NEW EVANGELIZATION - Part XIV

 Why is it described as "New Evangelization" that leads to "Porta Fidei?"


When Christ begun His public ministery His preaching was: "Repent, believe." Another word for 'repent' is repentance or more completely 'a life of repentance.' This way of life was lived by Christ during His 30 years of hidden life. After His hidden life He showed signs of Faith (though Christ had this virtue from the beginning but we like to show how Christ was instructing us on what steps to take that leads to Faith.) This hidden life was followed by His sojourn in the dessert where He overcome all the temptations of Satan.....this is the sign of Faith. So Christ demonstrated to us through His 30 years of hidden life the  'life of repentance' that leads to the 'door of Faith.'

The apostles, too, lived their lives of repentance when they were followers of St. John the Baptist. John the Baptist's preaching was 'Repentance' as taught in the Old Testament. After their repentance, Christ called the apostles to follow Him. Their ability to leave all things and follow Christ showed they had Faith. Faith enabled them to leave all things to follow Christ. Christ gave them first the virtue of Faith that enabled them to leave all things.

So the words of Christ "Repent, believe" is Pope Benedict's Pontifical call to the Church during this "year of Faith.'  The Church is calling all bishops and priests to evangelize themselves by 'repenting and believing' and then  evangelize the rest of the Catholic World by calling them to a life of 'repentance' that leads to the 'door of Faith'. Pope Benedict's 'New Evangelization' corresponds to Christ's "Repent" and the Pope's 'porta fidei' corresponds to Christ's 'Believe." So far, there is nothing new in what the Holy Father had said. And He mentioned the fact that there was nothing really new here. It is the same classical, traditional evangelization mentioned by Christ in the last chapter of the Gospel of Matthew.

So what is NEW in the 'new evangelization?' Nothing! Except that IT was forgotten for the last 400 years up to the present and if priests are reminded of it they will ALL find it so new. So we might as well call it 'NEW.'
If we study all the addresses of the Pope on the 'New Evangelization", which we shall review, it will be very clear that there is nothing new. It is exactly the same 'evangelization' instructed by Christ to the first Apostles, it is the same one used by the Fathers of the Church, it has been the same one used by the Catholic Church from 60 AD up to the 1500 AD but suddenly forgotten after the Council of Trent up to the present. Nobody today remembers how it was before that is why the Pope just allowed himself to fall into calling it 'NEW.'

Our problem is that the 'Lineamenta' and 'Instrumentum laboris' did not follow the schema already made by the Pope which is according to the teachings of Divine Revelation and expanded by the Fathers of the Church. The two documents omitted the first two steps enumerated by the Holy Father. If a preacher followed the Liturgical calendar he would be on track if they wanted to prepare their parishioners ahead of the 'Year of Faith." The bishops of China had begun preparing their faithful by praying the rosary and by studying the Catechism of the Catholic Church....they are on track. But a bishop-theologian gave a talk on TV to a huge audience on the "New Evangelization" and said that the first step was to be docile to the Holy Spirit. The way he described it he was explaining the third step of Pope Benedict's schema. But he said it was the first step omitting the first two steps. The new Bishop of Scotland addressed his new diocese with the same message: that in the "new Evangelization" the first step is 'encounter with the person of Christ."  This is not the first step. It is the third step in Pope Benedict's schema. The first two steps were omitted. Without the first two steps no one can  reach the third or fourth step.

The schema in the 'Lineamenta' and 'instrumentum laboris' has not yet been imposed. It can still be modified or changed during the Bishop's Synod this October. But most bishops are already using it with it's important omissions....omissions that will prevent the faithful from reaching the 'Porta Fidei.'

A cardinal who just passed away described the Church as several hundred years old and tired. He was looking at the wrong church. He was looking at a cloned Church who like the cloned sheep suddenly grew very old and died. That was not the Church. The Church is young and alive.  She is growing slowly to maturity and, so, a few minor improvement, fruit of the development of Christian Doctrine as penned by Blessed John Cardinal Newman is expected. This  is what is 'new.' It is the OLD that has grown slightly to maturity and so slightly different but essentially the same. .....the same tree but slightly bigger and more perfect.......as expected in a living Church.

NEW EVANGELIZATION - Part XIII

                                                                      What Caused the Crisis of Faith?

We have seen the "New Evangelization" introduced first by Pope John Paul II and expounded by then Cardinal Ratzinger in a speech to Cathechists in Rome. Cardinal Ratzinger's outline consists of four steps: 1. Conversion,  2.the Kingdom of God,  3. Jesus Christ and  the Holy spirit, 4. Eternal Life. As Pope  Benedict XVI he emphasized the first, 'Conversion' that will lead to Faith. Christ, Himself emphasized, also, the first "Repent'  that will lead to "Believing," "Repent, believe."  The entire Scriptures is mostly about 'Conversion.' And so with the Fathers and Doctors of the Church. Because it is only in 'Conversion' that men can contribute something in the work of his own salvation.  The rests is God's role.

