Cardinal Dolan, bishops boost renewal

We need to fall in love all over again with Jesus Christ and His Church,” Timothy Cardinal Dolan told more than 2,000 of the faithful gathered at the Corpus Christi’s Selena Auditorium for the Centennial Formation Conference on March 26.

Cardinal Dolan said that Bishop Wm. Michael Mulvey has made the New Evangelization the theme and the mission as the diocese approaches its second century.  Over the past two years, Bishop Mulvey has initiated an ongoing formation and renewal of the presbyterate, strengthening parish life and reviewing methods for evangelization and catechesis.

In his less than 24-hours in the Diocese of Corpus Christi, Cardinal Dolan said he had detected vitality, promise, commitment and cohesion “in abundance.” He said the diocese, from its beginning, was marked by evangelical zeal.

The archbishop of New York arrived in Corpus Christi on March 25 and one of his first acts was to pay a surprise visit to diocesan staff and volunteers that had gathered at Corpus Christi Cathedral’s St. Joseph Hall for last minute preparations. Cardinal Dolan, accompanied by Bishop Mulvey, made a few remarks and then walked around the room shaking hands and posing for pictures with the volunteers.

The following morning, Cardinal Dolan celebrated Mass at 7 a.m. to a standing room crowd of worshipers gathered at the Blessed Sacrament Chapel of the Sister Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration, more commonly known as the Pink Sisters. Word of the cardinal’s plans to celebrate Mass spread and the small chapel was filled to capacity and hour before the start of the Mass.

Bishop Mulvey wanted to include the sisters in the Centennial celebration but since they are cloistered and could not attend the Centennial Mass that evening at the American Bank Center, he took Cardinal Dolan to them. Cardinal Dolan said his ties to the Pink Sisters went back to his time in St. Louis. He declared the nine sisters at the local convent as his “starting line up.”

After a press conference with local media at the Corpus Christi Town Club, Cardinal Dolan went to the American Bank Center where he shared with the faithful in Corpus Christi some of the thoughts he presented to Pope Benedict XVI and his brother cardinals one month earlier when the Holy Father asked him to speak to the group on the New Evangelization in view of the upcoming “Year of Faith.”

So what is “new” about the New Evangelization, Cardinal Dolan asked.

After a review of the historical nature of the Church’s evangelization efforts, beginning with Christ’s command to “go make disciples of all men,” Cardinal Dolan said the Second Vatican Council had set out the “who” and “where” of the New Evangelization, without giving it that name.

The “who” is everybody. “All of us, by our very Christian identity, by the sacraments…are called to be missionaries,” Cardinal Dolan said. The “where” of evangelization is “wherever we are” not just in some distant land.

Evangelization is at the very heart of the identity of the Church. Quoting Pope Paul VI, Cardinal Dolan said, “the Church doesn’t have a mission, the mission has a Church.” The Church is a mission.

“Evangelization is not something extraneous to the Church, it is intrinsic to the Church. It’s at the very heart of the Church’s identify,” Cardinal Dolan said.

It was Blessed Pope John Paul II who first gave this notion the name of the “New Evangelization.” Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Dolan said, believed that “we need evangelization of people who are technically not only Christians and Catholics but whose faith has grown lackluster.”

“We ourselves need to be evangelized. He [Pope John Paul II] called us back to he Church of the Acts of the Apostles. To be Christ-centered and people-driven,” Cardinal Dolan said.

Pope John Paul II called us to be confident in our faith and counseled us to “be not afraid” and “cast out to the deep.” Pope Benedict XVI is following in this example and calls us to “holiness, which means friendship with Jesus,” Cardinal Dolan said.

Cardinal Dolan noted that today we live in a secularist culture where the Church is no longer at the center of our lives. He set out six characteristics of the New Evangelization, which can be used to catechize ourselves.

The first is that the Church herself is in need of evangelization. Translating a Latin phrase, Cardinal Dolan said, “You can’t give it if you ain’t got it. We can’t give Jesus to others if we don’t have him.”

Secondly, evangelization “starts with ourselves.” One cannot evangelize others, unless “you first come to interior conversion,” the cardinal said.

The third characteristic of the New Evangelization is that the Church does not preach a doctrine but introduces people to a person, the second person of the Blessed Trinity. “A person who revealed truths and doctrine,” Cardinal Dolan said.

The primacy of discipleship is the fourth characteristic of the New Evangelization Cardinal Dolan said. He described Pope John Paul II’s Marian model of the Church in which, like the Blessed Mother, we are called to be attentive to the Word of God and eager to obey God in all things.

The fifth characteristic is that “we got a Church that says yes and not no,” Cardinal Dolan said. “The Church says yes to everything that is noble, and decent, and liberating, and up building and good and honorable,” the cardinal said.

The only thing the Church says no to is to the “negating of the dignity of the human person.” The Church is at the service of the human person, he said.

The sixth characteristic of the New Evangelization is that the Catholic Church is a Church of martyrs. Again, citing Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Dolan said, “If it ain’t worth dying for, it ain’t worth living for.”

“There is someone worth dying for and living for and his name is Jesus Christ,” Cardinal Dolan said.

The cardinal closed his talk, with a challenge to the faithful in Corpus Christi. “The ringing call to this Diocese of Corpus Christi, as we thank God for the first century and recommit ourselves to the future, is will we give the Word a human nature, will we allow the Word to take flesh and dwell among us like our Blessed Mother did?”

Bishop Mulvey is looking at the 13th Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops scheduled for Oct. 7-28, for additional guidance. The synod, which is called “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith,” will consider pastoral initiatives programs to assist the Holy See.

“We will be anxiously awaiting the information coming from the Synod on Evangelization and the Holy Father’s post-synodal exhortation ready to follow the inspirations of the Holy Spirit,” Bishop Mulvey said.

“I take to heart the words of Blessed John Paul II in his Apostolic Letter Novo Millennia Ineunte that the Church must become the Home and the School of Communion. As I began and continue my pastoral ministry as a bishop of the Church, I have tried to instill that call within my own approach to episcopal ministry and continue to promote a spirit of communion among the priests, deacons, laity and with the Curia staff with whom I work closely on a daily basis,” Bishop Mulvey said.

After Cardinal Dolan’s keynote address, Texas bishops, including Bishop Mulvey, provided catechists with guidance at the formation conference on a variety of issues that will help advance the New Evangelization.

Bishop Mulvey, along with Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, spoke on respect for life, from conception to natural death. The bishop again reminded the faithful of the need to approach this important issue in a pastoral manner, with forgiveness and love for those who place their soul in jeopardy by disregarding natural law.

Cardinal DiNardo endorsed this approach but urged the faithful to at the same time be consistent and constant. Always support life and never stop advocating for the respect for life and human dignity. The challenges that have arisen recently against our religious liberty require Catholics to be active and persistent participants in this struggle.

Fort Worth Bishop Kevin Vann talked on medical ethics while Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville covered issues related to family life.

Parish renewal, a focus of Bishop Mulvey’s episcopacy, was the topic of three sessions. San Antonio Auxiliary Bishop Oscar Cantu led a discussion on catechesis and religious education in parish life and Catholic schools; Auxiliary Bishop Mark Seitz of Dallas spoke on liturgy and parish renewal; and Father Thomas Norris made a presentation on spirituality of the parish.

Bishop Placido Rodriguez, CMF of Lubbock made a presentation in Spanish on evangelization of culture. Finally, Bishop Michael Pfeifer of San Angelo made a presentation on Catholic Charities.