But after April 6, watch out. I'm home for 2 months in a row.

April being the time to turn one's thought to gardening in the high country. Nine of the 200 bulbs I planted last fall poking their heads above ground so far.

Muslim Background Christian in Azerbaijan: Growing and Suffering

One face of the Muslim Background "new Christian" issue - in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan is a small country between Russia and Iran where Islam is a dominant force. Just 17 years ago, there was no church in Azerbaijan. Now, there are more than 18,000 Christians-all of whom are Muslim-background believers.

One courageous church leader now urgently needs our prayers.

When Zaur Balaev gave his life to Jesus in 1992, he was the very first convert in the rural village of Aliabad to turn from Islam to follow Christ. And within a year he began a house church and started leading his neighbors to Christ. Zaur felt called by God to become a pastor, so he attended Bible college and became the first pastor in the Zaqatala region. He then built a small church building in his front yard and started holding two services a week attended by some 50 church members, all between the ages of 20 and 35. But the government would not recognize his church.

And the persecution began. “We’ve asked many times for registration since 1993 but we keep getting denied,” Pastor Zaur explained. “This means we can’t openly talk about our faith and we can’t share Christian literature with people. The local government, the police and the KGB all pressure us.” Pastor Zaur and ten of his church members lost their jobs because of their faith. And a new business that Pastor Zaur has been trying to open for three years has been consistently opposed by officials.“Even when I do exactly what they say, they always find something else wrong,” said Pastor Zaur. “The KGB threatened me saying, ‘We can find something wrong in your life and throw you in jail.’ It’s a constant pressure on me.”Just over a year ago Pastor Zaur pleaded, “Please pray for me. I believe in prayer and if we pray together, God will help.” But when Pastor Zaur shared these words, no one could have known just how much he would need prayer in the days ahead.

Jailed on False Charges

In May 2007, Pastor Zaur was detained by police and in August—despite the absence of evidence—he was sentenced to two years in prison for “violence against a state representative when carrying out official duties.” Pastor Zaur has been jailed in terrible conditions in a cell known as the “frog pool” which has no proper toilet or ventilation. Since his detention, Zaur has suffered two heart attacks and is experiencing kidney pain.

First Generation Church Under Fire

The young church in Azerbaijan is also in need of your prayers. It has only existed since 1990 and is made up entirely of Muslim-background believers. Although Azerbaijan is officially a secular state with religious freedom, Muslims are the dominant force in the government. Christianity is viewed as a threat to the country, and Christians are portrayed as traitors and criminals—often on national television.The government pressures converts by using surveillance, interrogation, arrest, harassment, media attacks and forcing believers out of their jobs. They are closely monitored by the police, KGB and local Islamic authorities. Indirect pressure is also used on the converts’ relatives and employers to try and coerce Christians to return to Islam. This pressure stirs up anti-Christian sentiment resulting in social ostracism and discrimination. It is almost impossible for churches to be granted official registration, so most churches operate illegally. It’s equally difficult to receive authorization for the import or publication of Bibles and Christian literature.

Young and Vulnerable

The church is at a critical stage; it’s a first generation church that is young and vulnerable… experiencing strong opposition from Islam and local authorities without the spiritual and material resources it needs.

Please pray for our very dangerous and secretive work with our Muslim-background brothers and sisters in Azerbaijan.
And please pray for Pastor Zaur and his family during this extremely difficult time.

Via Persecuted-Church

Novena to John Paul II

Here's a lovely idea from Chris, a junior at Notre Dame

A Novena to John Paul II for the New Evangelization that starts on March 25 and runs through April 2, the date of his death - and as Christ points out, the presumed date of his future feast day.

Day 1 starts here. Chris is posting new installments each day.

Check it out.

The Grand Mufti on Freedom of Conscience in Islam

Swirling hardly begins to describe the internet chatter about the whole topic of Muslims converting to Christianity. One topic that is discussed alot is whether or not the Grand Mufti of Egypt did state that a Muslim can choose a religion other than Islam?

So here's some information about the man himself and the text of the original essay in its original context.

The man:

Since 2003, Dr. Ali Gomaa has served as the Grand Mufti of the Arab Republic of Egypt, a position of religious authority second only to the Sheikh al-Azhar. As an Egyptian native and one of Islam’s most respected scholars of Islamic law, Dr. Ali Gomaa oversees Dar al-Ifta, Egypt’s highest body for delivering opinions on religious law. Prior to his appointment as Grand Mufti, Dr. Gomaa served as a Professor of Jurisprudence at al-Azhar University, where he specialized in usul al-fiqh, the science of religious law. There, he published over 25 books on various topics in Islam. He has also issued a number fatwas during his tenure on topics ranging from gender equality to democracy. The Grand Mufti sets himself apart from peers by having earned his first academic agree, a B.A. in commerce, from a secular institution. In addition to regular media appearances on Egyptian television, the Grand Mufti has been especially vocal in reaching out to non-Muslim media outlets as a means of promoting Islamic institutions in the non-Muslim world. Western media outlets have heralded Gomaa’s approach to Islam as anti-extremist and aware of modern realities.

The context:

This Washington Post forum - July 21, 2007

The relevant text of the Grand Mufti's essay:

Freedom of Religion in Islam

The essential question before us is can a person who is Muslim choose a religion other than Islam? The answer is yes, they can, because the Quran says, “Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion,” [Quran, 109:6], and, “Whosoever will, let him believe, and whosoever will, let him disbelieve,” [Quran, 18:29], and, “There is no compulsion in religion. The right direction is distinct from error,” [Quran, 2:256].

These verses from the Quran discuss a freedom that God affords all people. But from a religious perspective, the act of abandoning one’s religion is a sin punishable by God on the Day of Judgment. If the case in question is one of merely rejecting faith, then there is no worldly punishment. If, however, the crime of undermining the foundations of the society is added to the sin of apostasy, then the case must be referred to a judicial system whose role is to protect the integrity of the society. Otherwise, the matter is left until the Day of Judgment, and it is not to be dealt with in the life of this world. It is an issue of conscience, and it is between the individual and God. In the life of this world, “There is no compulsion in religion,” in the life of this world, “Unto you your religion and unto me my religion,” and in the life of this world, “He who wills believes and he who wills disbelieves,” while bearing in mind that God will punish this sin on the Day of Judgment, unless it is combined with an attempt to undermine the stability of the society, in which case it is the society that holds them to account, not Islam.


The summary:

So freedom of conscience in this lifetime (It's not illegal) and punishment in the future life (its still a sin).

The caveat: Is this conversion undermining the foundations of the society? If so, it then becomes a matter for the state.

This is very important since it reflects creeping recognition of the rights of individual conscience at some of the highest levels of Islam. Christians in the aftermath of the Reformation also wrestled with the issue of freedom of religion vs."the foundations of society" - because just like many Muslims today, earlier generations of Christians found it difficult to imagine a stable society that was not united religiously.

Of course, there is always the cultural kicker.

Three weeks after the Mufti wrote those words, the International Herald Tribune carried this story of a real life former Muslim in Egypt who was trying to change his religion on his identity card so that his unborn child could be officially raised as a Christian, marry as a Christian, etc. since in Egypt the official religion of the father automatically becomes the religion of the son. (Consider how American assumptions that healthy adults reconsider and re-choose their religious identity, if any, after they are grown - per the Pew Survey - is dramatically at odds with Egyptian practice.)

The problem is that 25 year old Mohammed Hegazy was the first MBB to attempt to change his legal identity in Egypt and a huge storm developed.

An Islamist cleric has vowed to seek Mohammed Hegazy's execution as an apostate, his family has shunned him, and Hegazy raised a storm of controversy when pictures of him posing for journalists with a poster of the Virgin Mary were published in the newspapers.

Hegazy said he received death threats by phone before he went into hiding, in an apartment bare of furniture where he lives with his wife, who is also a convert from Islam and is four months pregnant. He would not say where the apartment was located.

"I know there are fatwas (religious edicts) to shed my blood, but I will not give up and I will not leave the country," Hegazy said.

There is no law on the books in Egypt against converting from Islam to Christianity, but in this case tradition trumps the law. Under a widespread interpretation of Islamic law, converting from Islam is apostasy and is punishable by death — though killings are rare and the state has never ordered or carried out an execution.

Most Muslims who convert usually practice their new religion quietly, seeking to avoid attention, or flee the country to the West. In Egypt, at the very least they face ostracism by their families, but if their conversion becomes known they can receive death threats from militants, or harassment by police, who use laws against "insulting religion" or "disturbing public order" as a pretext to target them.

The overwhelming taboo against conversion has made even trying to get official recognition unthinkable, leaving it unknown if a court would accept it. Christians who become Muslims are able to get their new religion entered on their ID and face little trouble from officials — though they too are usually thrown out by their families.

So much more powerful than the law is entrenched culture and taboo. And interestingly, it doesn't just cut one way, While Christians who become Muslim get little flak from officials, Egyptian Christian families also tend to regard conversion as an unforgivable betrayal and throw the defiant child out.

Cultural norms that transcend law and religion?

Christians in the Muslim World

According to the World Christian Database, here are the approximate numbers of Christians in areas of the world that are majority Muslim as of 2005:

In Western Asia (or what most of us would think of as “the middle east”:

There are 13 million Christians or 6% of a total population of 214 million (189 million Muslims).

4 million are Catholic, 8 million are Orthodox. The majority of the rest of the Christian population (700,000) are Independents. (For more on Independent Christianity, go here)


In North Africa (which includes Egypt)

There are 17 million Christians or 9% of the total population of 191 million (167 million Muslims)

4 million are Catholic, 10 million are Orthodox. 500,000 are historic Protestants.


In western Africa (which would include Nigeria and Senegal):

There are 93 million Christians or 35% of the total population of 264 million. (122 million Muslims, 47 million traditional religionists).

32 million are Catholic, 33 million are Independents, 30.5 million are historic Protestants.


In south central Asia (which includes Iran, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan who are overwhelmingly Muslim, but also India, the center of Hinduism)

76.5 million Christians or 4.75% of the overall population of 1.6 billion. (555 million Muslims, 851 million Hindus)

23 million are Catholic, 30 million are Independents. 22 million are historic Protestants, 5.5 million are Orthodox.


Indonesia (the largest majority Muslim country in the world):

29 million Christians or 13% of the total population of 223 million. (125 million Muslims)

6.5 million are Catholic. 14 million are historic Protestants. 8 million are Independents.


So we end up with a rough figure of 229 million Christians in these 5 areas immersed in a sea of 2.5 billion people: 1.28 billion Muslims and 851 million Hindus – and various other smaller religious traditions.

Overall Christians make up 9% of the population in the 5 areas, Muslims 51%.

The 229 million Christians in the 5 areas are split pretty evenly between Catholics 69.5 million (30%), Independents 71.7 million (30.5%), historic Protestants 67 million (29%) with a significant minority of Orthodox 23.5 million (10.3%).

From another perspective, you could say that historic, liturgical Christians make up about 41% of the total and the Reformation heritage Christians about 59%.

Obviously, which Christian tradition dominates depends upon where you live. In western Asia and north Africa, the ancient centers of Christianity, it is historic Christianity that constitutes the majority. In the newly evangelized areas of western Africa, south central Asia, and Indonesia, Independents lead the way with historic Protestants a strong second.

One result: historic Christian communities who have lived in majority Muslim cultures for many centuries and experienced long, slow attrition under difficult circumstances, can have a different take on their situation than the relatively “new” Reformation heritage communities who only arrived in the area in the 19th century for the first time and have experienced sometimes remarkable growth in the past few decades.

To maintain our perspective, we must remember that Catholic Christians are a minority among a minority. 2.78% of the population in the majority Muslim world is Catholic but that number only represents 30% of the entire Christian population in the region. Our experience is important but is only one part of the whole.

Islam in the US: the Basics

(via Christianity Today)

Muslims in the United States, according to Pew: 2,350,000

Percentage of U.S. Population: 0.8

Number of people from Islamic countries who became U.S. citizens in 2005: 96,000

Estimated U.S. converts to Islam according to World Christian Encyclopedia: 50,000

Estimated U.S. Muslims who convert to Christianity each year: 20,000

Percentage who are African American: 59%

Why Do Muslims Convert to Christianity?

There's a lot of talk about Muslims becoming Christians all of a sudden due to Magdi Allam's baptism but I'm also seeing some quite misleading connections being made by people who have little or no knowledge of the subject.

I have done a number of substantive posts on the subject over the past year which could provide a lot of helpful and solid background now that MBB's are suddenly fashionable.

I'd like to start with an extraordinary bit of research undertaken by Dr. Dudley Woodbury, Professor of Islamics, Fulbright Scholar, expert in medieval Arabic literature, consultant to governments, and one of my former teachers.

"So what attracts Muslims to follow Jesus? Between 1991 and 2007, about 750 Muslims who have decided to follow Christ filled out an extensive questionnaire on that basic question. The respondents—from 30 countries and 50 ethnic groups—represent every major region of the Muslim world. (Copies of the questionnaire are available from dudley@fuller.edu.) The participants ranked the relative importance of different influences and whether they occurred before, at the time of, or after their decision to follow Christ. While the survey, prepared at Fuller Theological Seminary's School of Intercultural Studies, does not claim scientific precision, it provides a glimpse into some of the key means the Spirit of God is using to open Muslim hearts to the gospel."

Woodbury's summary of the five most frequently mentioned reasons:

1) The lifestyle of Christians. Former Muslims cited the love that Christians exhibited in their relationships with non-Christians and their treatment of women as equals.

2) The power of God in answered prayers and healing. Experiences of God's supernatural work—especially important to folk Muslims who have a characteristic concern for power and blessings—increased after their conversions, according to the survey. Often dreams about Jesus were reported.

3) Dissatisfaction with the type of Islam they had experienced. Many expressed dissatisfaction with the Qur'an, emphasizing God's punishment over his love. Others cited Islamic militancy and the failure of Islamic law to transform society.

4) The spiritual truth in the Bible. Muslims are generally taught that the Torah, Psalms, and the Gospels are from God, but that they became corrupted. These Christian converts said, however, that the truth of God found in Scripture became compelling for them and key to their understanding of God's character.

5) Biblical teachings about the love of God. In the Qur'an, God's love is conditional, but God's love for all people was especially eye-opening for Muslims. These converts were moved by the love expressed through the life and teachings of Jesus. The next step for many Muslims was to become part of a fellowship of loving Christians.

That's the summary. Now the details. i will bold the reasons these real MBBs give for their conversion.


Since a reader had posted a query as to why Roman Catholics were not participating in a meeting on evangelization of Muslims, I thought it would be good to print the bulk of this article. It demonstrates the variety of ways in which Muslims are being drawn to Christ. The same means are also true for other non-Christians who seek baptism.

Seeing a lived faith

First, we can look at the experiences that most influenced Muslims. For example, respondents ranked the lifestyle of Christians as the most important influence in their decision to follow Christ. A North African former Sufi mystic noted with approval that there was no gap between the moral profession and the practice of Christians he saw. An Egyptian contrasted the love of a Christian group at an American university with the unloving treatment of Muslim students and faculty he encountered at a university in Medina. An Omani woman explained that Christians treat women as equals. Others noted loving Christian marriages. Some poor people said the expatriate Christian workers they knew had adopted, contrary to their expectations, a simple lifestyle, wearing local clothes and observing local customs of not eating pork, drinking alcohol, or touching those of the opposite sex. A Moroccan was even welcomed by his former Christian in-laws after he underwent a difficult divorce.

Many Muslims who faced violence at the hands of other Muslims did not see it in the Christians they knew (regrettably, of course, Christians have been guilty of interethnic strife elsewhere). Muslim-on-Muslim violence has led to considerable disillusionment for many Muslims, from those who survived the 1971 war between the Bengalis of East Pakistan and the Pathans, Sindis, and Punjabis of West Pakistan, to Arab and Berber tensions in North Africa, and to Arab herdsmen fighting black African farmers in Darfur.

The next most important influence was the power of God in answered prayers and healing. Like most of the factors that former Muslims list, experiences of God's supernatural intervention often increase after Muslims decide to follow Christ.

In North Africa, Muslim neighbors asked Christians to pray for a very sick daughter who then was healed. In Senegal, a Muslim marabout (spiritual leader) referred a patient to Christians when he was not able to bring healing. In Pakistan, after a pilgrimage to Mecca did not cure a disabled Shiite girl, she was healed following Christian prayer.

