Last week’s post examined innovation in the institution of the Eucharist. Today’s post focuses on innovation in evangelisation.
Evangelisation is “bringing the Good News into all the strata of humanity, and through its influence transforming humanity from within and making it new” (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 18). It is “a complex process made up of varied elements: the renewal of humanity, witness, explicit proclamation, inner adherence, entry into the community, acceptance of signs, apostolic initiative. These elements may appear to be contradictory, indeed mutually exclusive. In fact they are complementary and mutually enriching” (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 24).
Before departing the world, Christ gave his disciples the mandate to go and proclaim the good news to all (Matt 28:19-20). Hence, evangelisation is the Church’s reason for existing, to bring the light of Christ to all (Lumen Gentium, 1).
As Pope Paul VI elucidates, “Evangelising is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelise, that is to say, in order to preach and teach, to be the channel of the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners with God, and to perpetuate Christ’s sacrifice in the Mass, which is the memorial of His death and glorious resurrection” (Evangellii Nuntiandi, 14). Therefore, “the pilgrim Church is missionary by her very nature, since it is from the mission of the Son and the mission of the Holy Spirit that she draws her origin, in accordance with the decree of God the Father” (Ad Gentes, 1).
As societies continue to change and human behaviour evolves, adapting evangelising and pastoral strategies to newer circumstances becomes imperative. In his 2000 address to the Diocese of Albano,
Pope John Paul II maintains that evangelisation must be their “constant priority commitment” as secularism and dechristianisation require taking “courageous action, accompanied by innovation, clear analysis and trust in the power of the Holy Spirit”.
Other challenges, such as globalisation, digital culture, urbanisation, and youth disaffection, continue to pose questions that older pastoral models cannot always answer. Hence, “today missionary activity still represents the greatest challenge for the Church” (Redemptoris Missio, 40).
Innovation in evangelisation helps the Church carry out its evangelising activity amid diverse and ever-changing contexts and circumstances. It integrates the Christian message into “the new culture created by modern communications”, thereby requiring “new ways of communicating with new languages, new techniques and a new psychology” (Redemptoris Missio, n. 37).
Innovation entails renewed missionary zeal, new pastoral forms adapted to new contexts, and new expressions in language and symbols that people can understand. This innovation should not alter the content of preaching the crucified Christ but should focus on the modes, language and structures through which this proclamation becomes intelligible and transformative.
The use of media in evangelisation is an example of innovation. The Second Vatican Council enjoins Catholics to harness the media for social progress and for Catholic life through research, international cooperation, and fresh initiatives (Communio et Progressio, 179). Hence, the Pontifical Council for Social Communications now considers the use of media as “essential in evangelisation and catechesis” along side traditional means such as witness of life, catechetics, personal contact, popular piety, the liturgy, and should be “instruments in the Church’s program of re-evangelisation and new evangelisation in the contemporary world”(Aetatis Novae, II, 11).
Pope Benedict XVI, in his message for the 44th World Communications Day, urges priests “to be present in the world of digital communications as faithful witnesses to the Gospel, exercising their proper role as leaders of communities which increasingly express themselves with the different ‘voices’ provided by the digital marketplace” and challenges them “to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelisation and catechesis.” Pope Benedict, in his message for the 43rd World Communications Day, particularly enjoins young people to use their “spontaneous affinity for the new means of communication” to announce the Gospel with their contemporaries with enthusiasm. St. Carlo Acutis is an example of one who used digital media to highlight the Eucharist.
Since innovation is a pastoral responsibility, the question is not whether the Church should innovate in evangelisation but how it should do so without deviating from the gospel mandate and from the Church’s fundamental teachings and tradition. Is the proposed adaptation faithful to the Church’s teaching, helping people encounter Christ and move toward conversion and discipleship?
Hence, any innovation that loses sight of conversion, discipleship, and communion with Christ and the Church ceases to be evangelisation and becomes mere strategy. In the same vein, innovation that prioritises relevance, popularity, or efficiency but neglects conversion risks becoming pastoral activism rather than evangelisation.
As Pope Francis, citing bishops of Latin America, maintains, “We cannot passively and calmly wait in our church buildings; we need to move from a pastoral ministry of mere conservation to a decidedly missionary pastoral ministry” (Evangelii Gaudium, 15).
Amid hyper-digitalisation, innovation requires formation to avoid the manipulation of the truth. As Pope Leo XVI says, Catholic education is a “laboratory of discernment, pedagogical innovation and prophetic witness” (Drawing New Maps Of Hope, 11.1).
Innovation without discernment leads to confusion; discernment without innovation leads to stagnation.
Innovation does not displace the role of witnessing in evangelisation, because new technologies, media platforms, and pastoral programs are not evangelisation in themselves, nor are they sufficient without witnessing. As Pope Paul VI insists, “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses” (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 41). Hence, he maintains that “All Christians are called to this witness, and in this way they can be real evangelizers” (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 21). Pope Francis further insists, “The Church does not grow by proselytism but by attraction” (Evangelii Gaudium, 14).
Next week’s post examines innovation in inculturation.
May God continue to help us🙏🏾
K’ọdị🙋🏾♂️
