Pope Benedict has recently unveiled a new office to promote the “new evangelization” that both he and Pope John Paul II have called for. What does this phrase “new evangelization” mean? After all, as Catholics, we should be rightly suspicious of anything that presents itself as “new” in regard to the Faith, for we believe that the Gospel has been handed down to us through the centuries via Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition and that public revelation ended with the death of the last apostle. We are not Mormons and thus should not accept anything novel or recent when it comes to the content of our Faith, for Jesus Christ was the complete Word and nothing needs to be added to the deposit of Faith.

So what do the popes mean by “new evangelization”? Simply this: the Church needs to re-present the truths of our Faith to societies which were originally seeped in the Gospel but now have become adrift in secularism. We are called to evangelize the “old” Christian countries such as those in Europe and even here in the Americas. The content of the Catholic Faith has not changed – and will never changed – but how we present it must change as society changes. Beliefs that were assumed in previous generations are now challenged and ideas that were rejected a century ago are now accepted at face value.

What does this mean practically? Let me use an example I recently encountered. My daughter is being confirmed this year and I am teaching a class to her and some of her friends to prepare them for this sacrament. In my research, I was reading a book published in 1922 on the Sacraments of Initiation. At one point the book was referring to the practice of bishops administering this rite as opposed to priests, and the main argument given for this was, in so many words, “because the pope says so.” Now it is true that the pope has authority to make the bishop the ordinary minister of confirmation, but an answer such as “because the pope says so” is simply not going to be accepted in today’s world. A Catholic from a century ago might have accepted this, but most will not today. Some might lament this fact, but it doesn’t change the reality of it. When defending and explaining the teachings and practices of the Church, we must first understand the presuppositions of those we are encountering; if we don’t, we risk speaking past each other or even alienating the person to the Catholic Faith. This often means that before we can even present the Gospel we must first lay the groundwork by explaining the natural law and the truths about the human person.

Of course, the “new evangelization” has the same foundations as the “old” evangelization: prayer, fasting and personal sanctity. I don’t care how you present the Faith, if you don’t base it in a life of prayer, fasting and striving for holiness, your efforts will be fruitless. People of every age are attracted to authenticity, and living the faith is still the best preparation for sharing it with others.

St. Paul, pray for us!

This week a synod of Middle Eastern bishops commenced at the Vatican. The majority of Catholics in the Middle East are members of one of the 22 Eastern Catholic churches*, so most of the representatives at the Synod are Eastern Catholics. As regular readers of this blog know, I have a special affinity for the Eastern Catholic churches, even though I am a member of the Latin church.

Over the past forty years, the Church’s magisterium has made clear that the Eastern Catholic churches are to maintain their Eastern traditions, something that Pope Benedict reiterated this week. This is something that most Western Catholics are willing to give lip service to, but often choke on the details. To many of us, traditions like infant communion (and confirmation), married priests, and self-ruling churches appear to be non-Catholic. But we should not judge the practices of the East in light of our historic battles with Protestantism and secularism, but instead in light of their own ancient traditions. For example, the East does not allow married priests because they despise celibacy (as many anti-Catholics in the West do), but because they live out the celibate lifestyle in monasteries and in the episcopate. The traditions of the East are as venerable as those in the West, and they can – and should – coexist in the Church without preference being given to one over the other.

The Eastern Catholic churches have a role in the Church that is remarkable and in many areas, rejected and even reviled. They are a witness for Eastern Christianity to the West, and a witness for communion with Rome to the East. As such, they are usually held in suspicion on both sides. Western Catholics suspect that they are not “Catholic” enough, and the Orthodox do not believe them to be truly Eastern. They must live out their vocation in the midst of a world which does not support them. Furthermore, their mission is to eventually no longer exist, for once reunion occurs, most would simply be subsumed into their sister Orthodox churches.

In other words, they have a mission which leads them to be rejected by this world and eventually to die. Who does that sound like? The Eastern Catholic churches follow in the footsteps of our Lord, who was rejected by men and was put to death. But just as the death of Christ led to resurrection, so too will the “death” of the Eastern Catholic churches lead to the Church’s resurrection as a reunited Church. All Catholics should pray fervently that the Eastern Catholic churches continue to grow and to be the special witness for a Church that breathes with both lungs again.

* The Catholic Near East Welfare Association has a wonderful overview of these churches in their latest ONE magazine, which can be found online here.

CatholicExchange.com has a spiffy new website, and one of the feature articles is my Rules of Engagement for Catholics on the Internet.

Check it out!

Now I just have to figure out how to get them to create a cool cartoon of me like they did for Mark Shea:

Sometimes it feels like abortion has become so much a part of our culture that it simply can’t be overcome. Even we pro-lifers can succumb to the thinking that legalized abortion is here to stay.

But making an acceptable practice in our society unthinkable is possible. Just take a look at this 1950′s commercial as Exhibit A:

One of the most common refrains of modern Evangelical preaching is that “Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship.” By this, Evangelicals emphasize that following Christ is not simply following a set of rules and rituals, but is a deep personal relationship – even friendship – with Jesus Christ.