The second step,  the Kingdom of God, the third, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and the fourth, Eternal LIfe are supernatural topics and we usually leave them to God, because He alone can explained these to us "I will teach you all things." "Flesh and blood had not taught you this but only My Father in Heaven." In effect we never study  truths pertaining to the Catholic Church  and how to go to heaven because these fall under the supernatural level. And Pope Benedict explained that the Method of Evangelization consist in teaching others, NOT the doctrines of Divine Revelation, but to teach others how to rise from the natural level to the supernatural level. Christ's apostolic commission in the Gospel of Matthew confirms this.

Then we noted that the 'Lineamenta,' a document issued by Rome addressed to the Bishops of the world  for their reactions, had deliberatly removed the need for "Conversion" which both Christ and Pope Benedict  declared as the only way towards Faith. And the 'Instrumentum Laboris', which contains all the reactions of the bishops around the world  did not touched upon  " Conversion"  following the instruction from the  'Lineamenta.' If this defective outline is given to the whole Catholic World on October, which is the beginning of the Year of Faith, the ignorant Catholics would follow the outline and because "Conversion" is not taught, they will never reach Faith and lose their souls. But if the few who have the right knowledge because they have read some of the talks of Pope Benedict ......and hear the Bishops and priests omit the need for "Conversion" and follow suit, they, too, will not reach Faith and would be lost.

What is the Church confronted with?  With the words of Pope Benedict, most Catholic Bishops, priests, nuns and faithful are without Faith. The Liturgy of the Mass alone teaches us more than 30 signs of the presence or absence of Faith, during what we call the Sundays in Ordinary Time.  So any honest Catholic can just sit down during Sunday Mass and ask  themselves if they have Faith or not. With more than 30 signs in the Liturgy  it would be easy for anyone to find out if he has faith or not. And because these signs are external signs we can even discern if others have faith or not ......and if not evangelize them.

The problem facing the Church today is this: that because of the wrong method of instruction in the Faith, which Pope Benedict mentioned as the first defect, most do not have Faith.  The second point is the more serious problem.  The supernatural truths which only God can teach and explain well were spoken by God to men in the form of WORDS..... and this is the contents of Divine Revelation. St. Thomas states that the deep, penetrating meaning of the Words of Divine Revelation can only be explained and interpreted by God and cannot be taught by human professors even in seminaries.  But these words have sounds which the natural man can hear. So the natural man can try to learn the natural, dictionary meaning of the words of Divine Revelation without being able to learn the deep penetrating meaning of the same. And because they study the human, dictionary meaning of the words of Divine Revelation they think they know the supernatural teachings of the Catholic Church. They don't! Because those teachings are so deep only God can teach them.

So we are faced with an almost impossible task......of trying to Evangelize Catholics who do not have Faith but who firmly believe they have Faith. Priests, seminarians and religious nuns and brothers think they have Faith because of their status. All members of lay communities think they have Faith because they belong to this or that Catholic organization. In fact, we believe that all Catholics who die go to heaven. Even Protestants believe they have Faith. And all pagans believe they go to heaven when they die. All converts believe they have Faith just because they converted. Writers and publishers in the internet think they know the Faith. Then here comes Pope Benedict and tells all of us to check if we have the true Faith on the 'Year of Faith.' And the Lineamenta' says, we don't have to discuss 'Conversion' that leads to Faith because we are already Catholics. What we have is natural Faith, a faith in which we only have a natural understanding of Divine Revelation though we use the sophisticated language that gives the impression we know supernatural truths but we do not have the supernatural, deep  and penetrating meaning of Revelation.....which is given to us by God with the supernatural theological virtue of Faith.

Conversion is a work of grace. Today, there is so much human efforts to convert, efforts on the verge of Pelagianism. Is this why such efforts seems futile?

The "New Evangelization" is meant for such a chaotic situation: where we have a 'catholic' population that has no Faith but who think they have Faith. And where human efforts have supplanted Divine Mercy. This is the backdrop of Pope Benedict's 'New Evangeliation' so that we shall only understand his description of it with this backdrop.

Though a better understanding of the steps he had spelled out will be more appreciated if we have a background of St. Augustine's treatise on Conversion , the Pope's favorite Father of the Church; St. Bonaventure's  theology of history  and St. John Newman's 'Development of Christian Doctrine'. This we hope to clarify first to ourselves and express it in the next articles.

NEW EVANGELIZATION - Part XII

                                              CONVERSION
                                     The Goal of Evangelization.

