Theater, St Paul and Evangelization

ASIA/INDIA - Conclusion of the Pauline Year: using the theater to evangelize
Mumbai (Agenzia Fides) – Evangelize using the most ancient form of mass communications, which carries a great symbolic character: use the theater. This was the idea that inspired the Daughters of Saint Paul in India, who have launched – in honor of the closing of the Pauline Year (June 29) – an interesting project in Vasai and later in Mumbai, two Indian metropolises in the state of Maharashtra, in the west-central India. The courageous sisters, filled with a generous missionary spirit, have written a script in Marathi (the local dialect), entitled: “Parivartan Shaulacha,” which means “The Conversion of Saint Paul.” With the help of various lay Catholics and thanks to the collaboration of qualified artists, they organized the performance, which was met with great success among the public, Catholics and non alike. The leading actor, who played Paul, “performed his part with great intensity, as did the other characters.” The play will continue being shown in Vasai and later in Mumbai. The project shows the work of Paul, his love for Christ Crucified and his passion in apostolic action, and has proven to be a useful instrument for vocational promotion and evangelization, and even the youth have begun showing interest in the story of the Apostle.The Archdiocese of Mumbai, for the Pauline Year, has joined the Pauline Family in organizing various study seminars and prayer encounters. The Year of Saint Paul has been a moment of dialogue and mission for the Catholics of India, as they seek to bring the Gospel to those who still do not know the Christian message, being inspired by the courage and dedication of the Apostle to the Gentiles.Among the initiatives taking place in the country is a new version of the Bible, including the revision and contributions of numerous Indian experts and theologians. Published by the Saint Paul Society, it has been distributed throughout the country. The volume contains commentaries, notes, and references to Indian culture, thus making it more accessible to Indian readers. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 27/5/2009)

Faith through Digital World

BEARING WITNESS TO THE FAITH THROUGH THE DIGITAL WORLD

VATICAN CITY, 20 MAY 2009 (VIS) - At the end of his general audience, celebrated this morning in St. Peter's Square, the Pope made a brief appeal for World Communications Day, due to be held on Sunday 24 May.

Speaking English, the Holy Father recalled how in his Message for the Day this year "I am inviting all those who make use of the new technologies of communication, especially the young, to utilise them in a positive way and to realise the great potential of these means to build up bonds of friendship and solidarity that can contribute to a better world.

"The new technologies", he added, "have brought about fundamental shifts in the ways in which news and information are disseminated and in how people communicate and relate to each other. I wish to encourage all those who access cyberspace to be careful to maintain and promote a culture of respect, dialogue and authentic friendship where the values of truth, harmony and understanding can flourish.

"Young people in particular, I appeal to you: bear witness to your faith through the digital world! Employ these new technologies to make the Gospel known, so that the Good News of God's infinite love for all people, will resound in new ways across our increasingly technological world!"
AG/NEW TECHNOLOGIES/... VIS 090520 (230)

St Paul & Evangelization in Miami with Paulines

Our Pauline Center & Friends in Miami hold another "In the Shoes of Paul - Evangelization 101"

"Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!” (1 Cor 9:16)What “Good News” did Paul share and how can we share the "Good News" today?How could we flow through the Year of St. Paul without an afternoon of prayer, praise & study focusing on St. Paul and Evangelization? Presentations, discussions and skits on...- St. Paul and the Gospel: His Courage and Prudence- Today: In the shoes of St. Paul - Evangelization 101

