Why are there no more St Francis Xavier's?

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Dempsey1919

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Evangelisation doesn’t seem that important anymore. In the past, we had great men like St. Francis Xavier who made it their mission to bring souls to Christ?

Why don’t we have agressive evangelisation anymore? These days, more effort is given to ecumenism when the possibility of reunion is very slim.

Do you think the Church will ever recover her missionary zeal? I would love to see large scale evangelisation and missionary efforts in Islamic countries such as Pakistan and Iran.

The Protestant denominations seem far more concerned with evangelisation than we are. Why is this? Does the Church not want to offend the other religions?
 
Dempsey1919 said:
Evangelisation doesn’t seem that important anymore. In the past, we had great men like St. Francis Xavier who made it their mission to bring souls to Christ?

Why don’t we have agressive evangelisation anymore? These days, more effort is given to ecumenism when the possibility of reunion is very slim.

Do you think the Church will ever recover her missionary zeal? I would love to see large scale evangelisation and missionary efforts in Islamic countries such as Pakistan and Iran.

The Protestant denominations seem far more concerned with evangelisation than we are. Why is this? Does the Church not want to offend the other religions?
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Remember that many of the great Saints were lay people!
 
We need more “strong in the Faith” lay people to go out and Evangelize, because the Clergy can’t do it.
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Why can’t the clergy do it? If they can’t physically go out and do it, then the least they can do is exhort the faithful to do it from the pulpit.

The purpose of this thread was not so much to question why the clergy don’t have the missionary zeal of yesteryear; the purpose of this thread was to discuss why ecumenism seems to have become more important than evangelism. Why doesn’t the Church call for the aggressive evangelisation of foreign lands like it once did?
 
Dempsey1919 said:
Evangelisation doesn’t seem that important anymore. In the past, we had great men like St. Francis Xavier who made it their mission to bring souls to Christ?
?
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the Church is and has been since Francis’ day burgeoning with missionary zeal, read the history of his own Jesuits, or the other great missionary orders, including those active today in the poorest areas of the world.
 
focolare.org/En/sif/2000/20000323e_b.html
We do still have St.Francis Xavier’s for sure.
Read about this very 20th century holy young woman that is being considered for canonization. She did much in evangelizing others and she did it humbly and simply in her short life.
 
Why would anybody want to be a Catholic missionary today?

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.
And another document:

vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19641121_unitatis-redintegratio_en.html
  1. We must get to know the outlook of our separated brethren. To achieve this purpose, study is of necessity required, and this must be pursued with a sense of realism and good will. Catholics, who already have a proper grounding, need to acquire a more adequate understanding of the respective doctrines of our separated brethren, their history, their spiritual and liturgical life, their religious psychology and general background. Most valuable for this purpose are meetings of the two sides-especially for discussion of theological problems-where each can treat with the other on an equal footing-provided that those who take part in them are truly competent and have the approval of the bishops. From such dialogue will emerge still more clearly what the situation of the Catholic Church really is. In this way too the outlook of our separated brethren will be better understood, and our own belief more aptly explained.
 
Lepanto, I agree with your opinion on the matter.

Here is my take on the paragraph you quoted:
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.
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The Church is acknowledging the work of the Holy Spirit in these religions. God wills that all men be saved, and so it is logical to believe that God would try to enligten those who follow these false religions. All good comes from the Holy Spirit, and the truth contained in all religions is a consequence of the workings of the Holy Spirit. However, Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and as the document states, it is only through him that men can find the fullness of religious life [in the Catholic faith].

The Church is not saying that we should not engage in evangelisation; she is simply stating that she “rejects nothing that is true and holy” in false religions because these elements came from the Holy Spirit.

Although all religions contain a “ray of Truth,” the Church still teaches that Salvation is achieved only through Christ. The last sentence of the above paragraph restates the need for continued evangelisation.

However, many Catholics seem to ignore this call to evanelisation, and focus entirely on the fact that the Church treats these faiths with “sincere reverence;” they interpret this as saying that these religions are equal with the Catholic faith, which is totally wrong.

Only in the Catholic faith can man practice that religion which is truly pleasing to God. The Catholic faith has in full what the other religions have in part. All elements of truth that these false religions contain lead believers to Christ, because Christ is The Truth; there can be no truth that is contrary to Christ. Christ is the only truth, and he uses the other religions to guide men to him, and ultimately the Catholic Church. If anyone searches with sincerity for the truth, they will find the Catholic Church.

It is unfortunate that many believe that the other religions offer a separate path to salvation because this is not true. This is the heresy of religious indifferentism. We still need to evangelise the whole world. It is not wrong to acknowledge the truth in other religions, but it is wrong to use this as an excuse not to evangelise.
 
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