What's the most important group to reach?

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Our own. Many think that we should reach out to other denominations, non- christians, atheists, but in my opinion Catholics need so much care now. There are fallen away Catholics, lukewarm Catholics, dissenting Catholics in our own parishes who go to Mass as an obligation or a habit but don’t really know why they’re there.

Catholics (and I include myself) need encouragement, and recatholisation (made that up 😃 ) so that more of us can reach out to those who are in other groups. You see? It’s been said that the more you are given, the more is expected of you. The more we know, the more our sins count. So many of us are in peril due to being in the fullness of the Truth, because many don’t accept that truth yet still participate or encourage others to lose their own faith. My opinion is that the Catholic soul although blessed enormously has taken that blessing for granted or has cherry picked what they want out of the faith.

Now on the most part, those who take part in these forums are not among this group, since most are here to learn and to deepen their faith, but there’s a whole group of people who are catholic in culture and habit, yet are not catholic in spirit.
 
I think we should evangelize to everybody, but I think fallen away Catholics should be the first. It is important to not just have people who call themselves Catholics, but to have Catholics who are cacheised, informed and practice the faith.
 
Loboto-Me said:
recatholisation (made that up 😃 )

Good word!! 😃
As a “recatholised” Catholic I deeply appreciate being back home. Looking back, although I wish to have done it while remaining firmly in the Catholic Church, my time away was a time of walking in the desert or wilderness. I was ministered to wonderfully by some of out protestant brethren and “sistren”🙂 I think ultimately this made my acceptance of the gift of Faith my own, not just something infused by my parents. I am less of a rote, by the book Catholic and more deeply engaged.
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Loboto-Me said:
Our own. Many think that we should reach out to other denominations, non- christians, atheists, but in my opinion Catholics need so much care now. There are fallen away Catholics, lukewarm Catholics, dissenting Catholics in our own parishes who go to Mass as an obligation or a habit but don’t really know why they’re there.

Catholics (and I include myself) need encouragement, and recatholisation (made that up 😃 ) so that more of us can reach out to those who are in other groups. You see? It’s been said that the more you are given, the more is expected of you. The more we know, the more our sins count. So many of us are in peril due to being in the fullness of the Truth, because many don’t accept that truth yet still participate or encourage others to lose their own faith. My opinion is that the Catholic soul although blessed enormously has taken that blessing for granted or has cherry picked what they want out of the faith.

Now on the most part, those who take part in these forums are not among this group, since most are here to learn and to deepen their faith, but there’s a whole group of people who are catholic in culture and habit, yet are not catholic in spirit.
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How right you are Loboto-Me.
Down here I live in the so called Bible belt and our Catholic parish seems to be moving ahead in all areas of growth compared to very large cities and states populated by a great many more Catholics. It surprised me when I first moved here 10yrs ago and I wondered at the difference:shrug::)Peace, Carlan
 
I agree, we need to focus on our internal group first. This group of catholics, today’s catholics, have suffered for over 40 years of poor catechesis. Most females among us pop birth control pills as if nothing was wrong. They simply do not know the truth. Men also, put more passion into the domain of spectator sports than their Creator and the potential reward of eternity in heaven. Men and women both are reeling from the divorce wave and the culture of death that has overshadowed us in these times.

It is time for change! If we evangelize internally first, we can then reach out to the world as a greater band of “Soldiers for Christ.”

What does it take? Start re-learning the faith. Use the bible and the latest catechism of the catholic church. Check out the radio show “Catholic Answers Live” with Patrick Coffin, start ordering videos on the faith from Ignatius Press. When you start seeing the local parish is a little “watered down” and under the guidance of that insufferable “creative liturgist”, then start a faith formation group in the community. Meet weekly and go over the readings, a point of doctrine, and how to grow in virtue. Start helping others to see the difference between National Catholic Reporter (very bad) and National Catholic Register (very good).

Want to learn more? Check out the resources available at www.mileschristi.org.
 
Yes , Ohana, perhaps living amongst so many of our non Catholic brothers,we come to appreciate the fullness of Truth more, the light becomes brighter.:)Peace, Carlan
 
We all receive different calls from The Holy Spirit, but I would not regard one group as **more **important than another group. To me, it depends on circumstances and we are always involved in circumstances of one kind or another - while some may receive and be aware of a specific call to one set of circumstances or group (Catholics or those outside The Church). But I think we need to be prepared to address any group, as circumstances may arise.