Lay catechists and Evangelization

In presenting the history of lay evangelizers in the life of the Church, Father Alberto Trevisiol highlighted that “catechists have always been at the fundamental heart of the mission.” The Dean of the Missiology Department explained: “From the dawn of Christianity, the Gospel was spread throughout the Greek and Roman world, especially through the testimony of what the Didache calls 'itinerant missionaries,' simple believers that not only felt called by Christ, but also invited by Him to preach the Word in the world. Once the migration patterns in Europe ended with the fall of the Roman Empire, the lay catechists, beginning with Clement the Roman, became mediators between the kerigma and the culture at the time and managed to give a soul to European society. They influence the mentality and lifestyle mainly through the medieval 'scholae'.” The modern age, with its phenomena of the great travels to countries far from the country of origin, has shown the need for local lay collaborators.Father Trevisiol continued: “The model of Saint Francis Xavier is an example to be followed even to this day. In his letters, the Jesuit missionary tells of the incredible efforts he made in preaching the Gospel to all people and he depended on local converts for making himself understood. Thus, his collaborators helped communicate the Word in the local language, serving as cultural go-betweens and authentic ministers of the Word. The model, in fact, even today shows the essence of the missionary catechist.”http://www.fides.org/aree/news/newsdet.php?idnews=24084&lan=eng

Opening a Door When one Closes

New Parish Opens in Tanzania with St Casimir's furnishings & St Thecla's Altar from the Daughters of St Paul

By Vicki-Ann Downing The Enterprise BROCKTON — MA
On Easter Sunday morning in a small African village in Tanzania, a new Roman Catholic church will be dedicated. Among the crowd of more than 1,000 villagers will be some familiar faces: A Stoughton woman and an Easton man. The church’s furnishings are familiar, too: They came to Africa from the former St. Casimir Church in Brockton. Christine Lott of Stoughton, a 46-year-old investment banker and mother of three, raised $60,000 in the past year through her nonprofit foundation, Christine Cares Inc., to allow villagers to finish the new parish, St. Judas Thaddeus. Jack Hurley, the 58-year-old owner of Custom Stained Glass in Easton and a Randolph native, designed, built and installed the stained glass window that graces the 13,500-square-foot church and community center in Ilboru, a village in Loruvani, Arusha. Lott and Hurley left Massachusetts this month to fly to Tanzania by way of Amsterdam. In the days leading up to Easter, they have toiled from sunrise to sunset with other workers to finish the church, which was a cement building without doors or windows when they arrived. “We’re going to work,” said Lott. “Jack is going to put in his window. We have to hang doors. We’ll move in the pews and the altar and lay the tile. We’re going to finish it and put our labor of love into it, side by side with the locals.” Hurley called it “the chance of a lifetime.” On Oct. 4, Lott shipped a 40-foot container to Tanzania at a cost of $8,500. It arrived at its destination on Feb. 3, its contents blessedly intact. Inside, in addition to contributions from the Daughters of St. Paul in Jamaica Plain and Hurley’s 6-by-5-foot cross, were the furnishings and fixtures of St. Casimir, the Brockton parish that the Archdiocese of Boston closed last June. Lott had planned to ship the container earlier, filled with items from Our Lady of Mercy in Belmont. But when the sale of that building fell through, the shipment was delayed. Working with the Rev. Louis Palmeri of St. Michael Church in Avon, Lott received permission to use the contents of St. Casimir instead. “We brought the container to St. Casimir’s and loaded it there in September,” said Lott. “We unbolted the pews. We had a crew of 25 people who loaded the container up with everything that fit, 47 pews, altars, the tabernacle, pulpits, altar cloths, everything.” Lott’s has been a journey of faith as well as miles.

St Paul is one like us

St Paul Evangelizer

(from Sr Kathryn's St Paul Seminar Blog: http://srkathryn.blogspot.com/)

Paul is a man like us. A man like so many men. He is not a genius. He is a great Christian. St. John Chrysostom had grasped well the risk of making Paul a myth. Let us make an effort, he said, to become like Paul and let us not think this is impossible. He was just like this. His will was great and his commitment magnificent. This is what made him do what he carried out. Let no one despair. Let no one draw back.
Paul is one like us, weak like us, converted to become a witness of the Gospel. And so now, from season to season, Christians should measure themselves by St. Paul.
Blessed is the one who communicates the Gospel. Paul is happy only when announcing the Gospel. We need to return to Paul in the world today. He also lived in a globalized world. Outside of the Judean community, the worlds were a mixture of languages and cultures. The Gentiles represent the complex Mediterranean cultures under Roman rule, marked also by religious pluralism. Today there is no longer a homogenized world. Different languages and religions mix together. No community lives alone. This is the world Paul lived in. The world that he broke into when he began to preach the Gospel outside of the Israelite community. He was the typical product of globalization and he moved in a globalized world.Andrea Riccardi, Founder of the Sant’Egidio Community