Just one more time, then we will make a comparative study between Pope Benedict's schema on the 'New Evangelization,' the schema in the "Lineamenta" sent by the Congregation to all the Bishops, and the "Instrumentum laboris" which is the schema of  the compilation of all the responses made by the bishops around the world in response to the 'Lineamenta.'

Again! There are two levels of knowledge in man. The first is natural knowledge: this consists of everything man can know through his natural faculties. The other is supernatural knowledge; this consists of all Divine knowledge, like Divine Revelation, the Blessed Trinity and, in short, how to go to heaven. Supernatural knowledge  is totally inaccessible to man. Man can only learn these divine knowledge through infusion by God.

Through CONVERSION man tries to rise up from the natural level to the supernatural level.   'Evangelization'  is teaching men how to undergo 'Conversion.'  Pope Benedict has been telling us to concentrate on Conversion because that is the only role man has to accomplish for the salvation of his soul.  After Conversion everything else is God's work which consists in Perfection.  The goal of Evangelization is the conversion of souls that leads to Faith. From Faith on is God's work.

Christ preached conversion: "Repent, believe." Repent is another word for conversion. And it leads to Faith which is in the supernatural level. The New Testament, the Fathers of the Church, the Doctors of the Church and the writings of the saints are all about conversion. They cannot teach more because everything after conversion is God's work.

To evangelize is to teach souls how to rise from the natural level up to the supernatural level where God, Himself, will teach the supernatural truths like Divine Revelation. Pope Benedict noticed that the error that occurred in seminaries is that professors taught the supernatural truths without teaching souls how to climb to the supernatural level. If the professor does not go to the supernatural level he will not be able to give the supernatural meanings of Divine Revelations. And if the seminarian is not taught how to rise up to the supernatural level he will not be able to understand supernatural truths even if explained by St. Thomas of Aquinas. Pope Benedict is urging today both professor and seminarian to rise up to the supernatural level ...and this is through the process of Evangelization.  It is an invitation for both to undergo 'Conversion' that leads to 'Porta Fidei.' Without 'Conversion' souls cannot have Faith, Hope and Charity. And as a consequence cannot have Eternal life.

The Apostles Evangelized by preaching 'conversion' of life. The listeners listened and obeyed the commands that led to 'conversion' or change of life.  The process by which the Apostles preached  'Conversion' of life and by which the listeners obeyed thus changing their lives is......Evangelization. What follows, namely, Faith, Hope, Charity  and  eventually Eternal Life are God's exclusive role. Note why Pope Benedict was constantly insistent on the importance of "Conversion" and encouraged us to stick to that alone.  Because  'Conversion' is the only role assigned by God to man in saving his soul.  The Holy Father enumerated 'Conversion' as the first step among the four steps needed for the salvation of our souls.  The second, third and fourth steps are God's exclusive domain.  So the Holy Father discussed 'Conversion' lengthily while hardly  discussing  the last three steps .

To show the urgency of the matter, as early as October last year , Rome issued a 'Lineamenta,' that is a draft on the "new Evangelization" that leads to "Porta Fidei" for the Bishop's Synod this October and sent it to all bishops around the world for their reaction. Their reactions had been received and collated in a document called "Instrumentum Laboris." 

Of course, we all expected the 'Lineamenta' and 'Instrumentum Laboris' would be working  on the ideas of the Holy Father on the 'New Evangelization" that will lead Catholic souls to the 'Door of Faith' and eventually Eternal Life. Those documents should be explaining how the lost of Faith that is prevalent in the Catholic Church has been caused by the inability of souls to mature in their conversion of life due to very poor Evangelization.  So the documents should  'evangelize' by teaching souls how to undergo 'Conversion' so that they may again  have or regain the theological virtue of Faith that God gives only to those who have undergone full  conversion 'ad Deum', as St. Augustine would say.

However the Lineamenta comes out stating;  that because the 'New Evangelization  "is directed  at people who are already baptized the question of  'Conversion' doesn't really arise  - in theory they are already in the Church." If Evangelization is directed to the conversion of souls, and there is not need for conversion, therefore, there is no need for Evangelization.

And this is the common belief. Because they are baptized, because they are priest and nuns, because they are bishops, because they belong to ecclesial community, because they have bishop friends, because...because...they are already inside the Catholic Church and does not need 'Conversion.'

Wait a minute! The Holy Father stated that what we have is a 'Crisis of Faith.' That means people have no Faith, they are outside the Catholic Church, they have no grace, they have no virtue whatsoever, they know nothing about the teachings of the Catholic Church, their minds are filled with heresies,  their hearts and minds are in love with the world and with themselves, they are 'adversus' a Deo.  And the Lineamenta states that they are already inside the Church. Where are the Catholic  Signs of One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. Where are the more than 30 signs enumerated during the more than 30 Sundays in Ordinary time. Or at least where are the five general signs given by St. Thomas of Aquinas. "The question of 'Conversion' doesn't really arise." ......when the Pope had been repeating the great need for 'Conversion.'

