Evangelization in the World and

On Oct. 13^th, 2001 I was taking lunch at Mundelein Seminary in the Archdiocese of Chicago. I was sitting with five Kenyan seminarians studying for the priesthood there. A local seminarian asked if he might join us. He was called James Madison and looked around thirty-five years of age. I asked him what he was doing in the world before joining the seminary. He mentioned his job and told me that his family left the church twenty years ago. I asked why. They complained that the Catholic Church didn�t teach the Bible enough. Now he and most of his family are back. Again, I asked why. He said that they discovered that the teachings of their evangelical church were too thin. Then one of the Kenyan seminarians suddenly confessed he was outside the church for six years. I asked him why. He was led to believe that Catholics are not saved. Now he is in third theology and will become a Deacon in 2002. I have literally heard hundred and hundreds of stories like this. There is no end to it.

Coming back from visiting the graves of my parents on Nov. 2^nd, All souls Day, my brother, David startled me when he asked, why did so many of our nephews and nieces leave their Catholic Faith. He had never asked this question before. He attended all their marriages outside the church and was hurt by it all. I told him there may be many reasons. I could start blaming their parents, the world with its secular messages that ridicule our faith, the Leaders of the Church for failing to respond to this great defection, or the sudden expansion and thrusts of the evangelical churches. Maybe for a time these churches seemed more suitable, more lively and evangelistic. It is very hard to talk about this with members of your own family.

Their departure was more than fifteen years ago and not one has come back. I have found this same situation in Catholic home after home. Sometimes, it is too painful to talk about. It is far easier to keep quiet and pray that they come back than to find out THE WHY OF IT ALL.

I have read that the church has lost about twenty million Catholics in Latin America and ten million Hispanics in the States. If I could count my nephews and nieces and others from non-Hispanic homes, I am sure that there would be another ten million or more. There is not a parish or home that hasn�t been touched. How many Catholics have defected in Kenya? I have no exact number, but from the stories I have heard they are many. It is better not to think about it and carry on from where we are. But can we? Are we on the right tract?

I will be the first to say that many Catholics are doing wonderful things for the Church. I know many adult youth who reach out and from the younger youth. There are many Catholic institutions like hospitals, clinics, schools, educational programmers, retreat houses, and development projects, pastoral and religious centers doing outstanding work. I know that many personnel and great finances have been put in to run these projects. So much of our work falls under the title of social and development work. So little of it deals with the proclamation of the word as Jesus did in every town and place. We have a whole army of religious, well trained and dedicated and so few of them deal with the Gospel, a phrase I have coined to express the pastoral and spiritual aspect of our calling. So many have found Jesus in other places than in our Church and communities. Like Christ, I hate to lose even one of our sheep.

The Church has hundreds of congregations, societies, various ministries, movements, institutions but our impact is not what it should be. A former director of the Kenya Broadcast Corporation told me �what a big church with such a little voice.� He was right.

THE JOHN PAUL II PARISH-BASED EVANGELIZING TEAMS is a response to the Great Commission and the Great Defection. It is a response to the Vatican II Council and the African Synod. Next year it will celebrate ten years. We have tried to form and equip leaders of teams with the tools to proclaim and defend the faith.

Many of our good lay people were influenced by the booklet, �Who Are Stealing Our Sheep?� and asked to join us. They had experienced the same defections in their own homes and parishes. Many came and stayed for a short time and went.

It has been hard to sustain the momentum. Some had other expectations than evangelization. Our successes for the most part have been sporadic. We have had our good days and many sad ones. Since we are not a movement but dedicated Catholic men and women responding to the Great Commission of Christ, some wondered who we are? In fact, some church leaders and Catholic traditionalists oppose our work of Catholic Evangelization. The Catholic Charismatic Renewal has tried to minimize our initiative and initial successes in many parishes. At times it seems like Catholic Evangelism and the Public Proclamation of the Word of God was a dirty thing, un-catholic to say the least. JPII has produced wonderful preachers but most are without honor in their own Nazareth. The question is how do we make the Catholic Church Evangelistic? Our energy, our personnel, our finances are top heavy in maintaining the social Gospel. The Gospel has been neglected. We are bogged down in so many movements, so many social and development projects, that there is little time or resources left for Evangelization. Interestingly enough, many people who leave our faith because of various reasons are the first to use our institutions. They want the service without the message. Who else is seeing this?

I shall give two recent examples. A Sister just returned from the States with a Masters in Pastoral Counseling. I was happy to hear this since I knew how much this expertise is needed for people involved in pastoral ministry. Then she decided to return to the States to get help to start another AIDS project. I was hurt and asked myself, why another AIDS project? How about the countless lost sheep that are suffering from spiritual AIDS? Christ asked, �will the Son of Man find faith on earth when he comes?� Lk 18:8.

There is a lay Catholic studying journalism at Day Star University in Athi River. Everyday his Catholic faith is attacked and ridiculed by professors and students. He is very intelligent and articulate and challenges them. When they find a faith believing and dynamic Catholic, they back off. That is what Catholic Evangelization is all about. �Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!� 1 Cor 9:16

Fr. Richard J. Quinn, M.M.
Spiritual Adviser
UKWELI VIDEO PRODUCTIONS
Archdiocese of Nairobi
P.O. Box 14465
Nairobi, Kenya

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