This is a really wonderful address by Pope Benedict and to my mind it addresses formation for evangelization and from that formation and in God’s Grace our responses are of The Holy Spirit to whomsoever we may be addressing . Sadly I think we are living in a secular culture of “results” - and the Holy Father speaks of the humility and ability to be disconcerned in an attached way with “results”, which is a secularization, I think, of The Church to be heavily invested in and “result orientated” - of course, this is not to step outside what is common sense and invest or emphasize the ridiculous. The Gospel will most always put us outside of secular investments, or contrary to them.

christlife.org/evangelization/evangelization.html
The New Evangelization
Jospeph Cardinal Ratzinger.
*In the face of a growing indifference to God, the new evangelization must not be about a social or political structure, but the person of Jesus Christ, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger told a world gathering of catechists and religion teachers in Rome, December 10, 2000. *
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*Human life cannot be realized by itself. Our life is an open question, an incomplete project, still to be brought to fruition and realized. Each man’s fundamental question is: how will this be realized – becoming man? How does one learn the art of living? Which is the path towards happiness? *

To evangelize means: to show this path – to teach the art of living. At the beginning of His public life Jesus says: I have come to evangelize the poor (Lk 4:18); this means: I have the response to your fundamental question; I will show you the path of life, the path towards happiness – rather: I am that path. *The deepest poverty is the inability of joy, the tediousness of a life considered absurd and contradictory. This poverty is widespread today, in very different forms in the materially rich as well as the poor countries. The inability of joy presupposes and produces the inability to love, produces jealousy, avarice – all defects that devastate the life of individuals and of the world. This is why we are in need of a new evangelization – if the art of living remains an unknown, nothing else works. But his art is not the object of a science – this art can only be communicated by who has life – He who is the Gospel personified. *

I. Structure and method in new evangelization

To read further go to
HERE
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“Today bring to Me The Souls Who Have Become Lukewarm and immerse them in the abyss of My mercy. These souls wound My Heart most painfully. My soul suffered the most dreadful loathing in the Garden of Olives because of lukewarm souls. They were the reason I cried out: ‘Father, take this cup away from Me, if it be Your will.’ For them the last hope of salvation is to run to My mercy.”

From the Divine Mercy Novena, ninth day.
 
Under 25.

Why?:confused:

I heard from a conference by the head of Life Teen that the majority of people who switch religions in their life do so before age 25.:eek:
Plus, from the same conference, if a kid has not involved in anything in his faith beyond Sunday services by age 18 there is only a 4% chance he will be active (i.e. attend services weekly) in that faith as an adult. These satististics are genral, not just Catholic, so we this group would include active Catholis, lukewarm Catholics, Protestants, and everyone else too.👍

God bless.

Br Matthew, LC
 
Under 25.

Why?:confused:

I heard from a conference by the head of Life Teen that the majority of people who switch religions in their life do so before age 25.:eek:
Plus, from the same conference, if a kid has not involved in anything in his faith beyond Sunday services by age 18 there is only a 4% chance he will be active (i.e. attend services weekly) in that faith as an adult. These satististics are genral, not just Catholic, so we this group would include active Catholis, lukewarm Catholics, Protestants, and everyone else too, strengthening the faith and conversions.👍
 
KCT said:
Parents of young children.
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Oh how I wish I had been evangelised properly when my children were young… I wish I had Catholic Answers on the computer back then. Perhaps my kids would now believe rather than be relativists or humanists or new-agey. I am actually grateful that one of my sons is considering becoming Baptist!!! Sad isn’t it? I figure it’s a step in the right direction. Only prayer and slight nudging will bring them back. That’s alot more work and heartache than if I’d been helping my kids with faith from their youth.
 
KCT said:
Parents of young children.
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That gets the whole generational aspect. The biggest issue is that the faith is no longer passed down generation to generation. I said under 25, but if we got all parents they would then take care of most of that group on their own.
 
I’d like to say the fallen away Catholics. All of my siblings are fallen away. The attitudes and words against the Catholic Church that come out of their mouths - WOW! Anti-Catholic denominations are less ferocious.
 
My take on that is that the priest pedophile scandal has kicked away the last bit of reserve people had about knocking Catholics.

It’s going to take 20 years for the public mind to recover. Non-Catholics, I think, are frightened or apprehensive, of priests outside of a church confines.

It was unpleasant to see the recent Utne Reader magazine cover with the caricature of the Pope, and even more unpleasant to hear the hate nonsense spouted by Susan Sarandon.
 
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