Catholic Street Evangelization? Are you serious?

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Catholic_Dude

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Hello everyone,

Did you know there is a Catholic apostolate called St Paul Street Evangelization that has teams in many cities? They have all kinds of pictures on their page of apologetics talks they have had with people (mostly Protestants and fallen away Catholics). It’s so awesome! The leader was even hosted on Catholic Answers!

Check out the link:
facebook.com/CatholicStreetEvangelization
👍
 
It is nothing new. St. Paul did this all through his missionary journeys, most famously in Greece. St. Anthony of Padua was another.

In modern times, F.J. Sheed (1897-1981) and his wife Maisie Ward ran the Catholic Evidence Guild which did just this. Sheed and his trained apologists used to stand on wooden boxes in the parks in London and debate out in the street. Patrick Madrid wrote an article about it.

Over afternoon tea, Sheed’s friend described what it was like to watch Frank manage the crowd. He worked on hecklers and skeptics and scoffers the way a chiropractor works on a bad back – probing, searching for the tensed-up muscle, finding it, and going to work on it with precision. He massaged the minds of his audiences, breaking down hardened prejudices against Catholicism, kneading the “God does not exist!” arguments until they crumbled, and showing atheists the folly of their denials. He made countless converts on the stump. Read More….

Anyone who does apologetics and street corner evangelization owes a debt of gratitude to Frank Sheed. He was the master in modern times and set the standard moving forward.

Sheed was called the Prophet of Hyde Park and there were Catholic Evidence Guilds all over the world. I hear that CEG still practices at Grand Central Station in NYC.

By the way, some people don’t go on facebook.

-Tim-
 
Catholic_Dude said:
Hello everyone,

Did you know there is a Catholic apostolate called St Paul Street Evangelization that has teams in many cities? They have all kinds of pictures on their page of apologetics talks they have had with people (mostly Protestants and fallen away Catholics). It’s so awesome! The leader was even hosted on Catholic Answers!

Check out the link:
facebook.com/CatholicStreetEvangelization
👍
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Why do Catholics focus so much more on non-Catholic Christians than Muslims Or Atheists? I find Evangelicals really want the lost to come to Christ more than anything.
 
dronald said:
Why do Catholics focus so much more on non-Catholic Christians than Muslims Or Atheists? I find Evangelicals really want the lost to come to Christ more than anything.
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Evangelicals do mission trips to Catholic nations more than anything.
 
TRH1292 said:
Evangelicals do mission trips to Catholic nations more than anything.
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Guess its easier than say going to China or the Middle East, huh? :rolleyes:

Perhaps we should send missionaries to Texas, Alabama, the Carolinas, England, Scotland, Finland, Norway and Sweden. 👍
 
TRH1292 said:
Mission trips to central and south america aimed almost exclusively at converting Catholics.
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Seems like a waste of good people willing to travel in order to preach Christ.

Could you let me know what North American Church’s are taking part in this and advocating it? I know that most Evangelicals go to other countries to help the poor.

I’ve never heard my Church, my friends or anyone being told that they are to go to other countries to convert Catholics. We have programs for the Middle East, Africa and places where hope is low.
 
dronald said:
Seems like a waste of good people willing to travel in order to preach Christ.

Could you let me know what North American Church’s are taking part in this and advocating it? I know that most Evangelicals go to other countries to help the poor.

I’ve never heard my Church, my friends or anyone being told that they are to go to other countries to convert Catholics. We have programs for the Middle East, Africa and places where hope is low.
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I have lived in the Bible belt my entire life. I have grown up around Evangelical Christianity. I know tons of evangelicals, as I live with them. I visit evangelical Church’s on a regular basis. I once attended evangelical Church’s every weekend. And I even live next door to a Southern Baptist Church, which is about 40 feet from my front door.

Basing myself on that, I can tell you that at least in the south, the missionary efforts of Southern Baptists, the different Pentecostals, and Conservative Presbyterians consists almost exclusively in mission work to that area. I personally have been involved in one Presbyterian Church, upwards of five Baptist Church’s. and three Pentecostal Church where that is the case.

You can check a website that does statistics on these things and see that the majority of the mission work is devoted to that area, which is common knowledge around where I live.
 
TRH1292 said:
I have lived in the Bible belt my entire life. I have grown up around Evangelical Christianity. I know tons of evangelicals, as I live with them. I visit evangelical Church’s on a regular basis. I once attended evangelical Church’s every weekend. And I even live next door to a Southern Baptist Church, which is about 40 feet from my front door.

Basing myself on that, I can tell you that at least in the south, the missionary efforts of Southern Baptists, the different Pentecostals, and Conservative Presbyterians consists almost exclusively in mission work to that area. I personally have been involved in one Presbyterian Church, upwards of five Baptist Church’s. and three Pentecostal Church where that is the case.