And the Bishops all around the world responded to that Lineamenta accepting fully that great presumption that we are already Catholics and do not need conversion. If Bishop's and priest use the "Instrumentum Laboris" based on the Lineamenta with the erroneous presumption that there is no need for 'Conversion' this coming "Year of Faith" will be a total disaster. Why?  Because Faith will only be given to us by God  after a total life of 'Conversion.' And the "Year of Faith" was meant by the Holy Father for all Catholics to check if they have the right theological virtue of Faith that comes only after conversion. To tell the Catholic World that there is no need for conversion because they are all already converted for whatever reason is to prevent all souls from having Faith. He who does not believe is already condemned. 

THE NEW EVANGELIZATION - Part XI

                                        HOW COME FAITH WAS NEVER ATTAINED.



Before he became Pope, the holy father wrote the 'Ratzinger Report' where he outlined the 'Crisis in the Church'   and described it as a crisis of Faith.'  This was not due to lost of Faith but due to the inability of souls to make an act of Faith. The solution is not renewal because there is nothing to renew. It must be evangelization because it is teaching everything from the beginning.

Fr. Servais Pinckners, a Moral Theologian tried to pin point what might have happened; how come very, very few were making the act of Faith.

 Before the Council of Trent the Catholic Church was beginning to have serious problems. For one thing it was noticeable that after each Ecumenical Council there were always problems, even after the Council of Trent just as we have now. But before Trent, the heresy of Nominalism popularized by William was besieging the Church. This heresy was metamorphosing first, into Luther's Protestantism and forking out into communism on one side and into democracy on the other. Both political philosophies have their origin from the heresy of Nominalism.  Europe, specially France, was the experimental ground for these deviant philosophies. It tore Europe into fragments and was transplanted to the U.S. in its worst form. The Catholic Church was disintegrating in Europe. So the Council of Trent was summoned and basing her documents on the Fathers and Doctors of the Church plus her Tradition and Liturgy the Council made very good documents. But as we mentioned in the previous post, after the Council, the Dicasteries were in a hurry to implement the documents specially in Moral Theology. In rushing to train the priest with the new documents, specially the Diocesan priests in the seminaries, they did not follow the proper method of instruction.

The right procedure is this: theology professors must be contemplatives (i.e. they must be spiritually in the supernatural level having receive grace together with the three theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity and as a consequence their knowledge of Divine Revelation is infused or taught to them by God, Himself. And the seminary students must be taught, not the truths of Divine Revelation, but how to rise up to the supernatural level spiritually where it is God who would teach them.  In the rush the theology instructor who were merely in the natural level (bogged down in the spirituality of the Old Testament) were attempting to teach seminarians who were likewise in the natural level.  Strictly speaking both were not in the level of grace and devoid of supernatural Faith. The blind leading the blind.

As a consequence theology professors who were spiritually in the natural level were attempting to teach supernatural truths that they could not explain to students who were in the natural level who could not understand supernatural truths. The fault of theological professors was that in not being contemplatives thus not having the infused knowledge of Divine Revelation, they were explaining supernatural truths using words of Scriptures but explained by giving merely its natural dictionary meaning and not its deep, penetrating meaning as meant by God. It is exactly how the Protestants do it. They explain the words of God without giving what God really meant but by giving only the natural dictionary meaning. This is giving the seminarians a natural understanding of Divine Revelation and this is not Faith because this is not evangelization. Yet the theology professor and the seminarian after the lecture have the deceitful feeling that they had lectured and listened to a supernatural truth of the Catholic Church....thus the feeling that they had faith, that they are inside the Catholic Church and will attain eternal life. Poor souls. And this wrong method is carried on continuously up to the very present hour.

This first defect mentioned by Pope Benedict in his 'new evangelization'  is still in the 'Instrumentum Laboris' for the bishop's synod this October. If it is not corrected very few will ever reach Faith in this scheduled 'Year of Faith.' What a waste.Why don' we just all follow Pope Benedict's schema that he had already presented? The Bishop's schema is full of beautiful words describing natural  realities. If given to the people we will all feel as if we have been fed with supernatural truths when actually we were only fed with natural food. The Bread of life was nowhere except in words describing a mere bread.

Christ is the Bread of Life. The manna that fed the body was just a type. The Bread of Life are the sound teachings of Divine Revelation the fruit of which is an innocent mind. Who is Christ?  The Bread of Life that will give us Eternal life if we eat the Bread of Life. And the eating of the Bread of life is FAITH, the reason Pope Benedict is so insistent.

