Missio Ad Gentes: 'An Event of the New Evangelization'
The missio ad gentes are called by Bishops to make an implantatio ecclesiae in areas where the Church does not exist or where it cannot reach people. The Bishop gives a missio to a priest, he entrusts to him an area that is generally secularized and gives him the faculty to baptize, marry, give the Sacraments, celebrate the Eucharist, etc. The Bishop has a contract with the responsibles of the Neo-Catechumenal Way, which guarantees the presence of these families and to care for them, so that they are not a weight for the diocese.
There is a Christian community behind each one of these families: the community of their parishes of origin, which helps them, pays for their trips, stays in contact with them, so that the community is involved in the evangelization. If a family does not find work, the community helps them until they do. To begin the Mission, these families look for a building where they can meet and form the community; they look for work, a place to live and their children begin to study in the local school. As time passes, the children invite their schoolmates and friends to their homes, and the latter marvel at seeing a Christian family: the majority of these children’s parents are separated, so they are surprised to see a numerous family, with the father and mother together. The parents make contact with their neighbors and acquaintances. Every week the families go out into the streets to sing with guitars and they carry out a mission in a public place where they meet other people. After some time, they invite people they know to listen to some catecheses: many are people who have left the Church; others are not baptized and they begin the Neocatechumenal Way as an itinerary of preparation for Baptism. All the missio ad gentes have already formed one or more communities of pagans.
Kiko Argüello, initiator of the Neocatechumenal Way, explained the role of the missio ad gentes.
Pagans. What a nice way to generalize an entire culture.
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous at 3:58 pm,
DeleteIn this context, it was not meant to be offensive but rather to refer to a member of a religious, spiritual, or cultural community based on the worship of nature or the earth or any religion that does not believe in Jesus Christ.
In the Jewish community they are refered to as Goyim, which is anyone who is not Jewish basically and believes in other God's or Idols. And actually it is not a culture most of what is known from pagan religions in modern times is invented and made since they mix in Judeo-christian beliefs and morals which have nothing to do with pagan culture. Most pagan culture actually had no real morals, and is nothing like what is painting or depicted on tv today. Most of what is depicted on TV mixes in Judeochristian values. For example the idea of family comes from Judeochristian culture, really most of our society.
DeleteDo you wonder why you are resented? Why "ordinary" Catholics believe that the NCW is elitist, judgemental and desirous to impose itself and take over the Church? Read the first lines of this post again:
ReplyDelete"The missio ad gentes are called by Bishops to make an implantatio ecclesiae in areas where the Church does not exist or where it cannot reach people. The Bishop gives a missio to a priest, he entrusts to him an area that is generally secularized"
In other words, and according to Kiko, wherever this Missio ad Gentes is in place, the NCW have made a judgement that the "Church does not exist" or that it is ineffectual (it "cannot reach people"). This is not only a generalisation without evidence, it is deeply insulting to those of us that love the Church of Our Lord, and her doctrine.
As long as this judgemental, presumptuous attitude exists there will be trouble surrounding the NCW in the parishes
Dear Anonymous at 11:23 am,
DeleteThere are places where the Church does not exist. Even the Pope said so in his speech to the NCW. It was the Pope who gave his blessings to these mission families. Christ instructed His Church to go out and spread the Gospels to the ends of the earth. It has always been the Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons who goes out to evangelize. As Catholics, it is our duty to go out and evangelize. But if you will not do it, at least other Catholics are doing it.
"There are places where the Church does not exist"
DeleteWow, really? That's amazing news. How do you come by this special knowledge? Oh - "Even the Pope said so in his speech to the NCW". You've got to be kidding.
The NCW comes to an existing parish an announces that there is no real Church there - or that the Church there is ineffectual. I've heard it myself: "We are here because [insert name of bishop here] believes that there is no community of adult Christians in the parish".