Closely related was the finding that some noted deliverance from demonic power as another reason they were attracted to Jesus. After all, he is the healing prophet in the Qur'an and has power over demons in the Gospels. In northern Nigeria, a malam (what some might call a witchdoctor) used sorcery against a man who was considering following Jesus. The seeker became insane, and his extended family left him. But then he prayed that Christ would free him, and he was healed.

It helps to note that a third of the 750-person sample were folk Muslims, with a characteristic concern for power and blessings. It is also worth noting that the Jesus portrayed in the Qur'an is a prophet who heals lepers and the blind and raises the dead. Not surprisingly, many Muslims find him attractive. Of course, power and blessings do not constitute the final word for Muslims. The Bible also offers a theology of suffering, and many Muslims who follow Christ find that their faith is strengthened through trials.

The third biggest influence listed by respondents was dissatisfaction with the type of Islam they had experienced. They expressed unhappiness with the Qur'an, which they perceive as emphasizing God's punishment more than his love (although the Qur'an says he loves those who love him [3:31]). As for Islam's requirement that liturgical prayer should be in Arabic, a Javanese man asked, "Doesn't an all-knowing God know Indonesian?" Others criticized folk Islam's use of amulets and praying at the graves of dead saints.

Some respondents decried Islamic militancy and the imposition of Islamic law, which they said is not able to transform hearts and society. This disillusionment is broad in the Muslim world. Many Iranians became interested in the gospel after the Khomeini revolution of 1979 brought in rule by clergy. Pakistanis became more receptive after President Zia ul-Haq (1977-1988) tried to implement Islamic law. And Afghans became more open after Islamist Taliban conquest and rule (1994-2001).

As with Paul and Cornelius in Acts, visions and dreams played a role in the conversion of many. More than one in four respondents, 27 percent, noted dreams and visions before their decision for Christ, 40 percent at the time of conversion, and 45 percent afterward. Many Muslims view dreams as links between the seen and unseen worlds, and pre-conversion visions and dreams often lead Muslims to consult a Christian or the Bible.

Frequently a person in the vision, understood to be Jesus, radiates light or wears white (one respondent, though, said Jesus appeared in green, a color sometimes associated with Islamic holy persons). An Algerian woman had a vision that her Muslim grandmother came into her room and said, "Jesus is not dead; he is here." In Israel, an Arab dreamed that his deceased father said, "Follow the pastor. He will show you the right way." Other dreams and visions occurred later and provided encouragement during persecution. A Turkish woman in jail because of her conversion had a vision that she would be released, and she was. A vision of thousands of believers in the streets proclaiming their faith encouraged a young man in North Africa to persevere.

The message is the medium

Next in attraction for Muslims is the spiritual truth in the Bible. The Qur'an attests that the Torah, the Psalms, and the Gospel (commonly understood as the New Testament) are from God. Even though Muslims are generally taught that these writings became corrupted, they often find them compelling reading and discover truth that they conclude must be from God. The Bible helped one Egyptian understand "the true character of God." The Sermon on the Mount helped convinced a Lebanese Muslim that he should follow the one who taught and exemplified these values.

Respondents were also attracted by the Bible's teaching about the love of God. In the Qur'an, although God loves those who love him, his love is conditional. He does not love those who reject faith (3:31-32). There is nothing in the Qur'an like, "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:10), or, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8).

A West African was surprised by God's love for all people, even enemies. Likewise, although the Qur'an denies that God is a father (37:152), many Muslims find this a comforting concept. Particularly attractive to Muslims is the love expressed through the life and teachings of Jesus. The Qur'an already calls him faultless (19:19). Many Muslims are attracted to him by his depiction in the Qur'an and then go to the Gospels to find out more. A Saudi was first drawn to him at a Christmas Eve service in Germany—even before he knew German. Like many, an Iranian Shiite was attracted to Christ before he was attracted to Christianity. A North African Sufi found Jesus' portrayal as the Good Shepherd particularly meaningful. When Christ's love transforms committed Christians into a loving community, many Muslims listed a desire to join such a fellowship as next in importance.

Subconscious influences

For the most part, respondents did not say that political or economic circumstances influenced their decisions. But it's hard not to notice that Iranians, Pakistanis, Afghans, Bangladeshis, and Algerians became more responsive after enduring Muslim political turmoil or attempts to impose Islamic law. Christian relief and development agencies try hard to guard against spiritually misusing their position as providers of desperately needed goods and services. But natural disasters in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Sahel region inevitably put Muslims in contact with Christians trying to follow Jesus. It is no surprise that some of these Muslims also choose to follow Christ.

In many places, apostasy [from Islam] is tantamount to rejecting family, religion, culture, ethnicity, and nationality. Thus, many Muslim converts face persecution from family, police, or militants. Two friends were unable to fill out the questionnaire—one because he was apparently poisoned by his own family, the other because the government imprisoned him and later his tongue was cut out by a warlord so that he could no longer say the name of Jesus.

But Muslim converts to Christ know that such persecution can, in a mysterious way, be part of the best of times. Jesus, in fact, said it was a blessing. That's because with or without persecution, Muslims are discovering an experiential truth unknown to them before. As a Zambian Muslim exclaimed, 'God loves me just as I am.'"

Rome, Rome on the Range . . .

If you are in the Colorado Springs area, consider spending the afternoon of April 20 with us.

THE ROAD TO ROME: LOCAL CONVERTS SHARE THEIR STORIES!

Road Home Forum: Converts share their paths into the Catholic Church. St. Francis Apologetics will host this very popular event at St Francis Parish Hall, 2650 Parish View in Colorado Springs on Sunday, April 20, from 3:30-6:00 PM. Our panel includes Paul McCusker, developer of Adventures in Odyssey for Focus on the Family, John and Edith Morrison, former Nazarene ministry team, and Sherry Weddell, co-founder and co-director of the Catherine of Siena Institute. Hear their stories and join us for the Q&A.

The organizers asked me to help publicize this little gathering so I've done my bit.

Oh, won't Mark Shea's kids be jealous that I'm gonna be talking with the man who created Adventures in Odyssey - the kid's radio program they grew up with!

Yes, folks, there are Catholics working for Focus on the Family - I know several although they are definitely an out-numbered minority.

I so seldom get to do stuff like this that it will be fun.

What's also fun is that it doesn't involve a 3 am wake up call and an airplane.

The Endless Conversation

Abu Daoud:

I do want to respond to your latest post but am simply slammed with work and leave on Friday for yet another trip.

So it may be a while.

Arrabumaakum, y'all.

That Global Village Thang . . .

Speaking of missions, I continue to delight in things the internet makes possible.

This morning, I finally got around to answering the e-mail of a young lay Dominican lay woman and journalist in SIngapore who has been passed around our Called & Gifted materials for 5 years and now wants to be trained to facilitate discernment for others as her participation in the Order's work of preaching.

So I googled her and quickly found her picture and a bio written for a conference on faith and work that she had spoken at last year.

I wanted to let her know that a young Dominican priest in Hong Kong is also very eager to bring the Called & Gifted process to Hong Kong and China, so I googled him.

And immediately found the You tube video of his ordination in Hong Kong - two weeks ago.

Talk about a global village. Missionary work just ain't what it used to be.

Quotes of the Day

In light of our conversation below, here are some great, classic, inspiring quotes by missionaries about missions:

"God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply" -- Hudson Taylor

"Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God" -- William Carey

"Why do we not expect great things of God? We serve one who is all powerful." --St. Teresa of Avila

"He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose" -- Jim Elliot

"If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?" -- David Livingstone

"If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him." -- C.T. Studd

"If God calls you to be a missionary, don't stoop to be a king" -- Jordan Grooms (variations of this also credited to G. K. Chesterson, Thomas Carlyle and Charles Haddon Spurgeon)

"Let my heart be broken with the things that break God's heart" -- Bob Pierce, World Vision founder

"The reason some folks don't believe in missions is that the brand of religion they have isn't worth propagating." -- unknown

When James Calvert went out as a missionary to the cannibals of the Fiji Islands, the ship captain tried to turn him back, saying, "You will lose your life and the lives of those with you if you go among such savages." To that, Calvert replied, "We died before we came here."

"Missions is the overflow of our delight in God because missions is the overflow of God's delight in being God." --John Piper

"God is pursuing with omnipotent passion a worldwide purpose of gathering joyful worshipers for Himself from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. He has an inexhaustible enthusiasm for the supremacy of His name among the nations. Therefore, let us bring our affections into line with His, and, for the sake of His name, let us renounce the quest for worldly comforts and join His global purpose." -- John Piper

"We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God." -- John Stott

"The mark of a great church is not its seating capacity, but its sending capacity." -- Mike Stachura

"If God's love is for anybody anywhere, it's for everybody everywhere." -- Edward Lawlor, Nazarene General Superintendent

"It is possible for the most obscure person in a church, with a heart right toward God, to exercise as much power for the evangelization of the world, as it is for those who stand in the most prominent positions." -- John R. Mott

"Missionary zeal does not grow out of intellectual beliefs, nor out of theological arguments, but out of love" -- Roland Allen

"If the Great Commission is true, our plans are not too big; they are too small." -- Pat Morley

"The history of missions is the history of answered prayer." -- Samuel Zwemer

"Tell the students to give up their small ambitions and come eastward to preach the gospel of Christ." -- St. Francis Xavier, missionary to India, the Philippines, and Japan

"Someone asked Will the heathen who have never heard the Gospel be saved? It is more a question with me whether we -- who have the Gospel and fail to give it to those who have not -- can be saved." -- Charles Spurgeon

“It would be useful if every Christian and every evangelizer were to pray about the following thought: . . .can we gain salvation if through negligence or fear or shame—what St. Paul called 'blushing for the Gospel'—or as a result of false ideas we fail to preach it? " -- Pope Paul VI- Evangelization in the Modern World, 80

Comments?

Easter Exultet

I was in Eugene, OR for the Easter Triduum, and it was a delight to see old friends and to celebrate those glorious three days, which included singing the Exultet at the Vigil. Two friends I visited were the indomitable Patricia Mees Armstrong and her doting husband, Richard. Pat's been living with cancer for as long as I've known her (and longer), while Rich is showing some signs of the onset of dementia (although some would argue he was quite demented when he asked Pat to marry him).

Pat passed on this Easter Exultet, which dovetails nicely with St. Paul's command to

Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough, inasmuch as you are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 1Cor5:7-8

EASTER EXULTET
Shake out your qualms.
Shake up your dreams.
Deepen your roots.
Extend your branches.
Trust deep water
and head for the open,
even if your vision
shipwrecks you.
Quit your addiction
to sneer and complain.
Open a lookout.
Dance on a brink.
Run with your wildfire.
You are closer to glory
leaping an abyss
than upholstering a rut.
Not dawdling.
Not doubting.
Intrepid all the way
Walk toward clarity.
At every crossroad
Be prepared
to bump into wonder.
Only love prevails.
En route to disaster
insist on canticles.
Lift your ineffable
out of the mundane.
Nothing perishes;
nothing survives;
everything transforms!
Honeymoon with Big Joy!

James Broughton ~ (Sermons of the Big Joy)

Good Morning

Good morning on this exceptionally lovely spring morning in Colorado:

Welcome to all our visitors from around the world. We're delighted that you stopped by. We regularly deal with international matters that affect the Christian community and faith, so feel free to look through our archives and to come back.

When only 57% of a day's readership is from the US, we're obviously dealing with a topic of wide-spread interest.

However, As interesting as this discussion has been - I must work on other things today. I'm completely swamped.

Will blog as I can.

Perhaps Fr. Mike, who is just hanging around eating bon-bons this week, will be able to pick up some of the blogging slack????

Not to mention other people who would be nameless except their names are featured on our sideboard.

Your 15 minutes of fame awaits you.

An Individual Act of Conscience or a Global Phenomenon?

Since a number of other bloggers have linked to my original post on the whole Allam baptism discussion, I didn't want the essential discussion between Abu Daoud and I to get lost in the comment boxes so I'm moving part of here up here..

Because I have reservations about the wisdom of broadcasting Allams' baptism around the world, people have lept to the conclusion that I'm opposed to his baptism itself.

Nothing could be further from the truth. As I wrote to Abu Daoud:

As I have said already several times: I welcome Allam’s baptism. Really. Truly. As an individual, he should absolutely be welcomed with open arms and he and his family supported generously.

But that could have been done lovingly and well a thousand different ways – none of which required that his face and story blanket the globe within hours of his reception. Being baptized did not require that he become the poster-boy for Muslims considering Christianity and there were a number of obvious reasons why he isn’t a great candidate for poster boydom and may actually be counter-productive.

Apart from the geo-religious-political implications, all this publicity could actually hamper his spiritual growth and that of his family. Being a trophy convert is often not a good thing for one’s actual process of conversion.

Here’s the deal. No one, obscure or famous, gets baptized by the Pope during the Easter Vigil accidentally. And I didn’t notice Vatican spokesman offering comments and clarifications about the other 6 adults baptized in the same liturgy. Someone (and I don’t know who it was) decided to use a globally streamed event watched by hundreds of millions to transform an individual act of conscience into a global phenomenon. It is the wisdom of that decision alone that I question.

By now, we all know the power of the wall-to-wall 24/7 media for good and for bad. I was simply pointing out that there were all kinds of “unintended effects” when you do something like this. They were not intended but many were clearly foreseeable - like the fact that jihadists will use this image to spin their myth of the great “crusade” and that can cause a ton of additional grief for various Christian communities in the Muslim world.

And what is the great good to be achieved that out-weighs these very real possibilities for real people? I don't think that question was thought through carefully enough before hand.

For instance, a law was passed on March 1 in Algeria that few westerners paid any attention to. From the website:
In Defence of Beleivers of a Faith other than Islam in Algeria

This law stipulates:

". . .the punishment is imprisonment from two (2) years to five (5) years and a fine from 500.000 DA to 1.000.000 DA for whomever:

“ incites, constrains or utilizes means of seduction tending to convert a Muslim to another religion, or by using to this end establishments for teaching, for education, for health, of a social or cultural nature, or training institutions, or any other establishment, or any financial means,

“ makes, stores, or distributes printed documents or audiovisual productions or by any other aid or means, which has as its goal to shake the faith of a Muslim."

This new law is part of a specific campaign by the government to head off the spread of the first small group of native Algerian Christians. Muslim governments are often (like ours) driven to appease public opinion. An easy and very popular way to do that is to get tougher on religious dissidents like Christians. And TV/internet/You tube images enflame public opinion with lightening speed.

Now the die is cast. Zenit has come out with an interview with Allam about his conversion. For good and ill, Mallam, who has been a Christian for less than 48 hours has already become the public face of MBB's (Muslim Background Believers) for the global media and apparently for the Catholic media as well.

That alone should give us pause.

I have blogged a number of times about the reality of MBB's here at ID: Here , here, here and especially here: Muslims Who Become Christian and the Price They Pay.

Read them to get more familiar with the realities facing MBB's who aren't famous and don't live in Italy. Many thousands of them. They and their families are just as important in the purposes of God as Allam and his family. When making these decisions, we can no longer simply let the urgency of western debates dictate what we do. Catholicism is truly global. We have to hold together the suffering of those persecuted now and the need to work toward true religious freedom in the future.

Since we aren't actively persecuted, it is easy for us to call for a full frontal assault ( Charge!) and "religious freedom now!" and to talk blithely about the blood of the martyrs being the seed of the Church. Cause the chances of it being our blood or that of our children is very, very small. But as I have said before, "charge!" and spineless cowardice are not the only two options available to us.

Meanwhile, someone really sharp, spiritually and theological mature, and prayerful needs to stay close to Allam and guide him through this tumultuous transition. It's hard enough to become a Catholic at age 56 from a non-Christian background. Doing it in the middle of a media and geo-political circus (Imagine if Princess Diana had become Catholic as was rumored before her death!) is full of potential pitfalls.

Allam and his family need our prayers. As do the many unheralded present and future MBB's around the world who are making their journey under often crushing circumstances.

Switching, Seeking, and New Life in Christ

Here's an inspiring Easter tale of faith reborn that puts a face on those Pew statistics. From the Charlotte, North Carolina Observer

Mike Ray, a proud atheist for 35 years, entered the Catholic Church this weekend with 73 others (Wow - great stuff is going on in Charlotte!)

As the article puts it:

Ray's story mirrors the changing American religious landscape in at least two ways: He's a switcher and a seeker.A recent survey found that nearly half of U.S. adults have left the religion they grew up in for another faith -- or no faith at all.

Ray did both.

When he decided after decades as a nonbeliever to return to church, he didn't choose the homegrown Pentecostal denominations -- Church of God, Assemblies of God -- his mother exposed him to as a child.

