Did this document from Vatican II absolutely KILL Catholic evangelization?

[Lepanto]

After reading the following, why would anybody want to be a Catholic missionary?

I think the collapse of Catholic foreign and home missions can to a large extent be traced back to this document, and many of those missions that remain are barely indistinguishable from the Peace Corp. Digging wells yes, converting the people no.

Certainly, any interest that I may have felt in being an evangelist is quashed by this document.​

Excerpted from:
DECLARATION ON
THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS
NOSTRA AETATE
PROCLAIMED BY HIS HOLINESS
POPE PAUL VI
ON OCTOBER 28, 1965

vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651028_nostra-aetate_en.html

The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men. Indeed, she proclaims, and ever must proclaim Christ “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), in whom men may find the fullness of religious life, in whom God has reconciled all things to Himself.

The Church, therefore, exhorts her sons, that through dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions, carried out with prudence and love and in witness to the Christian faith and life, they recognize, preserve and promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the socio-cultural values found among these men.​

 

[Danny_OC]

To me that document does not cast any shadow of doubt on the fact that the Catholic church is indeed the one and only true Church. It just points out that there can be some pieces of truth in other religions as well. I am sure people realized that before this document.

My knee-jerk reaction is usually to be very conservative on any issue and dismiss apparent changes like this immediately. But when I see it comes from a pope, I always give him the benefit of the doubt and try to understand where he’s coming from. And if he seems to be speaking with the infallible authority of his office… I’ll make sure to change my views to be in line with that, no matter what he’s saying.

 

[puzzleannie]

The Church, therefore, exhorts her sons, that through dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions, carried out with prudence and love and in witness to the Christian faith and life, they recognize, preserve and promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the socio-cultural values found among these men.​

since this is a great description of what a missionary should be doing, I am not seeing the problem.

would you prefer the Church to send missionaries who condemn and reject the good and moral things they observe in the people and cultures to whom they are sent?

 

[peregrinus_WA]

Doctrinal Note on some Aspects of Evangelization.

 

[1ke]

Lot’s of times a post has an implied rhetorical question, “Is it just me…?”

In this case, the answer to that is, “Yes.”

There’s nothing nothing in this document that deters evangelization and no it does not “kill” evangelization.

 

[Danny_OC]

I’m not going to say the OP doesn’t have any ground on which to stand.

Moral relativism is a massive problem today. Let’s refrain from trashing a fellow Catholic just for perhaps taking that concept a bit too far.

 

[Fidelis]

I think it is easy to jump to conclusions if you take one quote out of one document from one Church Council. However, if you look at other documents that came out of and right after Vatican II that go to great lengths to stress the importance of evangelization, you can see that it remains a priority with the Church.

Here is a link to another Vatican II document on missionary activity, Ad Gentes:
vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19651207_ad-gentes_en.html

This missionary activity derives its reason from the will of God, “who wishes all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, Himself a man, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself as a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:45), “neither is there salvation in any other” (Acts 4:12). Therefore, all must be converted to Him, made known by the Church’s preaching, and all must be incorporated into Him by baptism and into the Church which is His body. For Christ Himself “by stressing in express language the necessity of faith and baptism (cf. Mark 16:16; John 3:5), at the same time confirmed the necessity of the Church, into which men enter by baptism, as by a door. Therefore those men cannot be saved, who though aware that God, through Jesus Christ founded the Church as something necessary, still do not wish to enter into it, or to persevere in it.”(17) Therefore though God in ways known to Himself can lead those inculpably ignorant of the Gospel to find that faith without which it is impossible to please Him (Heb. 11:6), yet a necessity lies upon the Church (1 Cor. 9:16), and at the same time a sacred duty, to preach the Gospel. And hence missionary activity today as always retains its power and necessity.

By means of this activity, the Mystical Body of Christ unceasingly gathers and directs its forces toward its own growth (cf. Eph. 4:11-16). The members of the Church are impelled to carry on such missionary activity by reason of the love with which they love God and by which they desire to share with all men the spiritual goods of both its life and the life to come. (Ad Gentes, 7)

Then there is the Apostolic Exhortation by Pope Paul VI soon after the Council, Evangelii Nuntiandi:
papalencyclicals.net/Paul06/p6evan.htm

