C
caroljm36
Guest
I found this interesting article over at the Orthodoxy Today site
orthodoxytoday.org/articles4/UzzellProselytize.shtml
They’re saying that proselytizing has become a dirty word all over the world and discusses why this happened. It really bothers me because I do not see any real proselytizing going on in my parish, at all, not even at the homeless shelter. It’s as if it was considered rude or embarrassing. I guess I’m still whining because no one proselytized me back when I was really interested and I think an earlier conversion would have changed my life significantly.
…Consider the following examples. In 1961 the World Council of Churches pronounced “proselytism” to be “a corruption of Christian witness” that uses “cajolery, bribery, undue pressure, or intimidation, subtly or openly, to bring about seeming conversion.” In a footnote to the documents of Vatican II the Roman Catholic Church defined proselytism as “a corruption of the Christian witness by appeal to hidden forms of coercion or by a style of propaganda unworthy of the Gospel. It is not the use but the abuse of the right to religious freedom.”
It’s just never discussed in homilies or in literature that I see. I’m still not convinced the Church wants new members, oh except for babies and spouses maybe. When I was in RCIA it was like, why are you here? Are you marrying a Catholic? If not, oh yes it’s a “beautiful religion” as if my interest were aesthetic only. Yet I see conversion, especially of the unbaptized like I was, as the key to turning this horrible culture around. Is there any place where the Church or orders religious actually try to make new Catholics?
orthodoxytoday.org/articles4/UzzellProselytize.shtml
They’re saying that proselytizing has become a dirty word all over the world and discusses why this happened. It really bothers me because I do not see any real proselytizing going on in my parish, at all, not even at the homeless shelter. It’s as if it was considered rude or embarrassing. I guess I’m still whining because no one proselytized me back when I was really interested and I think an earlier conversion would have changed my life significantly.
…Consider the following examples. In 1961 the World Council of Churches pronounced “proselytism” to be “a corruption of Christian witness” that uses “cajolery, bribery, undue pressure, or intimidation, subtly or openly, to bring about seeming conversion.” In a footnote to the documents of Vatican II the Roman Catholic Church defined proselytism as “a corruption of the Christian witness by appeal to hidden forms of coercion or by a style of propaganda unworthy of the Gospel. It is not the use but the abuse of the right to religious freedom.”
It’s just never discussed in homilies or in literature that I see. I’m still not convinced the Church wants new members, oh except for babies and spouses maybe. When I was in RCIA it was like, why are you here? Are you marrying a Catholic? If not, oh yes it’s a “beautiful religion” as if my interest were aesthetic only. Yet I see conversion, especially of the unbaptized like I was, as the key to turning this horrible culture around. Is there any place where the Church or orders religious actually try to make new Catholics?