Instead, he found a new, midlife home in Catholicism, with its ancient sacraments and liturgy.

But to hear Ray tell it, he was first drawn to the Roman church not so much by its incense and rituals -- "smells and bells" -- than by its long tradition of contemplative prayer.

He craved spirituality, not necessarily institutional religion.

As a baby boomer, Ray belongs to "a generation of seekers," says Sean McCloud, professor of religious studies at UNC Charlotte. "Something has been going on since (they came of age) in the 1970s. ... The spiritual quest has become personal and individual."

Ray's path to becoming a Catholic was paved with books about silent, listening prayer by modern monks such as Thomas Merton and Thomas Keating.

At St. Matthew -- the biggest church in the Carolinas, with 26,000 members -- some people convert to Catholicism because they've married a "cradle Catholic," someone baptized into the faith as a baby.

"But the majority of (the converts) have been on a search," says Monsignor John McSweeney, who pastors the megachurch in the Ballantyne area, where Ray also lives.

Before being admitted to the seven-month-long program that leads to the official welcoming at the Easter Vigil, every conversion candidate has to be interviewed by McSweeney or one of the other priests.

The monsignor talked to Ray.

"A searcher," McSweeney says. "He made no bones about being an atheist (before). Then he realized he might not have all the answers. This thing called mystery and the presence of God hit him right in the eye."


Any encouraging conversion stories from your corner of the Kingdom this Easter?

Prominent Muslim Baptized by Pope

The most prominent Muslim commenter in Italy, Magdi Allam, was baptized by Pope Benedict at the Easter Vigil in St. Peter's. Via CNN which also has special edited video of the event which has already made it to You tube as you can see below (he is the tall dark young man who is baptized second.)




Via CNN:

"VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Italy's most prominent Muslim commentator converted to Roman Catholicism on Saturday during the Vatican's Easter vigil service presided over by the pope.

An Egyptian-born, non-practicing Muslim, Magdi Allam has infuriated some fellow Muslims with his criticism of extremism and support for Israel.

The deputy editor of the Corriere della Sera newspaper, Allam often writes on Muslim and Arab affairs."


Allam has already received death threats and security from the Italian government for publicly taking issue with Palestinian terrorists.

"The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said of Allam before the service that anyone who chooses to become a Catholic of his or her own free will has the right to receive the sacrament. "

"In the Il Giornale interview, Allam explained his complicated relationship with Islam and his affinity for Israel.

"I was never practicing," he was quoted as saying. "I never prayed five times a day, facing Mecca. I never fasted during Ramadan."

Yet he said he did make the pilgrimage to Mecca, as is required of all Muslims, with his deeply religious mother in 1991.

Married to a Catholic, with a young son and two adult children from his first marriage, Allam indicated in the interview that he would have no problem converting to Christianity.

He said he had even received Communion once -- when he was 13 or 14 -- "even though I knew it was an act of blasphemy, not having been baptized.

Egypt's highest Islamic cleric, the Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, wrote last year against the killing of apostates, saying there is no worldly retribution for Muslims who abandon their religion and that punishment would come in the afterlife.

Reaction to Allam's conversion was largely muted from Italy's Muslim community.

The Union of Islamic Communities in Italy -- which Allam has frequently criticized as having links to Hamas -- said the baptism was a personal choice.

"He is an adult, free to make his personal choice," the Apcom news agency quoted the group's spokesman, Issedin El Zir, as saying."

What to say?

First of all, I'd love to welcome Allam into the heart of the Church. There are other Muslims making the same commitment this Easter - all over the world and some in the US, I'm sure. A member of our Called & Gifted team in Indonesia was a former Muslim and I met a priest there who was also from a Muslim background. My friend Natalia, meets many MBB's these days (Muslim Background Believers) in the middle east these days. Some of the children of these converts are now entering into Christian leadership. They all need our personal support.

John Allen points out that Allam has been connected with Communion and Liberation for some time and that some Muslims may have already assumed that he was Christian because he has been so public about his most-Islamically incorrect opinions. Actually, this sort of gesture is beginning to sound like just the sort of thing that Allam would do.

However, there will be consequences for others.

Some Muslims who are seeking will be inspired to do the same thing.

And some will be persecuted and some may well die for this.

Why? Because it is so extraordinarily public. The image of a famous Muslim receiving baptism from the Pope's hand in St. Peter's at the most solemn liturgy of the year was watched live by hundreds of millions and now has already circled the globe. It is being prominantly covered by every major news agency in the world as I write - including in the Muslim world. Allam's personal decision could not possibly have been dramatized in a more-in-your-face manner.

To us it is an important gesture of religious freedom and freedom of conscience. To fundamentalist Muslims, it is an open act of public contempt for Islam and humiliation by the most prominent Christian in the world. This is a jihadist spin doctor's dream come true. It won't matter that Allam was never really a practicing Muslim, married to a Catholic wife (A Muslim man is permitted to marry a Christian woman but a Muslim woman may not marry a Christian man in Islam), and living in Italy for a long time.

Will there be reprisals against the Pope? I don't know. We should be praying for him and everyone else involved assiduously. Might it endanger Allam and his family? Absolutely. Might some Italian by-standers be hurt? Its possible. How about Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan? You betcha. But it will certainly affect the lives of Christians living in the Muslim world for years to come. This kind of needlessly public gesture makes them shudder.

By all means, let us propose the gospel to all and welcome all who desire to follow Christ. But lets also be wise and think of the price that they may have to pay that most of us will never face.

Historically, this sort of gesture has actually hamstrung the cause of the gospel in the Muslim world by exacerbating the enmity against those considering baptism, isolating converts from their natural social network, and making the price of conversion the loss of all family (including children) and friendship ties. The result: only the already marginalized became Christians and many didn't go the distance because the social isolation was too terrible to bear. The breakthrough happened when Christians stopped demanding individuals convert in a way that doomed them to isolation and started to work with whole families, tribes, and people groups.

Quietly. Without fanfare. And with great effectiveness.

Because the west is not the whole world. Indeed, we are now a clear minority within the global Christian community. And much that God is doing in our generation isn't about us: our debates, history, and sensitivities.

Dreaming of a White Resurrection

I'm dreaming of a white Resurrection - just like the ones I've never known!

And my dream has come true. The Vigil begins at 4 am at my parish and runs to about 6:30 am (only catechumens baptized and confirmed at this liturgy, candidates for full communion were received on Palm Sunday), Then the parish provided breakfast for everyone and we stepped out at 7:30 into a white wonderland.

As a child, I used to dream of someday experiencing a white Christmas (instead of Seattle's famous wet Christmas) but not a white Halloween, Thanksgiving, New Years, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's and Easter.

But I absolutely draw the line at a white 4th of July. Which is fine as long as I don't get too uppity and spend the 4th on the continental divide where all bets are off.

In any case, rain, snow or balmy spring, "Christ is risen!" He is risen indeed!"

Hasty in Charity

Fr. Cantalamessa's homily for the liturgy of Good Friday at St. Peter's (with Pope Benedict celebrating, of course) was about Christian unity. A most interesting topic in light of the many discussions here and around St. Blog's about Catholic identity.

Here are some highlights:

The Holy Father recalled this in a homily he gave on Jan. 25 in the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls at the end of Christian Unity Week: "Unity with God and our brothers and sisters," he wrote, "is a gift that comes from on high, which flows from the communion of love between Father, Son and Holy Spirit in which it is increased and perfected. It is not in our power to decide when or how this unity will be fully achieved. Only God can do it! Like St Paul, let us also place our hope and trust 'in the grace of God which is with us.'"

Today as well, the Holy Spirit will be the one to lead us into unity, if we let him guide us. How was it that the Holy Spirit brought about the first fundamental unity of the Church, that between Jews and pagans? The Holy Spirit descends upon Cornelius and his whole household in the same way in which he descended upon the apostles at Pentecost. So, Peter only needed to draw the conclusion: "If then God gave them the same gift he gave to us when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to be able to hinder God?" (Acts 11:17).

For a century now, we have seen the same thing repeat itself before our eyes on a global scale. God has poured out the Holy Spirit in a new and unusual way upon millions of believers from every Christian denomination and, so that there would be no doubts about his intentions, he poured out the Spirit with the same manifestations. Is this not a sign that the Spirit moves us to recognize each other as disciples of Christ and work toward unity?

It is true that this spiritual and charismatic unity is not enough by itself. We see this already at the beginning of the Church. The newly formed unity between Jews and Gentiles was immediately threatened by schism. In the so-called Council of Jerusalem there was a "long discussion" and at the end an agreement was reached and announced to the Church with the formula: "It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us..." (Acts 15:28). The Holy Spirit works, therefore, also through another way, which is that of patient exchange, dialogue and even compromise between the different sides, when the essentials of the faith are not in play. He works through human "structures" and the "offices" put in action by Jesus, above all the apostolic and petrine office. It is that which today we call doctrinal and institutional ecumenism.
* * *
However, experience is convincing us that even this doctrinal ecumenism is not sufficient and does not advance matters if it is not also accompanied by a foundational spiritual ecumenism.

Snip.

The extraordinary thing about this way to unity based on love is that it is already now wide open before us. We cannot be hasty in regard to doctrine because differences exist and must be resolved with patience in the appropriate contexts. We can instead "be hasty" in charity and already be united in that sense now. The true, certain sign of the coming of the Spirit, St. Augustine writes, is not speaking in tongues, but it is the love of unity: "Know that you have the Holy Spirit when you allow your heart to adhere to unity through sincere charity."[4]

And this:

One thing must move us forward on this journey. What is in play at the beginning of the third millennium, is not the same as what was in play at the beginning of the second millennium, when there was the separation of East and West; nor is it the same as what was in play in the middle of the same millennium when there was the separation of Catholics and Protestants. Can we say that the way the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father or how justification of the sinner comes about are the problems that impassion the men of today and with which the Christian faith stands or falls? The world has moved beyond us and we remain fixed by problems and formulas that the world does not even know the meaning of.


Snip.

From this we see that today there are two possible ecumenisms: an ecumenism of faith and an ecumenism of incredulity; one that unites all those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and that Christ died to save all humankind, and an ecumenism that unites all those who, in deference to the Nicene Creed, continue to proclaim these formulas but empty them of their content. It is an ecumenism in which, in its extreme form, everyone believes the same things because no one any longer believes anything, in the sense that "believing" has in the New Testament.

"Who is it that overcomes the world," John writes in his first letter, "if not those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God?" (1John 5:5). Sticking with this criterion, the fundamental distinction among Christians is not between Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants, but between those who believe that Christ is the Son of God and those who do not believe this.

Man Knows Thereby How Much God Loves Him

As an evangelical, I was clearly taught that Jesus' death on the cross was a necessity, that God has to satisfy his own justice had to be satisfied before he could extend his mercy.

It seemed odd at the time that God had to satisfy one aspect of his character which seemed, to my child's eyes, to be more powerful than He was, before He could express another.

This, of course, is not how the Catholic Tradition has understood it - because how could God be necessitated? God could have chosen simply to forgive us but he didn't. Why not?

And who better to hear from on this Holy Saturday but St. Thomas Aquinas over at Singing in the Reign.

Five Reasons the Cross was the Most Suitable Way for Our Redemption

In his Summa Theologica, St. Thomas gives the following five reasons for why the Crucifixion of Jess was the most suitable way for our redemption (III. Q.46, Art. 3). They are worth pondering during this Holy Week:

In the first place, man knows thereby how much God loves him, and is thereby stirred to love Him in return, and herein lies the perfection of human salvation; hence the Apostle says (Romans 5:8): "God commendeth His charity towards us; for when as yet we were sinners . . . Christ died for us."

Secondly, because thereby He set us an example of obedience, humility, constancy, justice, and the other virtues displayed in the Passion, which are requisite for man's salvation. Hence it is written (1 Peter 2:21): "Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps."

Thirdly, because Christ by His Passion not only delivered man from sin, but also merited justifying grace for him and the glory of bliss, as shall be shown later (48, 1; 49, 1, 5).

Fourthly, because by this man is all the more bound to refrain from sin, according to 1 Corinthians 6:20: "You are bought with a great price: glorify and bear God in your body."

Fifthly, because it redounded to man's greater dignity, that as man was overcome and deceived by the devil, so also it should be a man that should overthrow the devil; and as man deserved death, so a man by dying should vanquish death. Hence it is written (1 Corinthians 15:57): "Thanks be to God who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." It was accordingly more fitting that we should be delivered by Christ's Passion than simply by God's good-will.

As St. Augustine says (De Trin. xiii): "There was no other more suitable way of healing our misery" than by the Passion of Christ.

I remember how surprised and relived I was year ago when I came across a statement of Pope John Paul II that Christ did not die to satisfy God's justice but his father's love. I called Mark Shea and read it to him over the phone and he too was surprised but delighted.

Man Knows Thereby How Much God Loves Him.

O happy fault that brought about so great a salvation.

Papal Visits and Their Impact

Loved this bit from John Allen's column on the possible impact (monetary and otherwise) of the upcoming papal visit:

In 1994, one year after Denver's World Youth Day, the archdiocese registered 2,000 converts, more than any diocese in the country. Mass attendance was up 8.05 percent, whereas before it had been falling. Enrollment in Catholic schools increased 7.72 percent. Over this period, the total number of Catholics increased only 1.76 percent, so most of these gains came from pre-existing Catholics more interested in practicing the faith.


I can tell you that I've heard over and over again from Denverites that World Youth Day was the beginning of so many good things for the Archdiocese. My sister went - even though she is not Catholic - and loved it. Like so many, she felt an amazing connection with Pope John Paul II even though she only saw him at a distance,

And there's more:

In Ireland, applicants for the priesthood spiked by 20 percent in 1980, one year after a September 1979 papal visit. French Catholic authorities reported a similar phenomenon after John Paul's August 1997 visit for World Youth Day.

My question: what is the difference between the impact of World Youth Day vs. a more standard issue papal visit?

While the papal presence is hugely important for World Youth Day, what seems even more critical is the experience of being with hundreds of thousands or millions of other enthusiastic young Catholics for an extended period of time. Part of the impact is the joyful, beaming, dancing, welcoming, artsy, praying, make-a-million-new-friends-international Christian "Woodstock" atmosphere of the whole thing. (It was designed for the young. I'm always amazed at the sour comments from some conservative Catholics about World Youth Days past. Its not supposed to be a silent retreat!)

World Youth Day is an exceptionally happy experience of living Christian community, prayer, and life which transcends a million physical inconveniences. It's an experience of evangelization.

Obviously, a standard papal visit doesn't last 4 days nor is it supplemented with hundreds of other events all designed to jump start or enflame one's faith.

In a standard papal visit, the personality, gestures, and message of the Pope is the center in a "purer" way. So the difference in personality and style between John Paul II and Benedict XVI casts a bigger shadow.

Door #1 or Door #2?

You may have seen this before, but it's worth reading again on this day in which we celebrate Jesus' generous feeding of his disciples with his own body and blood. The mandatum - the command to wash one another's feet - also is reflected in this insightful story.

A holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said,

"Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like."

The Lord led the holy man to two doors.

He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in. In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew, which smelled delicious and made the holy man's mouth water. The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful.

But because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths.

The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering.

The Lord said, "You have seen Hell.

They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man's mouth water. The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons , but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking. The holy man said, "I don't understand.

It is simple," said the Lord.

"It requires but one skill. You see they have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves."

The Last Supper in Art

I have been in Eugene, OR, giving a Holy Week parish mission - rather unusual - and I have been busy visiting old friends and singing Tenebrae (worth another post, I imagine), and NOT watching NCAA basketball (just so you know, Sherry). I have to practice some music for the Easter vigil - specifically the Exsultet - and a beautiful Randall Thompson Alleluia. I also have offered to help with music tonight, so I'd better hop to it. The choir director's given me all tenor parts (including a high A), when I'm actually a baritone. Gotta practice my falsetto.

Anyway, here's some lovely imagery of the Last Supper which you may enjoy.

Video Of Chiara Lubich's Video & H20 News

Take a moment to watch this lovely video of Chiara Lubich's funeral at St. Paul Outside the Wall. 20,000 attended.

Brought to us via a group I'd never heard of before: www.H20news.org.

Bloggers ought to interested in H20news because it "is a Catholic news service on a worldwide scale that creates and distributes multimedia news, every day, in eight languages. The news focuses on the life of the Church and on social and cultural events that directly pertain to Catholics living in the world.

H2onews offers its multimedia services free of charge to Catholic television, web sites and radio stations so that the Pope’s words and news about the Church are available to everyone interested."