You can check a website that does statistics on these things and see that the majority of the mission work is devoted to that area, which is common knowledge around where I live.
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I’m from Southern Ontario, I’ve heard stories of the Bible belt. The pictures I see are often embarrassing of Evangelical street preachers and the things they say.

But again, is there a website I can find that has a running mission statement that has them sending people out for the specific goal to Evangelize Catholics?
 
dronald said:
I’m from Southern Ontario, I’ve heard stories of the Bible belt. The pictures I see are often embarrassing of Evangelical street preachers and the things they say.

But again, is there a website I can find that has a running mission statement that has them sending people out for the specific goal to Evangelize Catholics?
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Well that explains why you don’t know.

Down here is evangelical turf, where the majority of people identify as evangelicals.
 
SuperLuigi said:
Guess its easier than say going to China or the Middle East, huh? :rolleyes:

Perhaps we should send missionaries to Texas, Alabama, the Carolinas, England, Scotland, Finland, Norway and Sweden. 👍
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We are doing a fine job in Georgia.

3% of the state was Catholic in the year 2000 and now it is over 12%. We have an Archbishop who is a former president of the USCCB and now two auxiliary Bishops.

Y’all come down. We got all the smells and bells.

-Tim-
 
TRH1292 said:
Well that explains why you don’t know.

Down here is evangelical turf, where the majority of people identify as evangelicals.
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And I don’t doubt your first hand experience. I really am interested in which mainstream Evangelical denomination has a website I could find with a statement that converting Catholics is their main mission for missionaries.
 
dronald said:
I’m from Southern Ontario, I’ve heard stories of the Bible belt. The pictures I see are often embarrassing of Evangelical street preachers and the things they say.

But again, is there a website I can find that has a running mission statement that has them sending people out for the specific goal to Evangelize Catholics?
Click to expand...
They don’t say they have a specific goal of evangelizing Catholics, they say they try to evangelize the unchurched. Mexico, for example, was run by anti-clericalists who forbade public practice of the Catholic Faith, closed Catholic schools, etc, so the passing-down of the Catholic faith was disrupted.

I used to see a large sign on the side of the road for several weeks each summer inviting people to come and hear this missionary to Mexico speak (and raise money).

OTOH, there is apparently a strong radio missionary presence in the Middle East of both Protestants and Catholics.
 
I’ve read that the main threat to the Catholic Church in the Pope’s homeland of Argentina are the Pentecostals. It was not clear whether the problem is the conversion of Catholics to Pentecostalism, or the growth of Pentecostalism among the non-Catholic population, or both. I suspect both. Anyone?
 
St_Francis said:
They don’t say they have a specific goal of evangelizing Catholics, they say they try to evangelize the unchurched. Mexico, for example, was run by anti-clericalists who forbade public practice of the Catholic Faith, closed Catholic schools, etc, so the passing-down of the Catholic faith was disrupted.

I used to see a large sign on the side of the road for several weeks each summer inviting people to come and hear this missionary to Mexico speak (and raise money).

OTOH, there is apparently a strong radio missionary presence in the Middle East of both Protestants and Catholics.
Click to expand...
Now this I can certainly believe and that’s why I’m getting into this. Is it over zealous ignorant Protestants or is it a Church backed organization that sends people from North America to South America with the mission of converting Catholics.

This is what it sounded like the person I was responding to was saying, so I wanted it to be clear.
 
JamesCaruso said:
I’ve read that the main threat to the Catholic Church in the Pope’s homeland of Argentina are the Pentecostals. It was not clear whether the problem is the conversion of Catholics to Pentecostalism, or the growth of Pentecostalism among the non-Catholic population, or both. I suspect both. Anyone?
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This is what I’m saying my friend, the uncertainty could certainly point to it being over zealous Protestants thinking this is right. Our Church specifically sets out to teach those about Jesus who have never heard of Him; that and helping the poor.

I don’t think we’re trying to take Catholics away from Catholicism but it’s certainly possible to happen if the one who is feeding you is also teaching you.
 
St_Francis said:
In addition, the Legion of Mary does street evangelizing and goes door-to-door.
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In which countries does the Legion do street evangelizing? In this country, I know it does door to door, visiting all the homes within the assigned parish’s boundaries, and under obedience to the Pastor of the parish. This is consistent with the Catholic thought that the Pastor is the Pastor of all the people in the geographic area of his parish, whether they are Catholic or not. Generally, from what I know, the door to door is to identify who are Catholics and to give information to non-Catholic or fallen away Catholics, if they are interested. It’s a low key form of evangelization, unlike some Protestant denominations that are more aggressive in their approach. This is how it seems to work in my part of the country, anyway. I have heard of book barrows set up in foreign countries and manned by Legionaries, but I have not seen that here in America in any public place.
 
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