1. Above all the Gospel must be proclaimed by witness. Take a Christian or a handful of Christians who, in the midst of their own community, show their capacity for understanding and acceptance, their sharing of life and destiny with other people, their solidarity with the efforts of all for whatever is noble and good. Let us suppose that, in addition, they radiate in an altogether simple and unaffected way their faith in values that go beyond current values, and their hope in something that is not seen and that one would not dare to imagine. Through this wordless witness these Christians stir up irresistible questions in the hearts of those who see how they live: Why are they like this? Why do they live in this way? What or who is it that inspires them? Why are they in our midst? Such a witness is already a silent proclamation of the Good News and a very powerful and effective one. Here we have an initial act of evangelization. The above questions will ask, whether they are people to whom Christ has never been proclaimed, or baptized people who do not practice, or people who live as nominal Christians but according to principles that are in no way Christian, or people who are seeking, and not without suffering, something or someone whom they sense but cannot name. Other questions will arise, deeper and more demanding ones, questions evoked by this witness which involves presence, sharing, solidarity, and which is an essential element, and generally the first one, in evangelization." All Christians are called to this witness, and in this way they can be real evangelizers…

1. Nevertheless this always remains insufficient, because even the finest witness will prove ineffective in the long run if it is not explained, justified – what Peter called always having “your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you all have”[52] – and made explicit by a clear and unequivocal proclamation of the Lord Jesus. The Good News proclaimed by the witness of life sooner or later has to be proclaimed by the word of life. There is no true evangelization if the name, the teaching, the life, the promises, the kingdom and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God are not proclaimed. The history of the Church, from the discourse of Peter on the morning of Pentecost onwards, has been intermingled and identified with the history of this proclamation. At every new phase of human history, the Church, constantly gripped by the desire to evangelize, has but one preoccupation: whom to send to proclaim the mystery of Jesus? In what way is this mystery to be proclaimed? How can one ensure that it will resound and reach all those who should hear it? This proclamation – kerygma, preaching or catechesis – occupies such an important place in evangelization that it has often become synonymous with it; and yet it is only one aspect of evangelization. (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 21-22)

We could also add other Church documents like Pope John Paul II’s *Redemtoris Missio *and the US Bishops document “Go and Make Disciples.” Read these documents in their entirety, then you can draw a more well balanced conclusion.

To paraphrase G.K. Chesterton, it is not that the Church has been lacking in exhorting her children to evangelize; it is her children who have not listened and have been lacking a response.

 

[LilyM]

After reading the following, why would anybody want to be a Catholic missionary?

I think the collapse of Catholic foreign and home missions can to a large extent be traced back to this document, and many of those missions that remain are barely indistinguishable from the Peace Corp. Digging wells yes, converting the people no.

Certainly, any interest that I may have felt in being an evangelist is quashed by this document.​

Excerpted from:
DECLARATION ON
THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS
NOSTRA AETATE
PROCLAIMED BY HIS HOLINESS
POPE PAUL VI
ON OCTOBER 28, 1965

vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651028_nostra-aetate_en.html

The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men. Indeed, she proclaims, and ever must proclaim Christ “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), in whom men may find the fullness of religious life, in whom God has reconciled all things to Himself.

The Church, therefore, exhorts her sons, that through dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions, carried out with prudence and love and in witness to the Christian faith and life, they recognize, preserve and promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the socio-cultural values found among these men.​

This extract really puts me in mind of the reading at Mass the other day, which was St Paul’s speech in Athens. He begins by praising the Athenians for their devotion to all things religious. He follows this by cleverly bringing Christ into their existing religious framework by reference to their ‘altar to an unknown God’. And goes on to quote one of their own Greek philosopher/poets on the nature of our relationship with God (" ‘we are all His children’ ").

Sounds like the Fathers of Vatican 2 were using Paul’s evanglisation style here as a model.

 

[scylla]

I would somewhat agree with the original poster in that this helped kill Catholic evangelization. It didn’t do it, it just helped.

People are always looking for the easier way not the narrow path but the wide and easy path. They see the passages like this in documents and elevate them to allow for a more loose easy path rather than the difficult task of sacrifice and evangelization.

Unfortunately many took the small allowances and positive statements as exhortations to liberty from most requirements of faithfulness to God to a faithfulness to self. Elevating personal desires above submission to God.

So yes this document certainly helped a great deal, but it is not the documents fault, it is the Bishops, Priests and Laypeople for seeking their own way of not reading the documents according to Catholic traditon and maintaining fidelity to Catholic understanding of our submission to God first.

In Christ
Scylla

 

[Mystic_of_God]

Listen.

The Catholic idea of ecumenism is “everybody become devoutly Catholic”.

 

[Tsuwano]

This quote from Nostra Aetate is one of the most beautiful descriptions of the attitude a Catholic missionary should have towards those he or she is sent to evangelize. It has attracted numerous men and women to live their lives as missionaries, including this one. Also, to be clear, Catholic evangelization is not dead. I know numerous missionaries from around the world who are working hard, often without recognition, to teach and live the Gospel of the Lord in cultures and languages vastly different from their own. They have given up friends, family, culture, and language to be the face of Jesus in a world that is often not only hostile to their message, but even thinks they have disappeared or that their efforts count for nothing. Believe me, Catholic evangelization is alive and well, probably thriving right in your own backyard.