H2onews was born during the First World Congress of Catholic Television in Madrid in October 2006, hosted by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

Radio stations, TV stations and websites can subscribe to carry their videos and this should make your ears perk up.

According to their website, non-professionals like you and me can function as local stringers in future, creating our own videos of news, and if they are considered newsworthy, they will be translated into 8 languages and distributed via H20news.

A lot of Catholic media organizations, including Vatican TV and Radio, Salt and Light TV, and EWTN, are involved in this new venture and it sounds like a really creative initiative.

So stay tuned to H20 News!

A Chinese Way of the Cross in Rome

Via the Catholic News Service:

This year's Good Friday Way of the Cross in Rome was written by Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-Kiun of Hong Kong. The theme: the voice of today's living martyrs, especially those in China. The stations will be taken entirely from the Gospel of Mark and do not follow the traditional Catholic set. Apparently, that means that these stations will not include St. Veronica's wiping of Jesus' face.

"The cardinal, who long has been outspoken on the lack of full religious freedom in mainland China, said this was the pope's way of bringing attention to Asia and involving "the faithful of China, for whom the 'Via Crucis' is a devotion" many hold close to their hearts.

"The pope wanted me to bring to the Colosseum the voice of those faraway sisters and brothers," he wrote in the introduction to the mediations and prayers released by the Vatican in Italian March 18. The 64-page booklet was illustrated with 20th-century Chinese Christian art from the Society of Divine Word's archives.

While Christ's suffering and passion are the focus of the service, "behind him there are many people, past and present," such as all the living martyrs of the 21st century, he wrote.

Cardinal Zen said he accepted the pope's invitation with "little hesitation," but soon discovered, much to his surprise, that his early drafts did not reflect a very Christian attitude.

He said he had to step back and purify himself of the "less than charitable feelings" he had toward those who made Jesus suffer and who "are making our brothers and sisters suffer in today's world."

In "thinking about persecution," he wrote, "let us also (think) about the persecutors" and how even they are being called to salvation by God."

It is good to see the realities of global Catholicism reflected in some of the most solemn parts of the Triduum in Rome.

Virtual Pilgrimage to Jerusalem

Holy Thursday is an excellent time to spend a few minutes with this wonderful interactive map of Jerusalem which enables you to make virtual visits to the various holy places in the city.

It brings back many memories of my own 3 week visit as a young evangelical. In those days, I was exceedingly dim about the differences between Catholics and Orthodox and the various ancient rites to be found in Jerusalem. They were all "other" but I was fascinated so I visited every church and shrine on the Mt. of Olives. I stood praying in Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock (which struck me as the most beautiful of all the sites I visited). With my evangelical sensibilities (Quaker no less!) I found the centuries-old darkness of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher off-putting and was stunned when my native Palestinian guide offered to take me to Mary's tomb.

But I also got to visit an ancient, tiny family home on top of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and see the step in the Church upon which Ethiopian monks had been jealously perched for centuries. I watched but (thank goodness) had enough sense not to enter the little prayer shrine below the Rock upon which Mohammed's winged horse, Burqa, supposedly leaped into the heavens. The Intifaada was underway and it was strictly for Muslims only.

With a click of a mouse, we can see what many generations of Christians longed to see. Amazing.

Got Chrism?

If you couldn't make to your local chrism Mass, you can enjoy this one, held last night at the exquisite Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City.

Seriously Seeking Testimonies About John Paul II

Rocco Palma over at Whispers, is spreading the news:

John Paul II made five pilgrimages to these shores, and as his beatification cause proceeds, officials are seeking testimonies from English speakers who met the late great Polish Pope:

On the occasion of the upcoming third anniversary of the death of the Servant of God John Paul II, the Office of the Postulation for his cause of beatification and canonization is looking for testimonies from the faithful about a personal encounter with John Paul II during his life or a testimony of his intercession after his death to be published in it's English edition of the monthly magazine "Totus Tuus." Entries should be no more than a page in length, single spaced, and can be sent to the following e-mail address: postulatio@vicariatusurbis.org with the subject "I am giving my personal testimony."

Please note that any testimonies submitted will subject to editing and that submission is no guarantee of publication. Anyone who does not wish to have their testimony published may also so indicate in the accompanying e-mail.

Be sure and check out this website dedicated to Pope John Paul II's beatification cause.

Paul Scofield, RIP

Paul Scofield has died at 84 of leukemia. He was one of the greatest stage actors of his day but is best known among most of us for his portrayal of St. Thomas More in A Man for All Seaons.

It is cheering to learn, that as a man, he shared some significant characteristics with St. Thomas. Scofield, like More, was a brilliant, home-loving, humble, good man. This would be a good day to pray for him and his family. He brought us much joy.

There's a lovely description of him on CNN. Here are a few excerpts:

"He was a stage actor by inclination and by his gifts -- a dramatic, craggy face and an unforgettable voice that was likened to a Rolls Royce starting up or the rumbling sound of low organ pipes."

Snip.

"Actor Richard Burton, once regarded as the natural heir to Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud at the summit of British theater, said it was Scofield who deserved that place. "Of the 10 greatest moments in the theater, eight are Scofield's," he said."

Snip.

Scofield was an unusual star -- a family man who lived almost his entire life within a few miles of his birthplace in southern England and hurried home after work to his wife and children. He didn't seek the spotlight, gave interviews sparingly, and at times seemed to need coaxing to venture out, even onto the stage he loved.
His temperament, too, was unexpected in an actor who remained at the very top of his profession.

"It is hard not to be Polyanna-ish about Paul because he is such a manifestly good man, so humane and decent, and curiously void of ego," said director Richard Eyre, former artistic director of Britain's National Theatre. "All the pride he has is channeled through the thing that he does brilliantly."


One of the classic moments from the film :

Mark Shea on the Sin Monitor Task Force

Love my friend Mark's latest essay over at Inside Catholic:

Saved by Christ, Not by Rules

"What is absent from all this is any concept of life in Christ as relationship. All you get are rules, written on a card and magnetized to the refrigerator. Break rules on Card A and the Divine Administrator puts in the record that you are slated for hell. Break rules on Card B and the Divine Administrator marks down the infraction and gives you a warning. Earn enough infractions and the Sin Monitor Task Force transfers your name to the "Go to Hell" file. However, if you do the theological equivalent of filling out a waiver by going to confession, the Divine Administrator will, for inscrutable reasons, round file your sin folder and let you start over.

The goal of the Christian life, in this scenario, is to die with your sin folder empty. Then God has to let you into heaven, which is this beautiful place that has nothing to do with Him, really. It's just a pretty park where your favorite dead people have been standing around waiting for you to arrive. The notion of a life of virtue spent trying to cultivate a relationship with God never enters the picture. It's just a question of keeping and breaking rules. And nobody really knows why one rule is more important than another."

Read the whole thing. Just the right note upon which to enter into the Triduum.

Some Pew-based Stats

Some stats based upon the Pew results (and the assumption that there are approximately 220 million adults in the US as indicated by the Census Bureau in 2004)

69.1 million US adults (31.4% of adult population) alive today were raised Catholic.

Today, there are 47 million self-identified Catholic adults (23.9% of US adult population).

18% of those raised Catholic now identify with another faith. (12.44 million)

A) 81.7% of those Catholics who now identify with another faith regard themselves as Protestant. (9% of all Protestants or
10.16 million)

B) 62.6% of those Catholics who identify with a Protestant faith now call themselves “evangelical Protestants”. (6.36 million,
11 % of all evangelicals, 5.6% of all Protestants)

C) 37.7% of those Catholics who identify with a Protestant faith now regard themselves as mainline or black Protestants.
(3.83 million or 7% of mainline/black Protestant population and 3% of all Protestants)

D) 18.3% of those Catholics who now identify with another faith identify with a non-Protestant faith.

2.3 million cradle Catholics now comprise

5% of US Orthodox Christians
4% of US Hindus
3% of US Jews
7% of US Mormons
4% of US Muslims
26% of US Jehovah’s Witnesses
22% of US Buddhists
23% of “other faiths”
23% of “other Christian” (Unity, Unitarian, etc.)

E) 14% of those raised Catholic now regard themselves “unaffiliated” with any religious tradition. (9.7 million)

Faiths where converts from Catholic backgrounds are disproportionately present (There are less than half as many Catholics as Protestants in the US so we should have no more than half as many converts to another faith)

Hinduism Protestant converts 2% Catholic converts 4%
Judaism Protestant converts 5% Catholic converts 3%
JW Protestant converts 33% Catholic converts 26%
Buddhism Protestant converts 32% Catholic converts 22%
LDS (Mormon) Protestant converts 13% Catholic converts 7%
Unaffiliated Protestant converts 44% Catholic converts 27%

Faiths to which Protestants have converted in larger numbers proportionally than Catholics:

Orthodox Christianity
Islam
"Other faiths" (smaller non-Christian groups)
"Other Christians" (Unity, Unitarians, etc.)

Pew Revisited

Warning: long post ahead.

I spent a good deal of yesterday pouring over the Pew Survey results and the CARA response in preparation for several upcoming events.

Since the Pew Survey gives percentages (23.9% of US Adults identify as Catholics, for instance) but never tells you their starting figure, trying to work out exact numbers is difficult. (Exactly how many adults are there in the US and what year are you using as your standard? The Census Bureau estimated 217 million Americans 18 and older in 2004 but was that the figure that Pew used?)

But as I talked it over with The Other Sherry last night, it became clear that the really important implications didn't require that I be able to come up with reliable numbers.

First of all, we must remember that all the Pew asked of those 35,000+ interviewees was which religious tradition (or none) they identified with. Not "do you ever darken the door of a church or synagogue?" Not "do you attend a worship service every week"? And certainly not "are you an intentional disciple?" This was about self-concept, not deeds.

So this does not address at all the issue of the millions of Americans who self-identify as Catholic but haven't been to Mass in months or years. It was strictly a "what religious tradition do I identify with?" question. An important question certainly. But a limited one.

The findings:

1) Religious change, spiritual seeking, conversion, and religious self-definition is normative for many, even the majority of American adults. And this includes conversion from belief to disbelief and disbelief to belief. Nothing, not even lack of faith, is set in stone in America.

" If change in affiliation from one type of Protestantism to another is included, 44% of adults have either switched religious affiliation, moved from being unaffiliated with any religion to being affiliated with a particular faith, or dropped any connection to a specific religious tradition altogether."


And listen to this:

"If anything, these figures may understate the extent of religious movement taking place in the U.S. For instance, they do not include individuals who have changed affiliation within a particular denominational family, say from the American Baptist Churches in the USA to the Southern Baptist Convention. Nor do they include people who changed religious affiliation at some point in their lives but then returned to their childhood affiliation. Moreover, these figures do not capture multiple changes in affiliation on the part of individuals."

So the 44% does not include "reverts" which is a huge factor in Catholic circles. I have blogged before on the fact that although I've been searching for years, I've only met 20 or so cradle Catholics who have never had a family member leave the practice of their faith for a period of time. During that period, did many of them cease to think of themselves as a Catholic? What would they have answered the Pew surveyer during that period of their lives? If the goal is to grasp the extremely fluid nature of religious commitment in the US, the whole "in and out" phenomena is huge,

If you consider that factor, it is pretty clear that a majority of Americans have changed religious affiliation at some point in their lives.

And note:

To illustrate this point, one need only look at the biggest gainer in this religious competition - the unaffiliated group. People moving into the unaffiliated category outnumber those moving out of the unaffiliated group by more than a three-to-one margin. At the same time, however, a substantial number of people (nearly 4% of the overall adult population) say that as children they were unaffiliated with any particular religion but have since come to identify with a religious group. This means that more than half of people who were unaffiliated with any particular religion as a child now say that they are associated with a religious group. In short, the Landscape Survey shows that the unaffiliated population has grown despite having one of the lowest retention rates of all "religious" groups.


We'll return to the whole "retention" issue in a moment.

2. Therefore, constant change in religious affiliation is to be expected for all faiths, Christian or not, in the US.

"The survey finds that constant movement characterizes the American religious marketplace, as every major religious group is simultaneously gaining and losing adherents. Those that are growing as a result of religious change are simply gaining new members at a faster rate than they are losing members. Conversely, those that are declining in number because of religious change simply are not attracting enough new members to offset the number of adherents who are leaving those particular faiths."

So the question is not "will people enter and leave our congregations?" but how many will leave and enter?" and "Will more enter than leave?"

I have written before about the clash between the the common Catholic assumption that religious identity is inherited, constant, and very difficult to change, and the reality that significant and rapid change in religious identity is, in fact, a long standing global phenomena. From my series on Independent Christianity.

"We tend to regard the three basic “types” of Christianity - Catholicism, Protestantism, and Orthodoxy - as essentially stable and fixed. Given the long histories and long memories of these faiths, it is only natural to think of religious affiliation as a deeply-rooted identity that changes only with difficulty and very slowly. We don’t expect to wake up tomorrow and find that Protestants have decided en masse that the Reformation was not a good idea or that the Orthodox have jettisoned their icons in favor of store-front missions. Our ecumenical dialogue is founded upon this presumed stability.

David Barrett, however, has a fascinating sidebar in his World Christian Encyclopedia indicating that a surprising amount of religious change is, in fact, the norm. As Barrett puts it, “Every year, millions of people are changing their religious profession or their Christian affiliation. Mass defections are occurring from stagnant majority religions to newer religions” (World Christian Encyclopedia, p. 5). It is imperative for us to understand that a significant part of this change is the result of personal choices, and not just natural birth and death. Evangelicals have a saying: “God has no grandchildren”. Although Catholics don’t usually think in these terms, the Church’s recent experience in the West should give us pause.

Christianity has experienced massive losses in the Western world over the last 60 years...every year, some 2,7655,100 church attenders in Europe and North America cease to be practicing Christians within the 12-month period, an average loss of 7,500 every day. At the global level, these losses from Christianity in the Western World slightly outweigh the gains in the Third world. (World Christian Encyclopedia, p. 5).

Most thoughtful Catholics are already aware of the grim situation of the Church in the West which, in part, spurred Pope John Paul II to call for a new evangelization.

On the other hand, Christianity has experienced massive gains across the Third World throughout the 20th century... The present net increase (in Africa) is 8.4 million new Christians a year (23,000 a day) of which 1.5 million are net new converts (converts minus defections or apostasies). Sizeable net conversions are also taking place in Asia (2.4 million/year). (World Christian Encyclopedia, p. 5).

Looking at the global scene as a whole, one must conclude that the mission ad gentes has been the great success story of the 20th century. It is the pastoral care and on-going evangelization of established Christian peoples – especially in historic European denominations - that has “collapsed”.


What the Pew Survey seems to be telling us is that the US is an exceptionally dynamic local example of a larger world-wide phenomena. If there is any place in the world where "God has no grandchildren", it is here.

3. "Retention":

The CARA response to the Pew survey rather sharply pointed out that the Pew results indicated that the Catholic Church has one of the better "retention" rates. Meaning, in this case, that 68% of those raised Catholic in the US still regarded themselves as Catholic when asked. (Again, this has nothing to do with practice of the faith.)

Those groups that presently doing better at "retention"?

Hinduism 84% retention
Judaism 76% retention
Orthodoxy 72% retention
Mormonism 70% retention

At the bottom, interestingly is "unaffiliated" . 54% of American adults who grew up without a faith choose one as an adult. So as I noted above, the fastest growing "religious" group in American also has the worst "retention". But since the numbers of religious drop-outs are growing so much faster that this group continues to expand at a brisk clip.

But notice this:

"the majority of the unaffiliated population (12.1% of the adult population overall) is made up of people who simply describe their religion as "nothing in particular." This group, in turn, is fairly evenly divided between the "secular unaffiliated," that is, those who say that religion is not important in their lives (6.3% of the adult population), and the "religious unaffiliated," that is, those who say that religion is either somewhat important or very important in their lives (5.8% of the overall adult population)."

This should tell us two things: focusing purely on retention is not the solution, and even unbelievers are remarkably open to changing their mind in the US - if we reach out to them.

If the Catholic Church is doing a reasonably fair job of retention, why all the angst?

Because we are doing one of the poorest jobs of evangelizing adults in the US and therefore, have, by far, the largest "net loss". Nearly four times as many American adults have left the Church (10.1%) as have entered her (2.6%),

The interesting thing is that Protestantism (taken as a whole) actually has a slightly larger drop=out rate than we do (11% vs our 10.1%) but our overall "net loss" is 266% larger than theirs. Because proportionately, 300% more American adults become Protestant than become Catholic. There is continual action on both sides of the equation.