NEW EVANGELIZATION - Part X

This topic on Faith is important for Pope Benedict and for us. For the Pope, this is his most important job, to lead us to the door of Faith. For us we must enter the door of Faith otherwise we are damned. For the rest of the world it is either salvation or damnation. Logically, there is nothing more important for any of us. But this is not the case for most people. Not even for priests and nuns. Yet the Pope's plan to come out later with a letter on Faith shows the urgency of this call. It even sounds like a last call.

In the last post we saw the obvious difference between  Pope Benedict's schema on the "New Evangelization" that leads to "Porta Fidei" the door of Faith.... and the schema or 'Instrumentum laboris" of the Preparatory Commission for the Bishop's Synod on the same topic scheduled for this October. Pope Benedict's schema is in accordance with the Liturgy, Scriptures, the Fathers of the Church and the Magisterium from the earliest time up to the Council of Trent, at least.  The Instrumentum Laboris is not, confirming further the lost of Faith and the need to review the Catholic Church's evangelization efforts which the Holy Father had been harping at. 

The Holy Father is trying to pin point a problem for which his'new evangelization' towards the door of Faith is the solution. The problem is based on his analysis of the Gospel on the feast of St. Peter and Paul when he first announced the need for this program  to tackle the problem of the near complete lost of Faith.

The Gospel speaks about two levels of understanding. The first level is the natural level in which everything can be understood by the natural mind. The Old Testament falls under this level. Everything in the Old Testament, like the 10 Commandments can be understood by the natural mind.  The prophecies about the coming Messiah, the moral virtue and all of natural theology can be understood by the natural mind because they all fall in the natural level. So when Christ asked the disciples who the crowd think He is  the crowd gave answers that are naturally known, like He is a prophet. And Christ described their answer as a knowledge that can be taught by flesh and blood, i.e. by human teachers. Human teachers are teachers who teach Algebra, Physics, Philosophy and Natural theology and other natural sciences.

The second level is the supernatural level. The knowledge in this level cannot be taught or learned by flesh and blood. Only God can teach this to souls. Divine Revelation and/or the teachings of the Catholic Church would fall under this category. Natural man can read and know the words of these truths  but not the deep meaning of the Word of God which contains supernatural mysteries, precepts and counsels.  The deep breath of divine truths which comes from God can be taught by God alone. Though the New Testament teachings is a written law that can be learned by the mind, its  divine meaning can only be infused in the soul by God. And this is how St. Peter answered Christ's question. Christ said: flesh and blood had not taught you this but My Father in heaven.

In short, the Old Testament and all man- made scientific knowledge  fall under the natural level that can be taught by men.  The New Testament and all knowledge after Pentecost fall under the supernatural level that is taught by God alone.  To know supernatural knowledge like the teachings of the Catholic Church a soul must be raised up to the supernatural level and in that level God takes over and teaches him. We do not teach souls the Catholic Truths. We teach them how to rise to the supernatural level where God, Himself teaches the soul. The process of teaching the soul how to rise up to the supernatural level is called Evangelization. An Evangelizer does not teach Catholic Truths. He teaches souls how to rise to the supernatural level where God teaches the soul. We cannot over emphasize this because there lies the problem of Evangelization....we are teaching souls Catholic Truths instead of teaching them how to rise up to the supernatural level and become co-natural with Divinity. Pope Benedict noted this defect and described it as 'wrong method' of Evangelization.' The inability of Evangelizer to rise up to the supernatural level (the contemplative life) and as a consequence not to be able to raise their listeners to the supernatural level resulted in the second defect mentioned by the Pope as 'wrong contents' in Evangelization. Those are the two general defects mentioned by Pope Benedict in his 'New Evangelization.

It is impossible to teach Catholic Truths without teaching souls how to rise to the supernatural level because supernatural truths are taught in that level.  If we go the Christ's 'Apostolic Commission' to the Apostles at the end of Matthew's Gospel, His instruction is to 'teach all nations' how to rise to the supernatural level and not the teaching of Catholic truths.

To teach listeners to rise up to the supernatural level so God can teach them Divine Revelation  is to teach them to become contemplatives. The Evangelizer has to be a contemplative himself. This is an important element of the "New Evangelization" that the Pope had been repeating but which is lacking in the schema for the Bishop's Synod this October.

The error that Pope Benedict is correcting is this: preachers who are merely in the natural level and, therefore do not understand the deeper meaning of the teachings of Christ are teaching souls doctrines with words in the natural level which the hearers cannot understand the deeper meaning because they are not in the supernatural level. Neither the Evangelizer nor the hearer are learning about Faith. The Holy Father suspects that this was the cause of the nearly total lost of Faith today.