And Pope Benedict agrees with them – to a point. Speaking recently about St. Gertrude, the pope said that “the center of a happy life, a true life, is friendship with Jesus.” In his book Jesus of Nazareth, Benedict wrote that friendship with Jesus is that “on which everything depends.” Someone who claims to be Christian yet does not have a deep friendship with the Lord is either lying or self-deceived.

Yet many Evangelicals take this concept too far. For example, a pastor of a megachurch in California is currently preaching a series of sermons called “Why Jesus Hates Religion.” This pastor states that Jesus believed religion to be worthless and that it “contaminates everything with hypocrisy”. Using the common example of the Pharisees, he preached that Jesus rejected religious practices completely.

So is Christianity a relationship and not a religion? The Catholic answer, in typical Catholic fashion, is “it is both”. If we look at the actions of Christ and his first disciples, we’ll see that there is no dichotomy between religion and relationship – they in fact each strengthen the other.

First we should note that Jesus himself followed the rituals of the Jewish religion. He was circumscribed, he was raised in a practicing Jewish home, and he attended synagogue services and made pilgrimages to the Temple – all “religious” activities. After his Ascension, his followers continued to follow the rituals of the Jewish faith. Over time, these followers did abandon those rituals, but only because they had replaced them with new rituals of Christianity, first and foremost among them the Eucharistic liturgy.

If Christ “hated religion”, then surely he and his closest followers would not have continued to follow religious ceremonies, would they?

But it is also important to remember that Christ emphasized the importance of keeping himself as the center of the Christian faith. When he declared himself as “Lord of the Sabbath”, for example, he was declaring that he was greater than the Sabbath regulations of the time and that they all must be subservient to him. His constant condemnation of the Pharisees were for being hypocritical, and the only way to be hypocritical is to live in a way that you proclaim is false – thus the problem is not in the proclamation, but in the life attached to it.

Man is essentially a religious creature – we are homo religiosus. We were created to be religious, and to deny that is to deny our very nature. The rituals and practices of the Catholic religion are wonderfully suited to lead us into a deep relationship with Christ, and a deep relationship with Christ strengthens our practice of those rituals. As just one example, take the practice of receiving communion. This is, after all, a religious ritual. But by receiving our Lord in the Eucharist, one can be more intimate with Christ than is possible any other way on this side of heaven. Yet if we receive the Eucharist coldly and without love, then we are in danger of making it a means of our condemnation. So again, religion and a loving relationship work together to foster a true devotion to our Lord.

Is Christianity a religion? You bet. Is it a relationship? Absolutely. Let’s move away from the false dichotomy put between them and love and serve our Lord faithfully in the Catholic Church!

I’ll be on the Kresta in the Afternoon radio show today at 5:20EST discussing my book Who is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew.

Also, a reminder: I’m on the Son Rise Morning Show every Thursday at 7:05EST.

Check it out!

Today is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. The Rosary has been a powerful devotion in my own life and was instrumental in the final step of my conversion to Catholicism.

As I recount in my conversion story:

One Sunday I made a decision I still do not understand: I decided to pray the Rosary every day for a week to see if I would receive any illumination in my struggle. I had never prayed a Rosary and was still uncomfortable with Marian devotion, even if intellectually I accepted that Mary had a pivotal role in salvation history. But I had seen many instances of Catholics praying the Rosary – usually in front of an abortion clinic – and there was a peace about them that I could sense, though not describe. I especially remember a night when a pro-abortion protester stood yelling obscenities at my fellow pro-lifer (who, incidentally, would later become my wife). In response she peacefully prayed a Rosary, while my insides were raging. This image still strikes me today.

So one Sunday morning as I sat alone in my dorm room, I picked up a Rosary and a Rosary booklet (both of which my Catholic roommate had the suspicious habit of leaving out on his desk) and knelt at my bed reciting the words. I didn’t feel any different after I was finished, but I had decided to give it a week, so that didn’t bother me. That night, though, I told my roommate about praying the Rosary. His response shocked me. He’d been trying to convert me for two years but all he said was “you shouldn’t have done that.” I thought he must have been kidding but then he said, “you don’t know what you just got yourself into.” Prophetic words.

I prayed (read, actually) the Rosary the next day, and again the next. At the end of that third Rosary, my “week-long” prayer had been answered: I knew that I should become Catholic. After two years of arguments and struggle, it took Mary only three days to show me the path to her son: the Catholic Church.

I highly recommend the Rosary to anyone and everyone; it will change your life as it changed mine.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!

I am sometimes asked by publishers and authors to review a new book coming out, and if the book looks interesting, I happily agree. After all, I love books. Brazos Press recently asked me to review Bert Ghezzi’s new book “Adventures in Daily Prayer.” Considering that Bert is my editor at Our Sunday Visitor, I felt I had to say yes. So I received the book and began to read it. I admit that sometimes I read a review book only in order to review it; in other words, I don’t really read it intensely and for personal benefit, but instead only to write a review of the book. I also admit that I started reading this book with this attitude. But once I began, my whole attitude changed. I realized that this was a book that could truly help me in my own prayer life, so I changed gears and began to seriously – and prayerfully – read it. I am very glad I did, because this is an excellent guide for anyone who is serious about prayer.