Parish Evangelizing Center

“The parish, as an evangelizing center must take up its role as community of communities, where Christians live and learn to become disciples and missionaries of Christ. The parishes are living cells of the Church and a privileged place in which the majority of the faithful have a concrete experience of Christ, which then leads them to reach out in helping their brethren.” Thus, the renewal of the parishes “calls for restructuring, so that they can become a network of communities and groups...so that their members may truly realize that they must become disciples and missionaries of Christ, together with the rest of today's world.” For the Bishops at this difficult time, “the parish is the one that must form men and women with dedication and determination, capable of transforming society and living out values for a more just and more united society.”In his homily at the opening Mass for the Assembly, Archbishop Domingo Diaz Martinez of Tulancingo, affirmed that “a parish is valuable, because of the virtues that are lived there; it is alive because the Eucharist is celebrated; it is great thanks to the dignity of its members; it is free because of the truth that is sought there; it is committed, for the defense of rights that takes place there; it is always missionary, because it is obedient to the Lord's command and is rich because of the exchange of goods that occurs there.”

Mexico City (Agenzia Fides) - “The 87th Plenary Assembly

22,308 baptized at Easter in the 90 dioceses of mainland China,

ASIA/CHINA - fruit of the intense evangelization effort promoted by the Year of St. Paul
Beijing (Agenzia Fides) – According to statistics sent to Agenzia Fides from “Faith” - a Catholic newsletter on mainland China – there were 22,308 people baptized from the 90 dioceses on mainland China this Easter (2009). The great number has been in part thanks to the initiatives that have arisen in honor of the Year of St. Paul declared by the Holy Father Benedict XVI. Last year, at Easter time, Faith published statistics from 80 diocese, which had baptized a collective total of 13,608 people. This year, the statistics were taken from all of the 90 dioceses, in close collaboration with the local Church. The 22,308 new faithful are almost all fruits of the intensification of the mission of evangelization which has occurred in this Year of St. Paul.In the Dioceses of Beijing, Tian Jin, Shang Hai, and Chong Qing, four municipalities under government control, there were 2,465 baptisms. There were 400 in Beijing, with a large number of scholars and young people; 154 in Tian Jin, 311 in Shang Hai, nearly 1,400 in Chong Qing. In the Diocese of Beijing, there were over 2,000 baptisms in 2008.In the northeastern regions of mainland China, there were 1,300 baptisms; 1,580 in the northwest; 6,761 in the north; 1,776 in the central area; 3,488 in the east; 2,015 in the southwest; and 2,326 in the southeast.It is worth noting that the province of Si Chuan, heavily affected by the earthquake on May 12, 2008 in which over 80,000 died, is located in the southwestern area. There, over 2,000 baptisms were recorded. According to the local priest, “the earthquake destroyed our churches, but not our missionary spirit, nor our faith and hope. In fact, it has served to reinforce and reawaken the religious sensibilities of the people.” The Catholic Chinese stronghold of the province of He Bei has brought joy to the Church with over 3,700 baptisms. In the tiny Diocese of Fen Yang, in the predominantly Chinese Catholic province of Shan Xi, with a little over 20,000 faithful, celebrates the rite of the “missionary sending” of 100 catechists every week. (NZ) (Agenzia Fides 22/4/2009)

Paul and revelation of the risen Christ

"Who are you, Lord?" Paul to Jesus

St. Paul the Apostle, Zealous Missionary
by Fr. Kenneth Boyack, CSP

Reading about the dynamic missionary activity of St. Paul in the Bible almost takes one’s breath away. He began to preach the gospel after his conversion experience, around 33-35 AD, and continued witnessing to Christ until around 65-67 AD, when he was martyred in Rome. Paul served as an ardent herald of the gospel for more than 30 years. During this time he took four missionary journeys, travelled more than 10,000 miles, and wrote inspired letters to the communities of faith that he founded, such as those in Corinth and Philippi.