The Documents of the Council of Trent were superb morally and dogmatically because they were documents based of the Holy Tradition of the Catholic Church. But they were living on bad days.  The Protestant reformation was at full swing. The Council was pressured to rush the training of priests in the seminary for the Evangelization of the Church that was being swept by Protestantism. In the rush, they employed priests in the natural level trying to teach supernatural truths which they did not understand to seminarians who could not understand supernatural truths because they were not taught how to rise to the supernatural level. Since Faith is in the supernatural level we have a scenario where both the teachers and seminarians in the seminary had no Faith. If there were  few contemplatives who could have done a good job of teaching seminarians how to rise to the supernatural level, they would all be gone after two generations. That was the root of today's problem of a near total absence of Faith or the 'Crisis of Faith' the former Cardinal Ratzinger described as the state of the Church in his 'Ratzinger Report." There ought to be a few contemplatives in the Church otherwise Satan would have triumphed over the Church which cannot happen.

The schema prepared for the Bishop's Synod this October lacks the first two steps in the Holy Father's schema. These are the elements that teaches souls how to rise to the supernatural level. The topics for the bishop's synod were mostly natural, human topics.

The Holy Father's schema has the first two steps which are the provision in raising souls to the supernatural level so God can teach them Divine Revelations. The Bishop's schema does not contain these two provisions. Unless their schema is improved souls will not attain the supernatural virtue of Faith and eternal Life. Bishop Fisichella, head of the Congregation for the New Evangelization probably pin pointed the crux of the problem when he said: what we need is not new ways of evangelization but new Evangelizers. Preachers who are not bogged down in the spirituality of the Old Testament, the level of the natural. But souls who have risen up to the supernatural level into the spirituality of the New Testament and thus truly have Faith. Putting it the Holy Father's words: only contemplatives can teach other souls to become contemplative where God alone can teach them the truths of the Catholic Church. That is the 'New Evangelization'.

NEW EVANGELIZATION - Part IX

Pope Benedict initiated the "New Evangelization" that leads to "Porta Fidei" because as Cardinal Ratzinger and part of the 'International Theological Commission' advising Vatican II  he discovered that there was something wrong with the Evangelization used for the last 200 years.  He suspects it is even as far as 600 years ago. The error seems to have appeared sometime after the Council of Trent. Like all errors and defects it became more pronounced around the 1800, and it has gone completely berserk this century 2011. As Pope he had made this issue the forefront of his Pontificate and the program for the Bishop's Synod on October 2012. But as the Schema for this Synod was published a month ago it looks like the Bishop's schema contain the  same error that Pope Benedict is trying to correct.

Maybe the authors of the schema for the Bishop's Synod do not mean what was published. Maybe they mean exactly what the Pope  is saying. Maybe the Bishop's Synod and the Pope's schema will coincide eventually. Maybe the Pope will completely control the Synod and eventually come out with what he wants to say. But at this moment the two schemas do not match. And priests like me who wants to prepare the faithful for the year of Faith are confused.

There are  a thousand problems destroying the world today; from economic crisis, to abortion, to civil wars, to hunger, to same sex marriages, to priests guilty of pedophilia, to danger of a nuclear war, to floodings and tsunamis, to super volcanoes to etc. etc... But the worst problem in the world today is the LACK OF FAITH because the consequence, eternal damnation, is beyond what man can understand. The Holy Father had given light attention to the other problems and had concentrated his efforts to the lack of faith and the necessity for a proper Evangelization that will lead to True Faith.

Pope Benedict's schema in his "New Evangelization" that leads to "Porta fidei" is  back to basics. He, himself, mentioned that this schema is the traditional, classical way of Evangelization. It is what was used by the Apostles, the Fathers of the Church and by the Catholic Church before something went wrong after the Council of Trent. The Pope's schema  even coincides with the spirituality of the Liturgical Calendar of the Church. Compared to the schema prepared for the Bishop's Synod, the Pope's schema is simpler, clearer and easier to explain just like the Liturgy of the Sunday Masses.

Let me repeat Pope Benedict's schema as he explained it in his document "New Evangelization" delivered in New York for catechists. But this time using the Gospel of the feasts of Sts. Peter and Paul. See how simple it is.

Christ was talking to His apostles and asked them who people say He was. Christ receives two answers. One answer came from the ordinary people, which was wrong but better than the answer of the Pharisees. The other answer came from St. Peter answering for all the apostles. Note the great difference between the two answers. 