On the far positive side of the spectrum lies non-denominational Protestantism. Nearly five times as many adults have entered non-denominational Protestant churches as have left them. While nearly four times as many adults have left the Catholic faith as enter it. Those two sentences sum up the profoundly different experiences which have colored our respective pastoral assumptions and practice.

What is fascinating is that Catholic theology has been way ahead of the curve in this area. All the debates about evangelization at the Vatican Council, John Paul's constant emphasis on the "new evangelization", the US Bishops in Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us stating that the formation of adults, rather than children, is the "preferential option" in catechesis. The Holy Spirit has been trying to tell us something for decades.

The development of universal childhood catechesis hand-in-hand with universal education was a huge breakthrough in the late 16th and 17th centuries, It was a dramatic, radical, innovation developed to respond to the challenge of the Reformation in the midst of a world where most adults were still illiterate. But four centuries later, it is time to get innovative again,

We are still putting the vast majority of our formation energy into the catechesis of our children without taking in the fact that we live in a culture where it is normative to revisit the whole religion thing again as adults. Where "retention" of one's childhood faith cannot be assumed, where it is not considered legitimate to simply accept and profess the faith your parents tried to pass on to you. Where it is considered not only normal but proper, fitting, and mature, to investigate various options and choose one for oneself. Where it just isn't true anymore to say a la The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie "give me a child when they are young and they will be mine for life"

Where we have to put as much or more energy into reaching out to, evangelizing, and forming adults as disciples as we do catechizing children. Because if we don't evangelize adults, there is a very good chance that we will lose our children as well.

Because if there is any place in the world where it is true that "God has no grandchildren", it is here.

To Evangelize Means to Teach the Art of Living

Bobby Vidal sends this link to a truly stimulating essay by Pope Benedict (written before he become Pope) on evangelization.

I'd like to quote the first few paragraphs (it is long). You can read the whole here.

"Human life cannot be realized by itself. Our life is an open question, an incomplete project, still to be brought to fruition and realized. Each man's fundamental question is: How will this be realized—becoming man? How does one learn the art of living? Which is the path toward happiness?

To evangelize means: to show this path—to teach the art of living. At the beginning of his public life Jesus says: I have come to evangelize the poor (Luke 4:18); this means: I have the response to your fundamental question; I will show you the path of life, the path toward happiness—rather: I am that path.

The deepest poverty is the inability of joy, the tediousness of a life considered absurd and contradictory. This poverty is widespread today, in very different forms in the materially rich as well as the poor countries. The inability of joy presupposes and produces the inability to love, produces jealousy, avarice—all defects that devastate the life of individuals and of the world.

This is why we are in need of a new evangelization—if the art of living remains an unknown, nothing else works. But this art is not the object of a science—this art can only be communicated by [one] who has life—he who is the Gospel personified."

I certainly feel challenged in my own lack of joy and love. As to "he who is the Gospel personified" - Yikes! Lord have mercy!
But my life was changed by a mentor I had as an undergrad, who did "teach me the art of living."

Comments?

Does Anyone Take These Vows Seriously?

Loved this comment by Alisa below:

This Easter season, I can't wait to renew my Baptismal vows! I also remember what I said "I will" to when my children were baptised; to hand on the faith. I said "I will" for my kids, and for everyone whose baptism I have witnessed. Does anyone take these vows seriously?

What a question to ask this week as we journey toward the Easter Vigil!

Comments?

Bracketology - the Magisterial Perspective

Matt Swain over at Apoloblogology will explain to you why Mount St. Mary's, the #65 seed in the NCAA tournament, will win the NCAA tournament this year.

More or less.

Night Driving

A woman confessed to a friend her confusion and hesitance about an important life decision she was facing. She professed to believe in God but could not bring herself to rely on her faith to help choose her path.

" How can I know I'm doing the right thing?" she asked. "How can I believe my decision will be right when I can't even see tomorrow?"

Her friend thought and finally said, "Here's how I look at it. You know when you're driving down a dark country road with no street lights to give you any notion of where you are? It's a little scary. But you rely on headlights. Now, those headlights may only show you ten yards of road in front of you, but you see where to go for that little stretch. And as you travel that ten yard stretch of road, the headlights show ten more yards, and ten more, until eventually you reach your destination safe and sound.

"That's how I feel about living by faith. I may not be able to see tomorrow, next week, or next year, but I know that God will give me the light to find my way when I need it."


(Thanks, Pat!)

Faith

WHEN YOU COME TO THE EDGE OF ALL THE LIGHT YOU KNOW AND

ARE ABOUT TO STEP OFF INTO THE DARKNESS OF THE UNKNOWN.

FAITH IS KNOWING ONE OF TWO THINGS WILL HAPPEN.

THERE WILL BE SOMETHING SOLID TO STAND ON,

OR

YOU WILL BE TAUGHT HOW TO FLY.
Barbara J. Winter

Christ is the Center

Must work on my presentation for the upcoming Evangelical Catholic Institute in Madison, Wisconsin. All about recognizing pre-discipleship levels of spiritual development. All most relevant to questions I've been asked lately.

There was the woman came up to me at a workshop break, just after I'd spoken about the critical importance of intentional discipleship in the discernment of charisms. Her comment: "I don't think I want to go deeper in my relationship with God. Can I still discern charisms?" I sputtered a bit since it was impossible to know exactly what she meant.

Was she stating that she recognized that she wasn't a disciple? Or did she mean that she was serious about her faith but had "hit the wall" and was struggling at this point in her spiritual life - perhaps facing some very difficult decision or reality. All I could do (in public, no less!) was repeat the basic point.

Discipleship precedes discernment because it is out of an extended following of Christ that charisms and vocations emerge.

As Hans Urs Von Balthazar pointed out, Simon, the fisherman, could have rooted around in his unconscious for the rest of the life and never come up with Peter, the apostle. His vocation as Peter was a mystery hidden in Christ that would not be revealed except through an extended relationship with Christ.

And charisms are nothing less than ways that God gratuitously allows weak and broken vessels like you and me to become channels and instruments of the redeeming work of Christ that we celebrate this week.

So talking about pre-discipleship levels of spiritual development is important.

Because Christ is the center and source of his Church.

Irish Dance: The Way It Was

Real Irish music and dance. Before Riverdance, before the Chieftains.

1963. When Irish dancers were allowed to be overweight and dowdy and you could still smoke in pubs. The world C. S. Lewis would remember.

Here's what it looked like:

St. Patrick, Evangelical Catholic?

Here's a lovely post about St. Patrick - on the day that would be his feast day but isn't this year because it is also the Monday of Holy Week. The blogger is pretty obviously Protestant but also obviously making a good faith effort to honor a man whom he has not been accustomed to honor.

Patrick returned to Ireland. He preached to the pagan tribes in the Irish language he had learned as a slave. His willingness to take the Gospel to the least likely and the least lovely people imaginable was met with extraordinary success. And that success would continue for over the course of nearly half a century of evangelization, church planting, and social reform. He would later write that God’s grace had so blessed his efforts that “many thousands were born again unto God.” Indeed, according to the early church chronicler Killen, “There can be no reasonable doubt that Patrick preached the Gospel, that he was a most zealous and efficient evangelist, and that he is entitled to be called the Apostle of Ireland.”

We know that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to “those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness” (Matthew 5:10) and that great “blessings” and “rewards” eventually await those who have been “insulted,” “slandered,” and “sore vexed” who nevertheless persevere in their high callings (Matthew 5:12-13). We know that often it is in “afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, tumults, labors, sleeplessness, and hunger” (2 Corinthians 6:4-5) that our real mettle is proven. Nevertheless, we often forget that these things are not simply to be endured. They actually frame our greatest calling. They lay the foundations for our most effective ministries. It is when, like Patrick, we come to love God’s enemies and ours that we are set free for great effectiveness.

I couldn't help but laugh while being simultaneously moved by that last paragraph.

"Born again"? Holy Mother of God! Didn't St. Patrick know that his use of that phrase is a sure sign of infiltration by evangelical Protestant influences? Course, it would have to be a prophetic infiltration since Protestantism wouldn't exist for another 1000 years. Hey, but saints can do stuff like that, right?

Or maybe, just maybe - the whole "born again" -"evangel"-evangelization thing wasn't born with the Reformation. Maybe it is older than Ireland and as Catholic as St. Patrick.

Just maybe.

John Allen on Chiara Lubich

John Allen has an excerpt up from an interview he did with Chiara Lubich, the founder of Foccolare, who died on Friday.

I enjoyed this telling exchange:

In comments to the press afterwards, Lubich revealed that she had once asked John Paul II over lunch if he was comfortable with a woman being president of a major international Catholic movement (the Focolare constitution actually requires that the president be a woman). Magari! was the pope’s Italian response, roughly the equivalent of “Are you kidding?” He was content with the arrangement, Lubich said, because he believes in what Catholic theologian Hans von Balthasar described as a balance between the “Petrine” and “Marian” principles in the church, between the hierarchical and the charismatic.

WYD: the Holy Spirit and Missions

120 days till World Youth Day in Sydney.

And via Zenit comes this announcement regarding the theme of WYD catechesis: The Holy Spirit and Missions

On Wednesday, July 16, bishops will guide youth in learning about the call to live in the Holy Spirit, drawing from Galatians 5:25. The following day, youth will consider the Holy Spirit as the soul of the Church, as explained in 1 Corinthians 12:13. Friday, July 18, will be focused on the theme of World Youth Day, taken from Acts 1:8. That day's catechesis will highlight the Holy Spirit as the principal agent of mission.

Sounds fabulous.

It is going to be very exciting to have the Catherine of Siena Institute playing a part even through neither Fr. Mike or I will be present. Our Australian team will be offering a series of short presentations on charisms and discernment at the Youth Expo and will also be representing us at two booths (Dominican and Archdiocse of Melbourne) at the Vocation Expo.

The WYD organizing team has announced that they are expecting 125,000 overseas visitors, despite the very high value of the Australian dollar. More visitors will come to WYD than to the 2000 Olympic Games. 21,000 are expected to come from the US.

Palm Sunday Weekend

Palm Sunday weekend at the top of the continent. I haven't been able to go up since Christmas.

Snow piled everywhere. Every home in Leadville had a minimum of 6 feet of snow in front, barring doors, framing tunnel-like driveways, burying brightly colored fences. Which was impressive until you caught a glimpse of the real piles.

8, 10, 12, 16 feet high looming over trucks and in every available open lot where the city has moved a season's worth of snow. Pure powder heaped upon grey stone-like cliffs of old snow.

I don't think I want to hang around until the thaw. I can't imagine what is like when it all begins to melt. The Arkansas River which begins outside Leadville was already looking pretty high. It will be a great white water rafting season this June.

Hiked up to the Tennessee Pass Cookhouse along the snowshoe trail. The Cookhouse is unique - in winter you can only reach it by snowshoe or Nordic ski (or snow mobile for the less athletically inclined). A mile of schlussing - mostly uphill - earns you a fantastic gourmet meal in a 10, 600 ft high yurt without running water or electricity but with stunning views.

I didn't eat this time but wanted to see how arduous the trail might be and to judge whether any of my lowland friends could make the trip. The answer: I'm dreaming of snowmobiles for the flatlanders.

Also went snowshoeing along the Continental Divide - on one of those classic high country winter morns - azure skies, mounds of powder snow almost concealing swift-running creeks, forests of pine and spruce, utter silence.

The sort of Palm Sunday weekend I never dreamed of before moving here.

It is also snowy in the lowlands (6,700 feet) this morning but we are supposed to reach 60 later this week. Our spring showers come in white. But, our bulbs, like the power of the resurrection, are already making their presence known as we move into Holy Week.

More blogging in a bit.

Spring Wonderland?

Yesterday, I watered trees, perennials, and lawn and saw my first two bulbs pushing up. Around here you only plant the hardiest of the hardy. I get mine from High Country Gardens of Santa Fe which has the same altitude and climate as we do and specializes in tough and hardy plants for the mountain and arid west.

Good thing. This morning, it's a winter wonderland outside and snowing hard.

Welcome to early spring (late winter?) in the Rockies. March is our snowiest month - and it's wetter snow, not the stuff that you can sweep away with a broom like frozen powdered sugar.

Beautiful though.

Focolare and Community

Mariopolis, the Focolare "little cities" that have sprung up all over the world are also fascinating. They are naturally, filled with EoC businesses. My question: Is it possible to successfully run a EOC business without living in a Focolare community?

Loppiano, in Tuscany, is the oldest and how has about 900 inhabitants from 70 nations.

9 schools of formation are located in Loppiano. The variety of businesses is also fascinating:

The Loppiano Prima Co-operative started in 1973. Its main activity is producing wine and olive oil. At present the members of the cooperative number 4,000. It is appreciated for the way it is managed and for being part of the project of the "Economy of Communion" wherein the capital and work are placed at the service of the community.

The Fantasy workshops have specialised in materials, objects and furniture for babies and small children.

The Azur company comprises several activities such as revision of electric meters, assembling of electricity stabilisers, production of furniture and accessories for children, wooden religious articles and different handicraft objects.

The Gigli del Campo is a fashion workshop and boutique mainly for lady's wear. Even fashion can express a style of life by reflecting through harmony and the originality of a dress design the beauty of creation.

In the artistic field there are two significant art studios: the Centro Ave and La Bottega di Ciro. The former includes sculpture, painting, design and architecture. The latter produces most original, rich and charming pieces of art, using a unique combination of discarded materials (wood, iron, stone, cloth, etc.).

40,000 visitors travel to Loppiano every year. There is a Mariopolis in the US - in Hyde Park, NY.

Any ID readers ever visit a Mariopolis?

Focolare and The Economy of Communion

I had done some research recently on the economic movement that has arised from Focolare called the "Economy of Communion" and found it intriguing. It was started by Chiara Lubich in response to the poverty she witnessed in Brazilian shantytowns.

Here's the idea:

Business owners (on 5 continents) who participate in the project, freely choose to share their business profits according to three purposes of equal importance.

Help people in need - creating new jobs and intervening to meet their immediate needs beginning with those who share in the spirit that animates the Economy of Communion;

Spread the "Culture of Giving" and of loving - indispensable and necessary values for an Economy of Communion;

Grow the business - which has to remain efficient while remaining open to giving.

The goal:

To link efficiency and solidarity;
Rely on the strength of the culture of giving to change economic behavior.
Generate income which is pooled with other EOC businesses and given to the poor - presumably through other Foccolare entities around the country.

So far: 735 businesses have taken part - many were started as part of the movement - the majority in Europe although 245 are in North and South America.

The idea seems to be a variant on the US non-profit system (in that the goal is not generating income for stock holders) but these businesses exist to generate jobs, economic opportunity, and resources for the employees, the needy, and the community.

One American example:

In 1991 JoAnn and Tom Rowley from Arizona and Joan Duggan from Chicago arrived at Mariapolis Luminosa in Hyde Park, New York. They quickly realized that they shared both a love for the field of education and the desire to commit everything to become part of the fascinating EoC project.

At the time, the local economy was depressed as the largest businesses in the area were cutting their staff and closing facilities. But these 3 educators decided to pool their talents and interests to start a very special educational support center, "Finish Line".

Joan had strong executive experience in a highly successful computer leasing business as well as teaching experience at the university level. Tom had been a teacher for 20 years and wanted to continue teaching while JoAnn had administrative experience in schools. Their objective was to meet the educational needs of students that the public schools cannot meet adequately due to budget cuts, reduction of personnel, and increasingly large classes.

"Finish Line" opened May 1, 1992. Despite the economic downturn in the area, in a few years "Finish Line" was already in the black. It schedules more than 4000 educational hours a year and provides steady employment for 13 other teachers.
Finish Line has also given $20,000 to Economy of Communion projects.

It is all quite inspiring - a practical attempt to seek out and work for the human person and the common good through business. Anyone have direct experience with this Focolare approach to business?

Chiara Lubich Has Died

Chiara Lubich, founder of Focolare and one of the great pioneers of the lay apostolate, died today. Chiara founded the Focolare movement at the age of 22 in the midst of World War II. She was 88.

Per Asia News:

“All day yesterday” – continues the release, – “hundreds of people - relatives, close collaborates and her spiritual children – passed through her room to bid her a final farewell, before gathering in the nearby chapel, and around the house in prayer. An uninterrupted and spontaneous procession. To some, Chiara was even able to signal understanding, despite her extreme weakness”.

