10 Reasons why Catholics don't Evangelize

  • Thread starter Thread starter NickyMaz
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Spot on.
"3. RCIA. What is that? A company that used to make radios? The whole RCIA system is often cumbersome and user-unfriendly. If you have someone who is interested in becoming a Catholic you have to tell them about RCIA, which starts in the fall — so what do you do when they come in April? — and goes through for months until Easter. "

Actually, I thought rcia (ruining catechesis in America) was meant to keep potential converts and reverts away from the church, lol.
 
The RCIA process and model needs to be addressed. How many new converts fall through the cracks after Easter? How many simply don’t go because it’s offered at only one time during the week, or because it only begins in the Fall? And what about RCIA for people who are already Catholic? How do we better catechize the people in the pews?

It needs retooling.
 
On a practical level those of us born into the faith may well be rather clueless about RCIA and not really able answer a persons questions about how to go about becoming Catholic.
 
Maybe an interesting article but I don’t think it gets to the main point to me. I don’t think I can put my finger on it as well but I’ll try. My Catholic family goes to church every Sunday, but even mentioning reading the entire bible gives them an abhorrent emotion, vibe, some of whom have read books like war and peace. Bringing up religious topics always makes them want to change the topic as soon as possible. It’s a bit of a mystery to me. As I said, they go to mass every Sunday, some listen to Catholic radio, but Catholic life and being able to speak about it in even a vague basic way is abhorrent to them.
 
I don’t know if it’s a British upper lip thing but you are brought up to avoid talking religion or politics. It’s a hard thing to overcome and I find when even talking to other Catholics talking about faith is awkward.
 
Sounds like Catholics are ‘hopeless’.

1 Peter 3:15
…but in your hearts reverence Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence…
 
Probably depends on the priest and the person too. I was given license to not attend a significant portion of RCIA, simply because I had class at that time (grad school classes not generally being the sort of thing you can rearrange). But I had a fair knowledge already, and I think the priest also figured anyone in a good philosophy program could make it through a catechism on their own.

One thing I think that also hurts is that for many people, evangelism is associated with the sort of thing that the evangelical protestants do. Which is something that just wouldn’t work for Catholics - it’s really based around the sinner’s prayer and eternal security, neither of which do Catholics believe.
 
I disagree with his assessments. Catholics evangelize. But we do it differently than Protestants. We evangelize through the daily living of our faith. We go where the need is and offer and give our help to all in need. We show the love of Christ by our example and through our service to others not just through the use of words. Our love for God and for others shows in these and so many ways.
 
Both good points. I know from being a Baptist the formula to get people in the church was pretty simple, as you said. It’s a light introduction to the kerygma followed by the Sinners prayer or some equivelant, then you tell them what time service and Sunday school is. Piece of cake.

Most Catholics I know aren’t vocal about their faith, but they generally live it out pretty well. Of course then you have all the Catholics who don’t, plus over-hyped and misinformed media coverage that can easily overshadow those trying to live according to the Gospel and the Church. Perhaps the Evangelical lingo (are you “born again”, “saved” etc) has crept into American’s perception of Christianity to the point there’s a language barrier, not dissimilar to the one we experience when talking to our Protestant friends about things like worship and prayer.
 
RKS89 said:
Both good points. I know from being a Baptist the formula to get people in the church was pretty simple, as you said. It’s a light introduction to the kerygma followed by the Sinners prayer or some equivelant, then you tell them what time service and Sunday school is. Piece of cake.
Click to expand...
I also get the feeling from experience as a Baptist that a lot of our “converts” were merely humoring us, or trying to get the annoying person with the tracts to go away.
 
I’d say 30-40%. But there’s not a very deep bench there theologically or spiritually when compared to the Catholic Church. I was constantly looking for resources on prayer or even disciplines like fasting (which, I was told by my Baptist pastor “we don’t do”), and it’s just not there. I mean what happens when you desire more than what your getting and the answer is “be a missionary” or “be a pastor”. There’s not much to hold you in if you’re really hungry for spiritual guidance and fulfillment, at least that was my experience.
 
lilypadrees said:
evangelize. But we do it differently than Protestants. We evangelize through the daily living of our faith. We go where the need is and offer and give our help to all in need. We show the love of Christ by our example and through our service to others not just through the use of words. Our love for God and for others shows in these and so many ways.
Click to expand...
I appreciate your response but I think that was one of the arguments the author addressed. Doing good works doesn’t always speak as loudly as we may think, there are a lot of secular charities full of non-Christians who do good works too. I think the Father’s point is in addition to living the gospel we should not be afraid to be vocal about our faith from time to time.
 
Okay, Fr. Longenecker made a list of 10 problems and errors. Looks like a good list.

Now what’s his vision of evangelization, beyond “use words”? I didn’t get a clear sense of the way forward.
 
Last edited:
Here’s some food for thought. I was talking with a friend recently who is considering converting, he married a catholic woman, and he said “Give me your 30 second elevator speech on why I should become a catholic”. This was a bit of a challenge for me as you can imagine. But think about how you would answer that question. Can I some up in a few short sentences why a person should be catholic?
 
That’s been my thought as well.

And a lot of things people dismiss really shouldn’t be dismissed. One fears to offend, not because one is afraid of people thinking badly, but because one who finds the initial teaching abhorrent is not likely to listen further.

That was always one of my complaints about protestant evangelism - much of it had the attitude that if people listened, good for you for putting the message out, but if people didn’t listen it was a fault in them. We should never compromise the truth, but we can shape our presentation to our society.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top