Alfredo E. Cárdenas is Editor of the South Texas Catholic.
On behalf of our publisher, Bishop Michael Mulvey, our theological consultant, Father Joseph Lopez, JCL, our staff, Mary Cottingham and Adel Rivera, and our correspondents and contributors, I wish to extend to all of our readers our wishes that they are having a blessed Advent and will have a joyous Christmas.
I pray that we are all on a saintly road to meet Jesus at his Second Coming and that like the disciples on the road to Emmaus we are accompanied by Jesus on our journey. Like Cleopas and his companion, we may not at first recognize him but we are motivated by his words and deeds.
We can see Jesus in all that we do. He is there in the sacramental commitment we made to our spouses; he is there in the Baptismal promise we made to our children; he is present in the love we extend to our neighbors; we see him in the mercy we extend to the poor, the homeless, the immigrant, the imprisoned; he is ever present with the sick and dying; he is everywhereif we only look for him with an open mind and a giving heart.
The South Texas Catholic is an instrument for evangelization, which in its purest form means that we are called to preach the Gospel so that we may convert our brothers and sisters to be followers of Christ. Under the "New Evangelization," first proclaimed by Blessed Paul VI in his Apostolic Exhortation "Evangelii Nuntiandi", we are called "to proclaim the Gospel to the people of today, who are buoyed up by hope but at the same time often oppressed by fear and distress…(Evangelii Nuntiandi, 1)."
Pope Paul VI said, "… it is absolutely necessary for us to take into account a heritage of faith that the Church has the duty of preserving in its untouchable purity, and of presenting it to the people of our time, in a way that is as understandable and persuasive as possible …(Evangelii Nuntiandi, 3)."
And now comes Pope Francis, who with one colorful colloquialism after another everyday calls us to be missionary disciples; to "be shepherds with the smell of sheep." The Holy Father is calling us to go out to the periphery of society and evangelize amongst those who truly need to hear the Gospel of Christ and receive his merciful love by way of our own unselfish giving.
In response, the South Texas Catholic is searching for a new voice, one in which we can carry out the call of the New Evangelization with greater effect. In recent months we have begun to run stories that aim to fulfill St. John Paul II's call to address the needs of "entire groups of the baptized [who] have lost a living sense of the faith, or even no longer consider themselves members of the Church, and live a life far removed from Christ and his Gospel (Redemptoris Missio, 33)."
As we move forward during a year in which Pope Francis has called our focus to the family, "to the challenges of marriage, of family life, of the education of children; and the role of the family in the life of the Church (Letter of Pope Francis to Families)," we have run stories on convalidation of marriages, the life of divorced Catholics in the Church, the plight of immigrants and the abuse of the poor by unethical lenders who take advantage of the poor's desperate circumstances.
At the recent meeting of the U.S. bishops' conference, the bishops received the findings of a survey conducted to find out what Catholics in the pews think about and why they accept or reject church teachings (see story on Page 38). Among the findings were that Catholics see a disconnect between the teachings of the church and the teachings of Jesus; they see too many rules in the Church that they do not understand; they feel people in the Church can be too judgmental; they sense that their parishes are divided into pro-life and social justice camps; and they want to understand the whys of Church teaching.
These are the questions we hope to find answers to and provide some measure of catechesis in the pages of this magazine. We will adopt as our mission the words of the new head of the bishops' committee on communications, who said, "The priority…has to be to proclaim the joy, the mercy and the love of Jesus Christ at all times and in all places and to all people."
We ask for your prayers and support as we continue on this road of the New Evangelization, a journey that we pray will bring us all closer to Christ and his message of love and mercy.
One concrete way in which you can help is by donating what you can to our annual appeal. You will find more information on Page 47 of this issue. Please share what is appropriate to your circumstances and if you are unable to help financially please include us in your prayers.
May all of you have a very merry Christmas and a joyful New Year.