After a period of hostility and difficulty with the ecclesial hierarchy of the time, in 1964 Chiara was received for the first time by the Pope, then Paul VI, who recognised the movement as "A work of God”. From then on private and public papal audiences – with Paul VI and then John Paul II – multiplied, as well as their interventions during international events.

The Focolare Movement, founded in Trent, Italy, in 1943, is present today in 182 nations and reaches over 5 million people. Focolare means “hearth” or “family fireside.”

Chiara Lubich, together with a small group of friends, realized that God is the only ideal worth living for and as a result they focused their lives on the Gospel. Many others followed. Their goal became one of striving towards the fulfillment of Jesus’ prayer to the Father: “May they all be one” (Jn 17:21).

Through its 18 branches and 6 mass movements the Focolare spirituality is having an impact on family life, the youth world and on all areas of ecclesial and secular life.

Focolare has given birth to :

33 little cities throughout the world strive to be a sample of a society renewed by the Gospel message of unity. In the United States the little city Mariapolis Luminosa is located in Hyde Park, New York.
•
The Abba School is an interdisciplinary study center for an elaboration of scholarly disciplines.
•
The Economy of Communion in Freedom, based on a culture of giving, is an innovative economic proposal now encompassing close to 800 businesses in the world.
•
The Movement for Unity in Politics, present in over 40 countries, is an association of politicians who, in unity across party lines, put the common good first.
•
Over 1,000 social programs are active worldwide.
•
27 publishing houses produce books and magazines.
•
Centers for the arts and media are inspired by “God as Beauty.”



Pray for her and for all whom God has blessed through her life. Well done, good and faithful servant.

Update: Here is the text of Pope Benedict's telegraph to the Focolare Movement:

Pope's message on death of Chiara Lubich

The Holy Father has sent a telegram to Fr Oreste Basso, co-president of the Focolari Movement, for the death at the age of 88 of the movement's founder Chiara Lubich. The text of the telegram is given below.

"With deep emotion I learned the news of the pious death of Ms Chiara Lubich, which came at the end of a long and fruitful life marked by her tireless love for the abandoned Jesus. At this moment of painful separation I remain affectionately and spiritually close to her relatives and to the entire Work of Mary - the Focolari Movement which began with her - and to those who appreciated her constant commitment for communion in the Church, for ecumenical dialogue and for fraternity among all peoples. I thank the Lord for the witness of her life, spent in listening to the needs of modern man in complete faithfulness to the Church and to the Pope. And, as I commend her soul to divine goodness that she may be welcomed in the bosom of the Father, I hope that those who knew and met her, admiring the wonders that God achieved through her missionary ardour, may follow her footsteps and keep her charism alive. With such sentiments, I invoke the maternal intercession of Mary and willingly impart my apostolic blessing to everyone".
We'd love to hear from those who have had direct contact with the Foccolare movement or Chiara Lubich.

As the 19th century evangelist, Dwight L. Moody, was fond of saying: "The world has not yet seen what God will do through the life of a man or woman who is wholly consecrated to Him." And then he would always add:

"By the grace of God, I will be that man."

Chiara Lubich, and my friend Natalia about whom I wrote yesterday, and so many others have dared to answer that challenge with their lives. We have seen it. We are seeing it.

But the question remains as we move into Holy Week: Are others seeing it in us?

Pray for Archbishop Rahho and Christians of Iraq

This Holy Week, they are carrying their own heavy cross.

The body of Iraq's kidnapped Chaldean Catholic Archbishop has been found near the northern city of Mosul, prompting warnings of a mass exodus of Christians from Iraq.

Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was abducted on February 29 shortly after leaving Mass in Mosul, in what the Pope described as an "abominable" act. The three people who were with him were killed by the kidnappers.

This You tube video of the funeral of another Caldean Catholic martyr says it all. Father Ragheed Ganni, a 35 year old Chaldean Catholic Priest killed on Sunday June 3rd, 2007 with three of his deacons right after celebrating mass at Holy Spirit Chaldean Catholic Church in Mosul, Iraq. The car of Father Ragheed and the three deacons was stopped by terrorists shortly after leaving the church. They were forced to get down from the car and asked to declare their conversion to Islam. When the four martyrs refused they were brutally gunned down with machine guns.



Fr. Ganni is singing. In English, the hymn goes:

We honor you with hymns O Mother of God, you are the pride of the whole earth, because the Word of God whom the Father sent, chose to take His human body from you. The generations call you blessed, all nations and people's honor you and ask for mercy by your prayers. You are a generous earth in which plants of joy always grow.

The Making of a Bi-Cultural Christian

More accumulated varia.

Years ago, I recorded an inexpensive cd of my journey into the Catholic Church because the whole story takes too long to tell in most workshops and seminars and I'd had hundreds of people ask me about it over the years.

Now we have it (The Making of a Bi-Cultural Christian or MBCC for short)

But I've found it hard to talk about the MBCC at events because it feels oddly personal. Discernment or the theology of the laity or evangelization is altogether different but I'm not a personality and this is about me so I tend to mutter something very brief and incoherent with an embarrassed look on my face, if I remember to talk about it at all.

Predictable result: very few people have listened to the cd and I've wondered if it had been worth the trouble to do it at all. Clearly, Scott Hahn or the Coming Home Network doesn't have to worry about any competition from me!

But last weekend, one of our teachers told me that he had found it extremely useful in RCIA. He told me about a young women who was entering the Church from a fundamentalist background but whose parents were very concerned about her decision. He gave her a copy of the cd to take home for Christmas where both she and her parents listened to it. Mark told me that she returned from the holidays in a much more peaceful place because her parents were more comfortable with her decision as a result of listening to the cd.

So I'm passing it on. Got RCIA candidates from an evangelical background? Pick up a copy of The Making of a Bi-Cultural Christian (at $5/cd, how can you lose? We're nothing if not cheap.) and let them listen to it.

The CD includes the story of what I call the "Advent of the three miracles". Mark Shea and I were survivors of three bad RCIAs and graduates of none, it was nearly Christmas, a tragically abused baby was dying, and the Holy Spirit was on the move.

It is encouraging to think that God can use our story to help others make the same journey.

It's Happening on Martha's Vineyard

Mike in our office just got off the phone with Deacon Karl Buder of Martha's Vineyard who has quite a story to tell.

Deacon Karl was just ordained in October. Shortly afterward, his pastor handed him a Called & Gifted cd set which he had purchased 3 years earlier but never had time to do anything with.

Deacon Karl listened to the C & G, got excited, and found himself in Chicago land in December being trained to faciliate the discernment of others. I did that training and had the fun of getting to know him a bit and hear his stories about the realities of life on that famous island with its three parishes merging into one, a large Portuguese community, a mostly working class year round population, and the rich summer visitors who fuel the economy.

So when Deacon Karl called today and told us that he had offered little workshops using our cds which has really struck a chord with people and done 45 one-on-one interviews in the past 3 months, we were delighted. One comment that really said it all: his experience of the Called & Gifted process has changed the course of his ministry.

For years, I've been telling people when I train them to do "discernment interviews", that this is the most fun you can have legally. And the experience of so many has born this out as they are amazed and encouraged by the stories they hear of God's work in and through the lives of very ordinary Catholics.

But the longer I work with the whole discernment process, the more aware I am that it is a fabulous and critical pastoral awareness and skill for anyone - priests, religious, lay leaders of all kinds - in some kind of pastoral leadership. Not to mention one of the essential tasks of governance.

Why talk about governance on a blog dedicated to the laity? Because governance, one of three major tasks of the pastoral office, has big implications for intentional discipleship and the gifts and vocations of the laity. (There is only one pastoral office, which bishops hold in its fullness, priests and deacons participate in as co-workers of the bishop and lay leaders in a parish participate in by delegation from the bishop or pastor - not by right).

The spiritual forces unleashed by conversion naturally demand governance. The Church is eloquent on the fact that calling forth the charisms and vocations of all the baptized for the sake of our common evangelical mission constitutes an indispensable part of governance.

"The exercise of the munus regendi is directed both to gathering the flock in the visible unity of a single profession of faith lived in the sacramental communion of the Church and to guiding that flock, in the diversity of its gifts and callings, towards a common goal: the proclamation of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Every act of ecclesiastical governance, consequently, must be aimed at fostering communion and mission." (emphasis mine) Address of John Paul II to the Bishops of the ecclesiastical regions of Pennsylvania and New Jersey (USA) on their “Ad Limina” visit, Saturday, September 11, 2004

This is why the Church teaches that clergy are to “cooperate” with the laity, listen to them, recognize their experience and competence, awaken and deepen their sense of co-responsibility, help them explore and discern their vocations, and form them for and support them in their secular apostolate (Pastores DaboVobis, 59, 74).

In their spare time, priests are also called to “recognize”, uncover with faith, acknowledge with joy, foster with diligence, know, appreciate, judge and discern, coordinate, put to good use, and have heartfelt esteem for the charisms of the laity (Lumen Gentium, 30; Presbyterorum Ordinis, 9; Pastores Dabo Vobis 40, 74, Christifideles Laici, 32)

Now It's happening on Martha's Vineyard. The parish is sending 4 more people (to California!) to be trained as interviewers, including one young woman who is bi-lingual in English and Portuguese.

This also means that our California interviewer training in April is full and we can't take any more trainees.

But we do have another training in Seattle coming up - at the end of March and several more that are in the development phase around the country. Give us a call (888 878 6789) to find out if a training is coming to a town near you.

Of course, to be part of the fun of facilitating someone else' discernment, you have to have first done some discernment of your own.

The first step is always to have gone through a live introductory Called & Gifted workshop or to have listened to it on cd, taken the inventory, and had your own interview (which we can do by phone).

It is wonderful, life-changing thing to be a little "John the Baptist" making straight the path of someone whom God has anointed and sent to heal and transform our world. Not to mention - the most fun you can have legally!

Save Money. Evangelize the World.

We are offering our exciting new Making Disciples seminar three times this summer and we are even more excited to be able to offer some serious discounts to parishes or groups that send more than one person! The more leaders in a parish get the vision and have the skills, the faster we can start fostering cultures of intentional discipleship in our communities.

$50 off a second attendee if you have separate rooms

$80 off the second person if you share a room.

$100 off/per person for the 3rd, 4th, 5th (or more!) attendees (Bring 8 and the 8th person is free!)

What is Making Disciples about?

The key to intentional discipleship is a critical part of catechesis and formation that seldom happens in the Catholic pastoral practice: thoughtful pre-evangelization and an initial proclamation of Christ that asks for a deliberate personal response.

Making Disciples is a four day seminar (Sunday evening through Thursday at noon) that will help participants

·Understand intentional discipleship and that it is the normative source of spiritual life, and thus the ultimate end of all pastoral ministry.

·Understand why initial discipleship precedes catechesis and how life-changing catechesis and formation builds on discipleship.

·Learn how to listen for and recognize pre-discipleship stages of spiritual growth.

·Learn how to facilitate the spiritual growth of those - whether baptized and “active” or not - who are not yet disciples.

·Learn how to articulate the basic kerygma that awakens initial faith in a gentle and non-threatening way.

·Learn how to use these skills in a wide variety of pastoral settings: RCIA/inquiry, adult faith formation, sacramental prep, spiritual direction, pastoral counseling, or gifts and vocational discernment.

·Have an opportunity to prayerfully reflect on their own journey toward discipleship.

The full seminar will be offered

June 8 - 12 in Benet Lake, Wisconsin
July 27 - 31 in Colorado Springs, Colorado
August 10 - 14 in Spokane, Washington

Call our office (888 878 6789) or send an e-mail to miked@siena.org to find out more.

I will be doing a two hour rif on Making Disciples at the Evangelical Catholic Institute in Madison, WI again this year. (Where I'll get to hear Fr. Robert Baron and Francis Beckworth. Not shabby, that!) We've presented the basic ideas 5 times in 5 different configurations so far and every time people say it has changed their own spiritual lives and how they regard and go about ministry.

We'd love to have you - and your friends - be part of the conversation!

Just Last Night

Just last night, I spent 4 hours listening to a remarkable friend who has led a remarkable life of obedience to Christ for the past 25 years. 10 years ago, I wrote about Natalia in the first issue of the Siena Scribe and 10 years later, she is still at it. 12 years ago, I tried to incorporate Natalia's story into an article on the mission of the laity for a national Catholic magazine and the editor's response was immediate. He asked me to take out her story because "none of his readers could aspire to such a thing."

Oh, really? Good thing Natalia isn't Catholic. Because she's been, not only aspiring, but doing "such a thing" for the past 25 years with the support of her family, friends, her local congregation, and now, a very large and established international organization. Because aspiring to have a real impact on the world for Christ is considered normative where she hails from.

Now Natalia is facing yet another season of personal challenge and life-altering change. But her confidence in God, who has guided and provided through these past 25 years, remains high. Your prayers for her (and her family's) protection and provision would be greatly appreciated.

I re-read the story I wrote about Natalia this morning and the beauty of her long obedience was as fresh as ever. So I thought I would share it with you all.

Just last night, I was sitting with my close friend Natalia in the narrow kitchen of a old, rambling University District home, our chairs drawn up beside the faded linoleum sideboard upon which we perched our cups of tea. Every year, she returns from her home in the Middle East to spend a month in Seattle and every year, we eagerly await the chance to share our experiences with each other.

"Imagine, just last week I was out in the villages," she said with a wistful expression. "I don’t know if this is wrong, but I feel closer to the village women than I do to the westerners who live around me. After seven years, I really feel like those women are my sisters." Natalia loves her desert home. She has become fluent in the language and feels deeply bonded with the people there. She was really distressed when it looked as though the government might refuse to renew her family’s visa for another two years and tremendously relieved when she knew that she could return. What is sometimes difficult for me to remember is that Natalia lives in a country that is internationally recognized as one of the most religiously repressive in the world.

In Natalia’s home, phones are routinely tapped, letters opened, spies attend gatherings, and the government keeps a "file" on every resident, especially foreigners. For a citizen of this place to embrace another faith is illegal and could result in prison or even death. Natalia and I correspond in a kind of code but I know that however much I can try to read between the lines, I will never really know what has happened until I see her in person. Her situation is so potentially dangerous that I can never share publicly the name of the country in which she lives, and I have given her a pseudonym for this article.

Why, you might ask, would anyone want to live in such a place, much less love it? Natalia is one of those Christians with the special charism of missionary. The charism of missionary empowers a Christian to be a channel of God’s goodness to others by effectively and joyfully using their charisms in a second culture. No "public" missionary would ever be allowed to enter this country and do openly Christian preaching or evangelization. But Natalia’s passport describes her occupation as "homemaker." As a laywoman, she has the freedom to do what no bishop or priest or sister could hope to do: be a living testimony to the love, life and teachings of Jesus Christ to people who would otherwise have no reasonable opportunity in their lifetime to hear the Christian message.

Westerners are seldom invited to the homes of local people, but Natalia has won the love and trust of many. So she dons local dress and drives out to the villages and the desert and sits on the floor or in a tent, eating goat and drinking spiced coffee and chatting. She has prayed for their sick children in the name of Jesus and seen them healed. She has listened to many women share their struggles with their families and their lack of freedom. She has shared Scripture and prayed with them. And increasingly she finds that she feels closer to these women than to the many western expatriates who live near her.

Natalia is not Catholic and it has never dawned on her that she is a living embodiment of Pope John Paul’s observation that "all the laity are missionaries by baptism" and that "they are bound by the general obligation and they have the right, whether as individuals or in associations, to strive so that the divine message of salvation may be known and accepted by all people throughout the world. This obligation is all the more insistent in circumstances in which only through them are people able to hear the Gospel and to know Christ" (from the encyclical Redemptoris Missio). Natalia has never heard of St. Nino, the fourth century laywoman apostle of Georgia (a country south of Russia that used to be part of the Soviet Union) or of the lay Catholics of Japan who, in the face of terrible persecution, sustained and passed on the faith for nearly 250 years without the pastoral care of any priests. Natalia only knows that she is being obedient to God’s call.

Not only does Natalia not know that what she is doing perfectly reflects Church teaching about the role of the laity, many Catholics don’t get it either. When I recently tried to use her story as an illustration for an article on lay vocations to be published in a national Catholic magazine, the editor told me to find another person’s story to tell. "None of our readers could possibly aspire to such a ministry," was his verdict.