The first answer coming from the common people states that Christ was a prophet, probably Jeremiah, probably Isaiah which would  be the same answer from any Old Testament Jew. Christ described this first answer as coming from flesh and blood, i.e. from human beings, like teachers, professors, doctors of the law, etc. It was NOT Christ nor His Father who taught the common people this answer. This first answer can be naturally and humanly learned as all things in the OLD Testament. It can be learned from human teachers that's why the ordinary people knew this. This is OLD Testament reply and this natural knowledge is not from Faith.

The second answer did not come from the common people because the common people cannot learn this from human teachers i.e. from teachers of flesh and blood. St. Peter, speaking on behalf of the apostles answered. "You are the Son of the living God." And Christ said:  "Blessed are you Bar Jona because neither flesh nor blood had revealed this to you but My Father in Heaven. So this knowledge came from the Father in Heaven and not from human teachers or professors on earth. The answer was not natural nor from flesh and blood. It is from God. This is supernatural knowledge that comes from Faith that goes hand in hand with contemplation. St. Peter have reached the contemplative life so it is the Father in Heaven who is now teaching him. Christ had lead St. Peter to contemplation. Now the Father is teaching him.

The first answer of the common people was learned in a school-room situation and not through contemplation. The second answer was learned not through a school-room situation but in an infused manner and this is through contemplation.

The first answer of the common people was taught by flesh and blood, by human teachers, professors and doctors of the law.  The second answer came from a contemplative, raised up by Jesus Christ to contemplation and now being taught by the Father.

In the first case, the teachers were human and the pupils had remained in the human level. In the second case the teacher, Jesus Christ, was a contemplative and the pupils were raised up to the contemplative level.

So essentially, the "New Evangelization" consists not in teaching that Jesus is the Son of the Living God and other truths....but in teaching the soul to rise up to the level of contemplation like St. Peter so that God the Father can teach them that Jesus is the Son of the living God and mean it.

Pope Benedict in his schema gave the four steps that lead to contemplation. The commission preparing for the Bishop's Synod skipped the first two steps,  repentance or conversion AND entry into the Catholic Church,  thus making it impossible for anyone to reach faith. This error is in addition to the fact that most priests had just studied theology from flesh and blood in the seminaries and as such are not really taught by the Father in Heaven.  On these two counts  it would be impossible for anyone to reach the "Door of Faith." 

Again, the defect  that the Pope is correcting is the fact that souls are being taught by teachers with flesh and blood that Jesus is the Son of the Living God. This is both in the seminaries and in the pulpit. No! Evangelization is teaching seminarians and the faithful to become contemplatives..... so that the Father in Heaven can teach them that Jesus is the Son of the Living God and other Catholic truths.  All supernatural, Catholic Truths can only be taught by the Father in Heaven to contemplatives.

Note, therefore, how the Holy Father reminded families to hear a good Mass together. Why? Because in the first part of the Mass they learn truths  from flesh and  blood. In the second part of the Mass they remain silent to learn truths from the Father in Heaven. It is for this same reason that Pope Benedict said that theology should be learned in prayer kneeling down before the Blessed Sacrament.

Summarizing, Jesus Christ is a contemplative who lead the apostles through the four steps of  a.)conversion,  b.)entrance into the kingdom of God,  c.)union with Jesus Christ,  d.) union with the Holy Spirit  thus leading them to contemplation and eternal life. Having become contemplatives the Father in Heaven can now teach the apostles directly the truths of the Catholic Church.  In the "new Evangelization" we must do exactly what Christ did......be contemplatives that we may learn from the Father in Heaven .........and then teach others how to be contemplatives so that they in turn may learn from the Father in Heaven.

NEW EVANGELIZATION Part VIII

Pope Benedict in his "New Evangelization" that leads to the 'door of Faith' had given us the steps leading to that goal in summary form and in the right order as: 1.) conversion,  2.) the kingdom of God,  3.) Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit  and 4.) Eternal Life. In other words, we must live a life completely converted away from sin.  This would dispose us to receive the grace of God that will bring us within the kingdom of God which is the Catholic Church here on earth. With that grace we would first be united to the created soul of the Church which consists in Faith in Jesus Christ and as we progress in the spiritual life we would eventually be united to the uncreated soul of the Church which is the Holy Spirit. The consequence of all these is that we would merit eternal life.

There is nothing new in these steps. This is the Catholic teaching on how to attain eternal life. It is complete and in the right order though in summary form. These are also the lessons we learn from the Apostolic Commission Christ gave the Apostles before His Ascension. These are also the lessons we learn from the Liturgical season of the Church though the Liturgy used slightly different terms:  Life of Repentance is used instead of conversion taught during Advent and Lent,  Faith is used instead of entrance to the Kingdom of God and union with Jesus Christ. Hope is used for Easter. And during the season of Pentecost we learn union with the Holy Spirit the uncreated soul of the Church.  The feast of Christ the King summarizes the  attainment of eternal life.