Read entire article here: http://www.pncea.org/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=194

To "be hope" is to Evangelize

"We cannot live without hope, but we must be careful. In times such as these, given the cultural and social context in which we live, there is a risk of reducing Christian hope to an ideology, to group slogans, to exterior cladding. Nothing could be more opposite to Jesus' message! He does not want His disciples 'to recite' a role, even a role of hope. He wants them 'to be' hope, and they can be so only if they remain united to Him".

"If the words of Christ remain within us, then we will be able to propagate the flame of love that He lit upon the earth; we will be able to hold high the torch of faith and hope. ...

150,000 in U.S. entering the Church

AMERICA/UNITED STATES - Thousands entering the Catholic Church this Easter, from all across the country
Washington (Agenzia Fides) – According to statistics provided by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, during 2009, nearly 150,000 people will be entering the Catholic Church. This number includes both the catechumens, who will receive the Sacraments of Christian Initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, and the Holy Eucharist) and Christians who will enter into full communion with the Catholic Church. The majority of them will do so during the Easter Vigil celebrated on April 11 in parishes throughout the country. The various parishes are preparing for the Easter Liturgy which is filled with symbolism and that will welcome the neophites (“newly baptized”) and those entering into full communion, to their new community of faith and the entire Church, from darkness into light.In several cases, the numbers show growth and vitality in the Catholic Church in areas in which it had previously been a minority. For example, the Archdiocese of Atlanta estimates that 513 catechumens and 2,195 candidates will join the ranks of the Archdiocese in 2009. About 1,800 of them will do so at Easter. These numbers do not include infant baptisms, which are recorded separately. Catechumens are people who have never been baptized. Candidates are those who have received baptism in another Christian community and are seeking full communion with the Catholic Church. "The Archdiocese of Atlanta is in a part of the country with a large non-Catholic population, and has been blessed with an authentic dynamism during recent years, which is perhaps best expressed in our annual Eucharistic Congress, which draws some 30,000 participants. One of the many blessings that we have received from the Lord is the large number of individuals entering the Church," said Father Theodore Book, director of the Office of Divine Worship for the Atlanta Archdiocese.On the opposite side of the country the Archdiocese of Seattle will welcome 736 catechumens and 506 candidates for a total of 1,242 new members; and the Diocese of San Diego will baptize 305 new members and welcome 920 other baptized Christians adding a total of 1,225 to its ranks. Cincinnati will welcome a total of 1,130 new members. The Diocese of Birmingham, in a mainly rural area, will welcome a total of 445.Heidi Sierras, of California, will be representing the people of North America at the Easter Vigil in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, and will be baptized by Pope Benedict XVI. Nationwide, the 2008 Official Catholic Directory lists 49,415 adult baptisms and 87,363 people coming into full communion in 2007. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 1/4/2009)

BENEDICT XVI'S PRAYER INTENTIONS FOR APRIL

VATICAN CITY, 31 MAR 2009 (VIS) - Pope Benedict's general prayer intention for April is: "That the Lord may bless farmers' work with an abundant harvest and sensitise the richer populations to the drama of hunger in the world".

His mission intention is: "That the Christians who operate in the territories where the conditions of the poor, the weak and the women and children are most tragic, may be signs of hope, thanks to their courageous testimony to the Gospel of solidarity and love".
BXVI-PRAYER INTENTIONS/APRIL/... VIS 090331 (100)