I meditated on his comment last night as I watched Natalia talking. This five-foot-nothing, middle-aged housewife, her rumpled clothes and drooping eyes mirroring her exhaustion and jet lag, was this woman so very extraordinary? Could none of the thousands of lay Catholics who read that magazine ever dream of doing something similar? I knew that this was not true. After all, hadn’t I just taken my lay missionary cousin out to breakfast last month and listened to his stories of his work in Moscow? Hadn’t my roommate in seminary spent five years as a lay missionary in Turkey before marrying a local Armenian? Didn’t my youngest sister turn twenty while leading Bible studies in Nigerian university dormitories? I knew that there were thousands of non-traditional lay missionaries in the world. What was it that made this editor sense that his Catholic readership would find such a story to be "too much"?

Then I remembered a comment that had been made by one of the participants in my last spiritual gifts discernment class. The topic that day was our individual vocations and how our charisms are given to us as both clues to our call in life and as powerful tools that enable us to carry out our mission. "But, of course, just living our normal lives and taking care of our families is a real vocation" offered a warm and wise older woman to a younger woman. A small chorus of verbal agreement and nodding heads followed her observation. There seemed to be real satisfaction in reaffirming that plain, ordinary life was a genuine mission, a full vocation, that God wasn’t probably calling anyone in the room to any of the unusual vocations that we had been discussing. I found myself wanting to say "Yes, but…"

What if we are called both to ordinary lay life and something else on behalf of the world? What if our ordinary life is intended to be the channel through which God can bring the extraordinary to pass? If we are married and working and supporting a family, can we assume that is the full extent of God’s call on our life? It is "too much" for lay Catholics to expect God to call them to that which will not just sustain the status quo but change it? Is it pretentious for us to expect God to use us to transform the whole world for Jesus Christ? Is it excessive for us to be open to the possibility that God will use lay men and women to do dramatic things for his kingdom that could not be done by a priest or religious?

What, I wondered, if we started looking on the Natalias of the world as possible role models for average Catholics? What would happen if we opened ourselves to a whole new level of lay apostolic creativity, initiative, and fruitfulness? I think that we would be astonished at the remarkable charisms and ministries that God would raise up among us if, as a community, we nurtured the conviction that there are many Natalias called to and gifted for critical Kingdom tasks among us, and that for the sake of the whole Church, we must help them discern and take up their God-given mission in life.

A New American Easter Discipline: Befriending New Catholics

My friend Eryn sent me this great Zenit piece on the adults entering the Church again this Easter.

Tens of thousands of Americans will join the Catholic Church this Holy Saturday through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.

Many of those in the RCIA program participated in the Rite of Election with their bishops at the beginning of Lent and will be baptized, confirmed and receive Communion for the first time this Saturday. More, who already have been baptized, will embrace full membership in the Catholic Church.

The numbers vary across dioceses. The Diocese of Orange, California, for example, will baptize more than 650 people and welcome more than 500 others into full communion at the Easter Vigil.

The Archdiocese of Detroit registers some of the largest numbers with 589 catechumens receiving full initiation and 497 candidates from other Christian traditions being received into full communion. Although technically not part of the RCIA, 289 baptized Catholics will also receive confirmation and Eucharist.

In Ohio, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati will welcome during the Easter Vigil 437 catechumens and 541 candidates for a total of 978 people; another 65 candidates were brought into the Church at other times during the year.

According to early figures, in 2007, almost 64,500 adults were baptized in the Catholic Church and nearly 93,000 came into full communion. As has happened for the past 12 years, nearly 160,000 adults became Catholic by choice last Easter.

We should always remember that this beautiful, stirring, annual drama is unique in the western world. It is the positive side of the same dynamics that draw so many out of the Church - a religious culture that fosters individual spiritual searching and gives the searcher a vast spectrum of options.

I've told this story before but I remember vividly being part of a parish meeting with Cardinal Schonborn of Vienna and listening to someone involved in a returning Catholics program, tell him that their parish saw an average of 100 people enter every year.

"One hundred?" the Cardinal responded in an astonished tone.

"Yes"

"One hundred?" He repeated as though his excellent English was suddenly failing him.

"Yes."

"One hundred"???? He asked yet again.

"Yes, your Eminence, one hundred." replied his puzzled informant.

But many, even a majority, will not be practicing a year from now. For a variety of reasons that we have discussed on this blog before.

One thing we can do this year to change that statistic. Befriend these new Catholics who are about to leave the friendly little womb of the catechumenate for the vast ocean of the Church universal. Lots of new Catholics drown in that ocean.

So lets not just congratulate them at the Vigil. Want to do your part to change those Pew statistics? Consider how you can encourage, foster the faith of the new Catholics in your parish through your continued friendship and support this year. Learn their name. Go out of your way to greet them at Mass. Invite them over to dinner. Invite them into a small faith-centered group. Whatever.

Lets all take some personal responsibility for the on-going spiritual and relationship welfare of these new Catholics. It could literally change the course of someone's life.

Blogging Speed Bump

I'm home. Just finding it hard to find time to blog in the midst of everything else, But I will soon.

When I Grow Up, I'm Gonna Start Me a Filthy Rich Cult

Since the original conversation that sparked this post has been closed down, I see no point in retaining the link and so have adapted my post below as follows.

I'm sorry but nobody has ever referred to me as "a dazzling heretic". Now Fr. Michael Sweeney , my co-founder, was dazzling but no one has ever used that word of me. And as for my "cult" (HAH!) - if only! What's the point in running a poverty-striken cult?

We've been vetted by the Pontifical Council for the Laity (that's how you get invited to present at World Youth Day, folks), the diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska (ever been vetted by Bishop Bruskewitz???? It's easier to make it onto the Supreme Court.) etc.

If you'd like to know where we stand, no worries. It's all documented. Check our library links to The Parish: Mission or Maintenance - the presentation we gave to seminarians and theologians in Rome at the North American College and the Angelicum.

Or get a hold of our Catholic Spiritual Gifts Resource Guide where I've documented all the sources in Catholic teaching on the charisms: Scriptural, patristic, Thomistic, conciliar, magisterial, papal, and from the universal catechism.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - we are meticulous in our attempts to think and teach with the Church. Really. Truly.
It's not a pose. It is what drew us into existence in the first place.

We aren't perfect by any means. But we are trying to be faithful.

Twelve Days of Pre-St. Patrick's

We continue our celebration of the Twelve Days of Pre-St. Patrick's with this reminder of the reason for the season:

Occupational Hymns

IF YOU KNOW YOUR HYMNS, You will love these Occupational Hymns


Weatherman's Hymn................There Shall Be Showers of Blessings

Dentist's Hymn..............................Crown Him with Many Crowns

Contractor's Hymn...........................The Church's One Foundation

The Tailor's Hymn.........................................Holy, Holy, Holy

The Golfer's Hymn........................There's a Green Hill Far Away

The Politician's Hymn............................Standing on the Promises

Optometrist's Hymn.....................Open My Eyes That I Might See

The IRS Agent's Hymn.....................................I Surrender All

The Gossip's Hymn.............................................Pass Me Not


The Electrician's Hymn.........................................Shine On Me

The Shopper's Hymn.....................................Sweet Bye and Bye

The Realtor's Hymn............I've Got a Mansion, Just Over the Hilltop

The Massage Therapists Hymn............................. He Touched Me

The Doctor's Hymn.......................................The Great Physican

AND for those who speed on the highway - a few hymns:


65mph.................................................Nearer My God To Thee

85mph.............................................ThisWorld Is Not my Home

95mph.................................................Lord, I'm Coming Home

100mph.......................................................Precious Memories

It's Mission Time in Latin America

The "Great Continental Mission" talked about when the Holy Father visited Brazil last year is starting to take shape.

But the context sounds oh so familiar. From CNS:

"Archbishop Hector Cabrejos Vidarte of Trujillo, who heads the Peruvian bishops' conference and serves as coordinator of mission and spirituality for the Latin American bishops' council, or CELAM, sees the mission as an ongoing effort that signifies a shift in the way parishes reach out to the faithful.

"The idea is that the mission not have a beginning and an end, but that it involve preparation and intensive action over time, along with evaluation," he said.

The archbishop foresees a long-term effort spanning at least 10 or 15 years.

"The idea is that it be a permanent mission. All of CELAM's pastoral programs are oriented toward the continental mission," he said.

At the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean last May, leaders expressed concern that Catholics were drifting away from the church. In a 2005 survey by the Chilean polling firm Latinobarometro, while three-quarters of the people surveyed in the region said they considered themselves Catholic, only 40 percent said they practiced their faith.

What did not emerge from Aparecida, however, was a clear plan for addressing the problem, although the final document mentions the need for renewal of church structures and a greater emphasis on community.

Archbishop Cabrejos said a greater sense of community is one of the attractions of evangelical churches.

"Evangelical churches are small communities. The Catholic Church operates on a universal principle. It has grown so much that many people are anonymous," he told Catholic News Service. "The evangelicals haven't discovered anything new. They have gone back to the early Christian community -- that's how the church grew."

At Aparecida, the bishops called for a greater emphasis on small communities, mentioning a variety of forms, from the base Christian communities that emerged in the 1970s and 1980s to newer lay and religious movements.

The growth of those groups in recent years is a response to "people's needs and longings," Archbishop Cabrejos told CNS. "People are looking for relationships; they don't want to be anonymous. These movements give people the sense of belonging."

Nevertheless, he said, the parish must remain the cornerstone of the church.

"There is no substitute for the parish," he said. "The parish is the heart of the church. But it needs to be a missionary parish. Instead of waiting for people to come, church workers must go seek them out. That's the difference."

Sherry's note: Hurrah and Praise God! Mission, not maintenance, is the mission of the parish. Then, the Archbishop made this interesting comment:

"This does not necessarily mean trying to lure back Catholics who have switched to other Christian churches, he said. Pastoral workers must first reinforce the faith of those who still consider themselves Catholic and try to reach the increasing number who have simply become unchurched.

Evangelical groups have made inroads "because there is a lack of formation. Evangelization was done, but there has not been ongoing formation as part of that evangelization," Archbishop Cabrejos said. "The first mission is to our own faithful, to reinforce formation and evangelization. Then the church can move outward."


Comments?

This Weekend

Coming your way this weekend - if you live in the northwest:

Called & Gifted workshops in
Chewalah, WA
Portland, OR
Lewiston, ID

Fr. MIke flies out tomorrow morning but he'll be doing a Lenten mission in Aurora, IL (diocese of Rockville) next week..

I'll be helping to teach the Portland workshop. Love to chat with any ID readers

If I Am LIfted Up

The discussion in the comments on this post: The Pew Survey and Evangelical Mission in Catholic Quebec, has raised the subject of Christ's presence in the Eucharist and its role in pre-evangelization and initial proclamation of the gospel (which are the Church's terms for these pre-catechetical stages of spiritual development).

We've posted a number of times about this in the past so I thought I'd just quote and link to a few of these past posts for our readers today:

"If I Am LIfted Up":

One very interesting thing I have see in my own experience and heard from others as I travel is the mysterious power of the presence of the Blessed Sacrament to affect even those who are not believers and have no idea Who is present.

There are a number of stories I could tell:

There is my own story since it was the recognition of a presence of God that I had not experienced elsewhere that originally lured me into praying in Catholic churches as an undergraduate.

And the story of a friend of mine, who was a unbelieving, practicing homosexual and yet was also seeking and would spend hours at a time simply sitting in my parish, soaking up the Real Presence.

I could tell you of an unbaptized college student who went to a friend of mine, a Catholic chaplain and said she wanted to become Catholic. The priest asked "Why? Do you have Catholic family members or friends, do you attend Mass, have you been reading books? What has made you want to become Catholic? "No", she replied and then dragged him with trembling hands into the sanctuary and pointed to the tabernacle. "I want that", she said. She didn't know what That was but she could feel the goodness eminating from the tabernacle.

I could tell you of a large, urban diocese rejuvenated by a lay person who championed Eucharistic Adoration and collaborated with her bishop to establish it in the cathedral and then throughout the diocese.
My question:

What if we stop thinking of Adoration as only a devotion for the already devout and consider it also as a form of evangelization particularly suited to the post-modern mindset which responds to mystery and presence?

The presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament is accessible to the non-baptized, the non-Catholic, the unchurched, the lapsed, the badly catechized, the wounded, the skeptical, the seeking, and the prodigal.

I know that there are movements for youth and young adults that combine adoration and praise and worship in various creative ways. I know of evangelization retreats that incorporate Adoration into the retreat. But this is the sort of thing that could be easily done in the local parish - Adoration regularly presented in a context that would be accessible to and sensitive to the unbelieving, the marginal, the seeking.

So it would have to be simply explained and simply presented and not simply dripping with the uber Catholic insider visuals that could distract or alarm. Reverent, haunting, and intentionally accessible on a regular basis to those with no Catholic background.

"If I am lifted up, I will draw everyone to me" said Christ in John 12:32.

It is also happening in Louisiana , in Britain , (and also here) in Denver, in Mississippi, in New York, in Malta, in Ghana, in evangelizing lay movements in Europe like the Emmanuel Community

and probably in your neck of the woods.

Please feel free share your stories of Eucharistic evangelization - especially in regard the non-Catholics, lapsed Catholics, or the completely unchurched.

Pre-St. Paddy's Day and Some Celtic Magic

Much will be made in the days to come about the need to move the celebration of St. Patrick's Day to avoid having it fall in Holy Week this year. Even in Ireland, the bishops have moved the celebration to Saturday, March 15 and many of the great celebrations in the US are being moved as well.

The decision seems to vary a good deal. New York's magnificent St. Patrick's Day parade will take place on the 17th (the Monday of Holy Week) and will begin with a "Solemn Pontifical Mass" at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Here in Colorado Springs, I've been told by my ecclesial informants that the Church won't be officially celebrating St. Patricks at all this year because St. Joseph's Day takes liturgical precedence. Not that I expect a single bar in the city to take note.

In any case, I thought I'd begin the St. Paddy's blogging early - partly because I'm home and able to do so and I'll be traveling again this weekend. And partly because I wanted to post this last year but couldn't figure out how to do so in time.

There are those wonderful moments when something that transcends skill happens, when what you are offering connects with the heart and soul of people in a way that goes beyond the ordinary and everyone present is electrified. And the only word you can use to describe the experience is magic.

We have certainly seen those moments a number of times on the road over the year - when what God does through the little you have to offer completely transcends anything you could hope or imagine.

And of course, the dream of artists to create such a moment through their art can look and feel similar.

Which is why I'm posting this somewhat grainy video of the original Riverdance performance at the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin. We must remember this performance was an "interval act" - not part of the contest itself. But it didn't matter. These seven minutes changed the course of Irish dance and launched a thousand tapping feet all over the world.

Watch the response of the audience at the end. Magic. Watch the faces of the lead dancers (Michael Flatly and Jean Butler) at the end. They have the look of someone who is just beginning to take in what has just happened: that the magical moment they have dreamed of creating for years, that has kept them going through all those endless years of practice, work, and sacrifice, is now.

Happy Pre-St. Patrick's Day!

Evangelization Congress in Mongolia

Cheering news from Mongolia via Fides and the blog of Fr. Peter Leung (most of which is in Chinese)

On wonderful outcome of Pope Benedict's Pentecost, 2007 letter to the Bishops, priests and Catholics of China : a healing of old breeches, new unity and a new movement of evangelization in Mongolia.

"thanks to the Pope’s Letter, the Catholics of Mongolia have been restored to communion with the Church following 20 years of misunderstandings and divisions. During the celebration of Chinese New Year, two priests of the Parish of Xiao Ba La Gai, in the diocese of Bao Tou, an important Mongolian city, organized the first local Evangelization Congress, from February 13-21.

Over 1,300 faithful from the area and from neighboring towns came together in a gesture of communion, in the midst of what has been a difficult and painful story for the local Catholics, with the great determination to continue on the path of restored communion, in the light of the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI. During the solemn Eucharistic Procession in the vigil of the Congress, over 2,000 faithful accompanied the Blessed Sacrament from the provisional chapel into the larger church.

In the past, the community had lived glorious historical moments in its evangelization, that dates back to the 1300-1400s, with innovative developments in the 19th century, thanks to the Scheut missionaries (CICM). Unfortunately, all was left destroyed in the cultural revolution.

When the church could re-open its doors, what one priest did, as soon as he was released from prison, was celebrate Mass in an open field under the falling snow. Since then, in the last 20 years, the life of the community has been marked by conflicts, misunderstandings, and disputes. Thanks to the prayer, the grace of the Holy Spirit, and the indications made by the Pope in his Letter, the Catholics of different communities have now united, without rancor, accusations, or reproaching.

During the First Evangelization Congress, there was a notable environment of love and communion. As one elderly leader of a local group said, “now the Church is united again. I can finally return to the Father’s House with my conscience clear and without rancor.”