For the first fifteen years after I made a commitment to follow Christ I was never faithful to a daily prayer life. I would pray every day for a week or even a month, but then I would fall out of my routine and take months to get back into it. Not surprisingly, I also found during this time that I made little progress in growing in holiness: sins stayed persistent and I had much anxiety and little faith guiding my decisions. Then, about eight years ago under the spiritual direction of a wonderful priest I began to pray daily and to stick with it. I made it a priority to pray every day no matter what. This routine has been life-changing: I am still far from the perfection God calls us to, but my whole attitude towards growing in holiness has changed and anxiety no longer rules my life as it once did.

But I still have very far to go, and this is where Bert’s book is so useful. You see, Bert has been praying daily for fifty years, so he knows a thing or two about it. He shares his insights and reflections from these fifty years in an incredibly accessible and helpful way. He combines his own personal experiences with the wisdom of Scripture and the Saints to help the reader along the path to a deeper prayer commitment. He addresses subjects such as listening to God, praying with Scripture and recognizing God’s presence, all in a manner that can be practically applied in one’s life. No matter if you are a beginner at daily prayer or have been doing it for years, Bert’s experiences are sure to be helpful.

I am convinced that daily prayer radically changes lives, and Bert Ghezzi has given his readers a wonderful guide to participating in daily prayer in his new book, “Adventures in Daily Prayer.” I recommend it highly to anyone who is serious about growing in holiness (and shouldn’t that be everyone?).

Recently the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, was asked in an interview a number of “hot button” questions, especially in regards to homosexuality and the episcopacy. For those blissfully unaware, the Anglicans are currently debating whether practicing homosexuals can be admitted to the priesthood and episcopacy. Most of his answers were confusing and unclear, but one in particular stood out:

He was asked, does the Archbishop hope that one day gay bishops can have partners?

And what was the answer given by Archbishop Williams? “Pass”. That’s right, he gave an answer most likely to be heard by a timid poker player with a bad hand. Can anyone imagine such an answer being given by Pope Benedict, or any pope for that matter?

But there is a certain refreshing honesty in his answer, even if it is terribly weak and scandalous. The fact is that there is no way to know what the future holds for Protestantism (and the Anglicans, if they are anything, are Protestant) in regards to faith and morals. So it is always an open question as to what the Anglican church will one day allow, including opening practicing homosexuals as bishops.

This was the crisis that led to my own conversion to Catholicism. As a young Evangelical Christian, I was fervently pro-life. I recognized the intrinsic dignity of the unborn and I knew that no church that claimed Jesus as Lord could support the legalized killing of these precious children. Yet the denomination in which I had been raised – United Methodism – had in fact begun to support legalized abortion. This was a primary reason I decided to search for a new church family. I found a number of Protestant denominations that were strongly pro-life, but I was unable to commit to them because of this lingering question: how could I be sure that these denominations would not one day change their teaching regarding abortion? After all, one hundred years ago the Methodist church was strongly pro-life and had eventually changed its position, so who is to say that the Southern Baptists could not eventually do the same? And if a denomination can change its position on the fifth commandment, everything and anything is up for grabs.

This left me with quite a dilemma. During this time I went to one of my Catholic friends and I asked him, “How can you be sure that the Catholic Church will not change its teaching on abortion (or anything related to faith and morals) one day?”

He simply replied: “It won’t. I just know.”

This answer rocked my world – not because of the words, but because of the way he said them. He knew. The look on his face was one of utter confidence and peace. It was as sure to him that the Catholic Church would not change their teachings in faith and morals than it was that the sun would rise tomorrow. I was a bag of insecurities and confusion regarding my own churches, but here was this person who would never have to worry about where to find the Truth. What a refreshing way to live!

So I exchanged my “bad hand” of insecurity about the future to the Royal Flush of the Catholic Church and her consistent teachings. I put my faith in the rock which Jesus established and on which a Church would be built that the gates of hell would never overcome. A rock that will never  “pass” when asked a question about faith and morals.

Today is the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, one of the greatest men who ever lived and my all-time favorite saint. My family has a deep devotion to St. Francis and many years ago my wife and I decided to make him the patron of our family. We composed a prayer for this consecration and I thought I would share it today:

Jesus, our Savior, under the patronage of St. Francis of Assisi, we desire to consecrate our family to you. We pray that you will grant us the grace to live lives imbued with the charisms of poverty, humility, and charity so powerfully exemplified by your servant Francis.

Through the intercession of St. Francis, we seek the grace of detachment from material things, and gratitude for the riches of the Father’s blessings. Through the intercession of St. Francis, we seek the grace to love and serve the poor and the suffering. Through the intercession of St. Francis, we seek the grace to live out single-minded, consuming devotion to Christ, bringing the Gospel to the world in our words and actions.

Lord, unite our family in zeal for your kingdom, and bring us all to everlasting happiness with you.

St. Francis, pray for us.