This is also the description used by the Fathers and Doctors of the Church like St. Augustine and St. Thomas of Aquinas. And this is what the Magisterium had been teaching all these centuries. This basic lesson is what Pope Benedict wants all Bishops and priest to review with all the faithful this "Year of Faith" using the 'New Evangelization"..... what Scriptures, the Fathers and the Magisterium had been teaching.

A schema had  been prepared on this for the Bishop's Synod in Rome on the anniversary of Vatican II and this had been published a few weeks ago. Let us compare this schema prepared for the Bishop's Synod with the schema presented by Pope Benedict.

Observe that the schema for the Bishop's Synod skipped the first two steps of Pope Benedict's outline.The Pope's first step, Conversion and second step, entrance into the Catholic Church were omitted. The Bishop Synod's schema begins with Pope Benedict's  3rd step which is Faith, i.e. personal encounter with the humanity of Christ, the created soul of the Catholic Church. The Synod's first chapter is entitled "Jesus Christ, the Good News of God to humanity." The title and contents of this Chapter 1 describes the theological virtue of Faith. The description is similar to the Holy Father's description of stage No. 3 in his 'New Evangelization.'

But without conversion and entrance into the Catholic Church it is impossible to attain the supernatural virtue of Faith, and it is even more impossible to attain Charity. The schema for the Bishop's Synod assumes that the Bishops and priests have been converted from their sinful life, had entered the Catholic Church, and have received graces that will make them merit the supernatural  virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity.   The Holy Father is not working on this assumption shown  by his continuous repetition that all priests should be contemplatives.

We have just celebrated the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul. The Gospel clearly states that Peter's knowledge about Christ did not come from man but from the Father in Heaven. For Evangelization the preacher should be a contemplative, in this case Jesus Christ. And the people must be Evangelized to become contemplatives so that they, too, may recognize Christ not from men but from the Father. This is why the Pope had been repeating the need for contemplation. The preacher must be a contemplative and the listeners must be taught to be contemplative...... that in short is the "New Evangelization."

If we note the schema of the Bishop's Synod, the Bishops around the world are being asked for their ideas on how to Evangelize in this our times. They are not being asked how Christ would want them to Evangelize. They are being asked  'what men says,' not what God is saying. And so Chapter 1 of the schema for the Bishop's Synod is defective because it is asking what men-bishops are thinking on how to encounter Christ. "Not flesh and blood had taught you this. But My Father in heaven." The "New Evangelization" consists in Contemplative Bishops and priest teaching the lay to become contemplatives so that they in turn may be taught by the Father in Heaven.

Without Pope Benedict's step 1, conversion, no one can be Evangelized. Much more without Pope Benedict's step 1 and step 2.  Chapter 1, 2, 3 and 4 in the Bishop Synod's schema deals with acts of evangelization which the Evangelizer cannot do without themselves undergoing conversion and entrance into the Catholic Church. . Even if the evangelist is a contemplative and even a mystic if they follow the Synod's schema they will not be able to evangelize either because their listeners would not be able to build their Faith on nothing or if they are not contemplatives they would not be able to explain the truths properly. Faith can only be given to those who have been completely converted from their sinful life and have the grace that will make them merit the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity.

Let us summarize this observation using the Gospel of St. Peter and Paul. Christ was a contemplative and He taught the apostles, like Peter, to be contemplatives. Peter was not a contemplative at the beginning. He became a contemplative in that Gospel when Christ said: "Flesh and Blood had not explained this to you but my heavenly Father.  That is the "New Evangelization"....the process by which a contemplative (Christ) leads another soul (St. Peter) to contemplation. When one becomes a contemplative then it is God who teaches that soul the truths of the Catholic Church. The "New Evangelization", therefore, is a process wherein a contemplative leads another soul to  contemplation. The contemplative does not teach the truths to the other person. The contemplative teaches the other person to be contemplative. And it is God, not flesh and blood, who teaches the contemplative the truths of the Catholic Faith.

The problems is that most priests are taught by 'flesh and blood' and sometimes just by papers and books in the seminaries or theological lecture halls. . This is not the way to evangelize evangelizers.  So they in turn  cannot teach others to be contemplatives to be taught by God. They end up knowing nothing of the teachings of Christ. Pope Benedict's 'New Evangelization' consists in contemplatives (i.e. those who have undergone the four steps he had enumerated in his treatise on the "New Evangelization") teaching and leding  others to be contemplatives wherewith they learn the teachings of Christ directly from God.......and not from flesh and blood.

The schema prepared for the Bishop's Synod heavily depends on Evangelizing the unenvagelized Catholics towards the 'door of faith' by a schema made by flesh and blood........and not by the Father in Heaven.