Praise God. Such news - of reconciliation between Christians who suspected and distrusted one another, of renewed faith and hope, and new energy for common mission - makes your heart sing.

Blogging Speed Bump

Between all day meetings and missioning at night, there's been almost no time for blogging. But the meetings are over and the mission ends tonight. So more blogging ahead. Stay tuned!

Christus

There are good things going on in Houston.

Christus, a creative diocesan-wide support group for young adults that supports rather than supplants parish young adult groups. Christus's focus is intimacy with God, community with one another, and influence in the world around. They meet weekly on Wednesday evening and sponsor other gatherings as well.

The worship leader for their gatherings is Ben Walther, a local musician with a wife and 3 daughters and an interesting website who is touring the retreat/Life teen/Steubenville youth gathering circuit at present.

If you'd like to see what other young adult groups are doing or or live in the Houston archdiocese, check it out.

What if...?

What if my relationship with Jesus is measured by the way I treat the person I dislike most, rather than the person I love most?

What if I made a conscious, public effort to pray for the good of members of the Taliban, Al-Qaida, and the Sudanese Janjaweed?

You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same?
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect. Mt 5:43-48

What if I eschewed calumny and innuendo about any person - no matter how tempting - even while others aren't?

"You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, 'You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, 'Raqa,' will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Mt 5:21-22

What if I took my own mortality seriously, and realized my days are numbered (and that there's no guarantee that number isn't less than two?

do not worry about your life, what you will eat (or drink), or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? Mt 6:25-27

What if I believed in an absolute connection between my human relationships and my relationship with God?

if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Mt 5:23-24

What if I excused the foibles, flaws and sins of others as generously as I excuse my own?

Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Mt 7:1-2

What if I honestly examined my life to determine what are my real priorities?

Where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. Mt 6:21

What if I took Jesus' sermon on the Mount seriously?

Would I recognize myself?

The Pew Survey and Evangelical Mission in Catholic Quebec

From the March Lausanne World Pulse comes this story which illustrates and illuminates many of the issues raised by the Pew survey last week.

It is the story of an attempt by a French speaking evangelical couple (Michel and Lyne Monnette) to "plant a church" in one of the poorest areas of urban Canada: Hochma, the area of Montreal east of downtown. Even this initial sentence reveals a world of difference between the assumptions that evangelicals operate on and those that Catholics take for granted. So let me try to explain.

Before the 1960's, Quebec was one of the most Catholic places on earth. The perfect integral society in which the Catholic Church ran or strongly influenced almost everything. I have a post here on Quebec's amazing Catholic heritage from which I'd like to quote a bit:

It was actually in the late 19th century that the practice of Catholicism reached unprecedented heights in Quebec. In 1840, only 50 -60% of French Catholics did their "Easter duty" (received communion at Easter), by 1896 the percentage was a staggering 98 - 99%! 18 new religious congregations were formed during this 60 year period and nearly 50% of those graduating from the many classical colleges became priests. Only Catholic schools were permitted in Quebec, the only form of marriage was Catholic. The Church controlled health care, education, and charitable services. By the late 19th century, the Church had become the State in many ways.

The early 20th century was a time of intense Christianization of all aspects of French Catholic society. Dozens of Catholic colleges and associations, a vast number of social action groups - including a Catholic temperence movement led by the Church (oh my!), Catholic unions and cooperatives were actively supported by the Church. There were a number of strong Catholic newspapers and even a vast network of movie theatres in Church basements.

In the end, new media brought in outside influences and the Church, in any case, could not financially support and provide the personnel to staff all these institutions.

The essay ends with this poignant, sobering paragraph summing up Catholic fortunes since 1960.

"The election of the Liberals of Jean Lesage in 1960 unleashed the floodgates of change. This change was so sudden and widespread that it received the name of Quiet Revolution. In this period of modernization of Quebec no institution was to suffer more than the Roman Catholic Church. Values, ideas and institutions from the past were all questioned; these had all been anchored by the Church. Language replaced Faith as the pillar of survival and distinctiveness of Quebec. The State took over schools and hospitals (all were to eventually be deconfessionalised) and churches nearly emptied completely. Within ten years Quebec went from being the province with the highest birthrate in Canada to having the lowest! The society became profoundly secularized and Church influence fell to nearly nothing."

We must remember that everyone involved - the evangelists and those evangelized - are probably from a Catholic background. Their parents were raised Catholic if they were not. A 2001 survey showed that Quebec was still 83% Catholic. But only 4% of French speaking Quebecois (90% of the population) attend Mass weekly while 9-10% of English speaking Catholics attend Mass every week.

Back to our evangelical "church planters" the Monnettes. Notice the basics:

1. They are lay. A married couple with three children. They see nothing odd about undertaking this initiative and the risks that go with it even though they are responsible for three children. They assume that growing up amid the poor will be good for their children.

2. They assume that they have the right to start a local congregation.

3. Their denominational affiliation (if any) and their "ordination" status (they may not be) is not considered important and not mentioned.

4. They are part of a global "church planting" movement and have been thinking about, actively researching this possibility and learning from other church planters for at least 8 years. (For more on the movement of church planting)

5) They are doing this out a sense of specific personal call.

6) Their purpose is to "incarnate Jesus" in order to evangelize people, the culture, and the structures of their area.

7) They assume that they must go out to the people they seek to reach. They do not expect the residents of Hochma to come to them.

8) They assume that they must be innovative to be effective. They are crafting their approach very deliberately to speak to the unique realities and needs of this unique community to which they feel specifically called. They clearly believe that there is no "one size fits all" approach.

7) They are relationship and community-focused, rather than building or institutionally focused. They know that the people of Hochma are very suspicious of "the institutional church" (which in Quebec can only mean the Catholic Church). Their community is small and informal. They are offering an experience of Christian community rather than an institution. Small is beautiful and powerful.

9) Personal, spiritual, and community transformation are at the center of their mission and their criteria of what it means to be "faithful".

10) They have actively pursued collaboration with the Catholic church and local Protestant churches in their mission. Old denominational divides are not important.

It is too early yet to know what impact, if any, the Monettes will have in Hochma. But in light of the Pew survey results and without jettisoning or minimizing a single bit of Church teaching, is there anything we can learn from them and people like them?

Weather

We have what you might call WEATHER here in Colorado.

Today it was 74 degrees, a new record for March 1.

Tomorrow we are supposed to have a high of 32 and snow.

Over the fields and through the woods to Corpus Christi we go . . .

More Missioning

Fr. Mike is preaching all the Masses at Corpus Christi parish in Colorado Springs this weekend in preparation for our joint parish
mission there this week. The mission will run 4 nights: Sunday through Wednesday. We'd love to see you there.

North Korea is Still Number One . . .Persecutor of Christians

From Open Doors:

North Korea Remains Number One Persecutor of Christians

This year's No. 1 spot on Open Doors' 2008 World Watch List is no stranger: North Korea has now topped the list for six years in a row. There is no other country in the world where Christians are being persecuted in such a horrible and relentless way.

Sherry's note: (Go here for more on the story of North Korea's underground Christians.)

Snip.

More Christians were arrested in North Korea in 2007 than in 2006. Many have been beaten, tortured or killed because of their religious beliefs. Open Doors' local source estimates the number of underground Christians to be at least 200,000, and it's likely that there are as many as 400,000 to 500,000 believers. At least a quarter of the Christians are imprisoned for their faith in political prison camps, from which people rarely get out alive.

Carl Moeller, President/CEO of Open Doors USA, says: "It is certainly not a shock that North Korea is No. 1 on the shame list for the sixth year in a row. There is no other country in the world where Christians are being persecuted in such a horrible and systematic manner. I encourage you to join our prayer campaign for North Korea and to plug in to the many opportunities Open Doors offers to advocate for the oppressed believers during North Korea Freedom Week April 27-May 3."

The rest of the top ten:

The kingdom of Saudi Arabia holds a solid No. 2 place, followed closely by Iran. Maldives is No. 4.
New at No. 5 is Bhutan, moving a few places up from No. 7 last year, mainly because Somalia and Yemen saw a decrease in persecution. The No. 6 spot is taken by Yemen, whose position did not change in spite of a slight drop on the persecution scale.

Afghanistan rose from No. 10 to No. 7. Laos saw little change in religious freedom last year, but it moved up one place, from No. 9 to No. 8. Two new countries entered the Top 10: Uzbekistan at No. 9 and China No. 10. Uzbekistan was No. 11 last year and China No. 12.

Islam is the majority religion in six of the top 10 countries: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Maldives, Afghanistan, Yemen and Uzbekistan. Three countries have communist governments: North Korea, Laos and China. Bhutan is the only Buddhist country on the Top 10 list.

The World Watch List ranks countries according to the intensity of persecution Christians face for actively pursuing their faith. The list is compiled based on the answers to 50 questions covering various aspects of religious freedom from Open Doors' indigenous contacts, field workers and persecuted believers.

The State of Marriage in Europe

The March edition of the Lausanne World Pulse is out and has some really striking articles in light of all the Pew flavored discussions this week.

First off, here 's a reality check about the status of marriage in Europe:

In 2007, France became the first non-Scandinavian country in Western Europe where a majority of births are now out-of-wedlock. In France, 50.5% of the 816,500 births registered in 2007 were to unmarried parents, up from 48.4% in 2006 and forty percent a decade ago. Out-of-wedlock births kept pace with the rise of civil unions. In 2007, there were 305,385 of said "unions" registered in France, compared to only 266,500 marriages.


C. S. Lewis advocated making a distinction between Christian marriage and secular marriage many years ago. But I don't think he envisioned "civil unions."

In Sweden, Norway, Estonia, and Bulgaria, out-of-wedlock births have also passed the fifty percent mark. In the United Kingdom, births to the unmarried were forty-four percent in 2006, up a percentage point from 2005. In Catholic countries like Italy and Spain, births to married couples are still the norm (illegitimacy is twenty-seven percent in Spain and seventeen percent in Italy). Even so, in those countries, the percentage of out-of-wedlock births has doubled in the past decade.

And this is important:

Guy Desplanques, head of France's agency for compiling demographic data, notes, "Marriage is now seen more as a celebration held to bring together family and friends, and less a necessary institution, especially given the growth of civil unions."

And the US is not far behind at 36.9%.

Via Christian Newswire.

Spain and Italy aren't as secularized as France - yet - but their figures doubled in the past decade so they are catching up fast. Britain is not far behind France.

Why some leave

Sherry W. posted this over on Amy's blog in a comment box; I think it's worth repeating:

Here’s the deal. Everything in the Christian life isn’t about the intellect and content. Catechesis is only one part of the whole. Catechesis is not formation. Formation enables a man or woman to integrate his or her lived faith, intellect, feelings, relationship, and work into a whole life devoted to Christ.

For many people, relationship is the center of the universe - the center of their relationship with God, all meaning, all purpose - the point of everything! That’s where they start in any spiritual journey as well.

So they simply can’t survive on the combination of an impersonal formal liturgy and a non-existant community life. They leave for places where people actually know their name and notice when they show up.

Some people need to experience the healing and transforming *power* of God in their lives. Their marriage is failing, or their child is an addict, or they struggle with depression or a life-threatening disease, or are about to become homeless. They need to see God heal or transform their heart, or give them hope, or experience being actually cared about and for by a Christian community. They need to see something really different about Christians in order to trust them. They need to see - not just beautiful liturgical symbols of grace, but evidence of that grace really transforming a real human being’s life.

Transforming spiritual experience is not the same as being “touchy-feely”. Most of the post-V2 pablum that I’ve encountered is so emotionally bland, gutless, passionless and powerless as to be embarrassing. It has neither wit or wisdom to recommend it and usually leaves people’s lives untouched. Only the most repressed ecclesial bureaucrat could imagine that it would be gripping.
Transforming spiritual experience is St Paul (not exactly a passionless man) saying “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain” with a complete human and lived integrity that others recognize immediately. Here is a man who has *lived* it to the depths, with his whole being - and is speaking from a existential depth that is utterly compelling.

Some people (and many cultures) are simply exuberant and openly emotional by nature. They process by emoting. They connect by emoting. They relate to God by emoting. They can’t worship without emotion and without contact with the feelings of others. They may give more reserved people hives, but they are part of the body of Christ too. There has to be room for them too in our worship, in our community, in our vision of what it means to be Catholic. Or they will go to places where there is room.

If you’d like to explore some other kinds of options when it comes to reaching out to the unchurched, Catholic or not, - check this out: http://siena.org/seminar/brochure.pdf.

Pew Again

Blogging this week has been interesting since it has been dominated by the Pew survey report which has generated lots of discussion. Here. Over at Amy's.

It has also generated inquiries from a couple of major Catholic on-line media outlets who had seen my comments.

One thing quickly became obvious. It is hard for many of us to set aside our internal concerns in order to simply listen to those approximately 15 million American Catholics who have left for the evangelical world. Can we grasp the basic needs or dynamics that have drawn so many into a very different sort of Christian experience and community? We cannot limit ourselves to the familiar currents of current intra-ecclesial debates if we are going to reach out to the many millions of lapsed Catholics in this country.

The fear seems to be that the only possible result of listening would be to simply adapt whole-sale evangelical assumptions and practices. I was challenged several times over at Amy's by commenters who seemed to think that my desire to listen was really a cover for some other intra-ecclesial agenda. In this case, a desire to "evangelicalize" the Church and undermine traditionalist sensibilities. I responded that I have no such agenda and tried to return to the question: 15 million Catholics didn't become evangelicals accidently. So how can we find out what drew them out of the Church and into the evangelical world?

And then someone else responded: "Sherry, be honest with us. Isn't this really about X(fill in your traditionallist cause)"

Because everything is really about our inner ecclesial battles, you know.

No. Really. It is really, really not about our endless debates over the Second Vatican Council and its impact. It is really, really not about our internal polarization and culture wars.

For one moment could we set aside our endless debates about the past and remember that the vast majority of people on the planet (including the majority of Catholics) don't care about the burning issues of chattering class ecclesial insiders? They make their decisions based upon their own burning issues which often are very different from our own.

Bringing those 15 million back - or losing them and their children permanently - will affect the Church's life profoundly for generations to come. (One estimate is that one third of US evangelicals are first or second generation former Catholics. Much depends upon how you count your evangelicals but you get the idea.)

One obvious question: how many among those 15 million would discern a priestly or religious vocation if they were active Catholics?

We must remember that what is at stake is not just those who have already left but those who are on the verge of leaving today and will be tempted to do so in the years to come - and their children. How many thousands of Catholics in this country are considering leaving the Church as I type this sentence? The 8:1 ratio is still alive and well and there is no reason to believe that it will simply alter in our favor without any attention or effort on our part.

15 million is just the beginning of our possible losses. I am not personally cheered by the prospect of knowing that there is a 1 in 3 chance that the child whose baptism I am celebrating today or next year will either be an evangelical or "nothing" in 20 - 30 years. Do we really want to function as a de facto farm team for other Christian groups?

Circling the wagons or retreating behind barricades is not the historic Catholic response to this sort of situation which we have faced many times before. Creative, imaginative, proactive mission outward is very much in the Catholic tradition.

And listening to and understanding what actually propelled people to leave does not compel us for a nanno second to trash the Catholic Tradition and mindlessly adopt evangelical methodology. LIstening gives us new eyes and new questions with which we can turn to the fullness of the faith and ask "How does our Catholic faith speak to this issue or this need?" It gives us the chance to learn from Catholic masters of evangelization and formation who have gone before us but whose pastoral genius has been lost to history. And it just might involve seeing something new in our faith that speaks powerfully to the needs of our day.

St. Dominic and his early friars went out to and among a huge movement of lapsed Catholics (Albigensians or Cathars) in his day - while when the order was still in its infancy. Even novices, who had not yet received theological formation, were expected to engage in evangelistic street preaching. "Hoarded grain goes bad." was Dominic's motto.

St. Frances De Sales became bishop the "evangelical" way. He set out on foot to re-evangelize an area of alpine France in which every Catholic church had been padlocked for 60 years! Through an astonishing, winsome 4 year personal ministry, he won back huge numbers of Catholics and then was made bishop of the people he had evangelized. "Let us see what love will do" was his motto in an era when armies usually decided the religious allegiance of a nation's citizens.

"The difference between ordinary people and saints is not that saints fulfill the plain duties that ordinary men neglect. The things saints do have not usually occurred to ordinary people at all. . . .'Gracious' conduct is somehow like the work of an artist. It needs imagination and spontaneity. It is not a choice between presented alternatives but the creation of something new." A. D. Linsay as quoted by Dorothy Sayers.