by Deacon Dana Nearmyer
The archdiocese is introducing a new pastoral planning process called “A Renewal from the Heartland.”
The goal of this initiative is to enable each of our parishes to be intentional centers of charity and sanctuaries of mercy. You are an important person in this process. Evangelization is key to the mission of the Catholic Church.
Pope Paul VI wrote in “Evangelii Nuntiandi”: “We wish to confirm once more that the task of evangelizing all people constitutes the essential mission of the church.
“It is a task and mission which the vast and profound changes of present-day society make all the more urgent. Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize, that is to say, in order to preach and teach, to be the channel of the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners with God, and to perpetuate Christ’s sacrifice in the Mass, which is the memorial of his death and glorious resurrection” (paragraph 14).
Key to our Catholic faith is sharing the peace of Christ with our circle of influence, especially with family and friends.
As Catholics, we love the idea of evangelization, especially if the priests and pope are doing it, but Pope Paul VI in that same document wrote: “Laypeople, whose particular vocation places them in the midst of the world and in charge of the most varied temporal tasks, must for this very reason exercise a very special form of evangelization.
“Their primary and immediate task is not to establish and develop the ecclesial community — this is the specific role of the pastors — but to put to use every Christian and evangelical possibility latent but already present and active in the affairs of the world.
“Their own field of evangelizing activity is the vast and complicated world of politics, society and economics, but also the world of culture, of the sciences and the arts, of international life, of the mass media.
“It also includes other realities which are open to evangelization, such as human love, the family, the education of children and adolescents, professional work, suffering” (in paragraph 70).
All Christians are called to share Christ’s love, mercy and promises. “A Renewal from the Heartland” encourages clergy, religious and laity to recognize their proper responsibilities in building communion and engaging in the church’s mission. Parishioner participation is key. It will kick off with a small group, faith-sharing program called “Beatitudes from the Heartland.”
To learn more, visit the website at: archkck.org/renewal-heartland.