If there was any doubt about this, we can see exactly that same sentiment in Kiko's words above:
"The missio ad gentes are called by Bishops to make an implantatio ecclesiae in areas where the Church does not exist or where it cannot reach people"
So, wherever you see the NCW inserted, you can be sure that they believe that the Church that exists there already is wrong, ineffectual or simply doesn't actually exist. Great. Thanks for the arrogance with a side-order of heresy and a large lies.
Diana,
Delete11:23 is refering to the church here on Guam. Please respond accordingly, and do not generalize.
Dear Anonymous at 1:29 pm,
DeleteI was referring to the church here on Guam. Did you think that secularism does not exist here? As I also mentioned previously, it takes Catholics to evangelize to non-Christians. Where do you think we get these Catholics.......from a Buddhist temple?????
Dear Anonymous at 1:26 pm,
DeleteThe following came from the Pope's speech to the NCW:
"For years now the Way has been undertaking these missio ad gentes among non-Christians, for an implantatio Ecclesiae, a new presence of the Church, where the Church does not exist or is no longer able to reach people."
If you have a problem with the Pope's statement above, then take it up with him.
Well first off you are generalizing people in the NCW. Second you need to define what the NCW means by no "Real Church". Every time the NCW presents what it does it explains what are the signs that call people who might even be atheist to believe that there is a God.
DeleteIt explains that the Catholic Church uses a method to bring people to Christ called Pastoral of Sacramentalization. Which uses the presences of Christ to bring people to Christ or to Church. Those presences include the sacraments first of all, the priests, the bishops, the poor those are all considered to be presences of Christ. However the problem with this method is that it presuposes you already have some kind of faith and can not reach a person without any faith at all. Most extreme example: Atheist. But even people in church do not have faith. They have a natural faith, which is a relationship with God based on exchange I go to church as long as you do your part in my life. However Christ shows us what is really faith, when he confides in the father to the extreme of allowing himself to die for enemies, not for some kind of cause or country or to defend someone. He dies for those who hate him. That is complete faith in the father. That is what an adult Christian is called to do in his daily life.
Anyways back to subject, the NCW explain it injects a pastoral called pastoral of evangelization. This pastoral builds a community that grow together to show signs that any man, atheist or not can see and believe there is a God. This sign more important than physical miracles (because those are limited to a few who witness them) is called the moral miracle. So what is it:
Christ says, "love one another as I have loved you and they will know you are my disciples". He also says, " whoever sees me has seen the father". Christ calls man to love their enemies, and whoever witnesses this love which has to be born from baptism, and must not be done in effort, sees him and consequently the father.
This love most happen effortlessly and this is the sole purpose of the NCW is to help people live their baptism to its fullest so that it can grow into this adult faith that loves the enemy, the one who hates you, without effort. The catechumenate already existed within the church in the early church but was lost because of impracticality. It was meant to help people outside the faith reach these signs and then consequently be baptized. Saint John Crisostom, speaking to cristians who wanted to be baptized, says "you cannot be baptizes unless you perform virtue (love the enemy) without effort".
Again this is the purpose of the NCW, that members on this path of Christian initiation become judgemental is truly sad and i regret and feel bad for those members. However ultimately the NCW is a powerful tool that has been recognized by all Popes, to reach the man of today and to help to bring forth those signs. But like in the Catholic Church no guarantees are made and every man is free to follow what he thinks, ultimately God allows and oversees everything and in him we must trust.
Diana, do you think there are parishes and villages on Guam where the Church does not exist, therefore requiring the NCW to evangelize as it is doing today, in our parishes.
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous at 12:07 pm,
DeleteThere are Churches on Guam that exist and many of them have been influenced by secularalism. The NCW is also re-evangelizing Europe where secularism has influenced the Church.
They evangelize from the pulpit inside of catholic churches, this is the best place to attack secularism....
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous at 9:21 pm,
DeleteThat is the best way to get Catholics to evangelize to non-Christians. It takes Catholics to go out and evangelize the non-Christians. So, where do you think we should find these Catholics........in a Buddhist temple???????
Dear Anonymous, I agree with Diana. I had spent a few months in Guam and many of the church's are very much secularized. And everything that she is saying is a fact. I am a witness to this.
ReplyDelete