Do you know any Catholic evangelists?

[stjerome5]

I tend to think most Catholics don't like evangelizing but maybe that's just the Cahtolics I myself know?

and I don't know many because... I'm just an un-social person

anyhow... Do you know people who actively try to get people into the Catholic Church? Just wondering....

 

[Beloved Daughter]

No. I do believe that some Nuns have outreach programs, but that's the extent of it.

No one wants to spread the news of perversions against the Word of God.

 

[stjerome5]

No. I do believe that some Nuns have outreach programs, but that's the extent of it.

No one wants to spread the news of perversions against the Word of God.

been Catholic a long time... the only perversions i see are bad priests who are NOT Catholic

Those outside the Church do not know a thing about the Church... but feel free to spoutate on about it just the same

me... If I am ignorant about some topic, I admit it... and/or engage in further study thereof

 

[RiJoRi]

I tend to think most Catholics don't like evangelizing but maybe that's just the Cahtolics I myself know?

and I don't know many because... I'm just an un-social person

anyhow... Do you know people who actively try to get people into the Catholic Church? Just wondering....

Only folks on here. Lindenhurst, NY had a large Catholic population*, but we weren't given to chatting about RC doctrine! ?
The nearest we were to told about "getting people into the Catholic Church" was in CCD classes, where we were told we could invite non-Catholic friends to mass.

Evangelizing? That was what that guy Billy Graham did, wasn't it? <shiver!>

--Rich
"Esse quam videri"
* Along with small numbers of Methodists, Lutherans, Baptists, and Jews.

 

[Theo1689]

been Catholic a long time... the only perversions i see are bad priests who are NOT Catholic

Those outside the Church do not know a thing about the Church... but feel free to spoutate on about it just the same

me... If I am ignorant about some topic, I admit it... and/or engage in further study thereof

So you’r saying it’s impossible to understand Catholicism unless you’re part of it?

 

[Beloved Daughter]

been Catholic a long time... the only perversions i see are bad priests who are NOT Catholic

Those outside the Church do not know a thing about the Church... but feel free to spoutate on about it just the same

me... If I am ignorant about some topic, I admit it... and/or engage in further study thereof

I don't think you are a bad person because you are a Catholic. I think Catholicism perverts the scriptures with offensive dogmas that are not supported by scripture.

 

[stjerome5]

Only folks on here. Lindenhurst, NY had a large Catholic population*, but we weren't given to chatting about RC doctrine! ?
The nearest we were to told about "getting people into the Catholic Church" was in CCD classes, where we were told we could invite non-Catholic friends to mass.

Evangelizing? That was what that guy Billy Graham did, wasn't it? <shiver!>

--Rich
"Esse quam videri"
* Along with small numbers of Methodists, Lutherans, Baptists, and Jews.

well, frankly, I always liked B Graham.. still do, may he RIP. He started out a little anti-Catholic but mellowed out over the year.. wish I knew mor on that topic but in any case... There needs to be a Catholic Billy Graham... someone who goes out into the byways and highways and grabs people mentally and spiritually.... for Jesus..

is God calling ME to such?

um.... talk about "shivers"!!!!!! OMG!

LOL

I'd have to find someone to go with me... hold my hand and stuff....

LOL

 

[stjerome5]

I don't think you are a bad person because you are a Catholic. I think Catholicism perverts the scriptures with offensive dogmas that are not supported by scripture.

you are very wrong.

The Catholic Church is DEEP into Scripture.. We read it EVERY day at daily Mass... e very single day, not just Sunday.

And most of the time, the reader simply reads the Scripture straight from the Bible, then sits down and everyone is left alone with his or her own thoughts and reflections and (possible) revelations

which of course is very cool...

Then the priest has his homily about the readings.. and some priests are ... off their rocker, so to say... and so we just knoww that... well, often a priest will have commnetary on Scriputre we have just heard that... we just knoww is not the best commentary...

But hey... if young guys are listening and are well-catechized... maybe they will think to themselves

"I could do a way better homily than that! Maybe I should become a priest?"




+

 

[Beloved Daughter]

you are very wrong.

The Catholic Church is DEEP into Scripture.. We read it EVERY day at daily Mass... e very single day, not just Sunday.

No, you don't. You use canned reader/response nonsense. That's the Catholic idea of liturgy.

And most of the time, the reader simply reads the Scripture straight from the Bible, then sits down and everyone is left alone with his or her own thoughts and reflections and (possible) revelations

which of course is very cool...

It's not the reading of scripture, we object to, It's the perversion of it.

Then the priest has his homily about the readings.. and some priests are ... off their rocker, so to say... and so we just knoww that... well, often a priest will have commnetary on Scriputre we have just heard that... we just knoww is not the best commentary...

I don't believe that every Priest is a child molesting heathen. But I do believe that most have no ability to manage a basic hermeneutic. But, if you believe the scriptures, why wouldn't you insist on a correct interpretation?

But hey... if young guys are listening and are well-catechized... maybe they will think to themselves

"I could do a way better homily than that! Maybe I should become a priest?"




+

The catechism is but one source of the problem.

You need real leaders such as this:

 

[ziapueblo]

I tend to think most Catholics don't like evangelizing but maybe that's just the Cahtolics I myself know?

and I don't know many because... I'm just an un-social person

anyhow... Do you know people who actively try to get people into the Catholic Church? Just wondering....

There are plenty (I'm Orthodox by the way).

Probably the most popular Catholic evangelist right now is Bishop Baron and his Word on Fire ministry.

You also have people like Scott Hahn, Steve Ray, among others.

 

[1Thess521]

I tend to think most Catholics don't like evangelizing but maybe that's just the Cahtolics I myself know?

and I don't know many because... I'm just an un-social person

anyhow... Do you know people who actively try to get people into the Catholic Church? Just wondering....

Archbishop of Algiers says Catholics ‘must abandon the idea that we have to evangelize’​

"“At the same time, we have to accept that there might be in Islam some truth that escapes us,”"
"Vesco did not see protestant churches as competitors of the Catholic Church. “They also have their share of truth which might escape us,” he said."

Archbishop of Algiers says Catholics ‘must abandon the idea that we have to evangelize’ - LifeSite

‘Numbers give no indication of how fruitful a [Catholic] presence is,’ said the newly appointed archbishop.

www.lifesitenews.com

 

[LifeIn]

One of the best Catholic Evangelists I ever saw is Dr. Mary Healy, Professor of Scripture at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit. She visited our parish in Minneapolis, MN yesterday and gave a very stirring talk entitled "Evangelization in a Post-Christian World". She laid out the case for how society has become increasingly secular and hostile to Christianity (not just Catholic churches but ALL Christianity!). In her 1-hour talk she went step by step through the book of Ester using Ester as a model for us today, for Ester was also living in a culture that was foreign and hostile to her people (the Jews). Despite being an orphan and taken far from her homeland in Israel - essentially a powerless nobody - she found favor with the King because of her beauty. God had so engineered things so that she would be placed in the right place and at the right time to be able to advocate for her people. When the Jews were about to be exterminated by the evil machinations of the king's chief minister, Haman, Ester's uncle who had served as her guardian after the death of her parents, appealed to Ester to advocate for them to the King. Ester's initial response was "no". She said she would not do it because it would put her life in danger to go before the King uninvited. Plus she had it good. She was not in any immediate danger from the edict pushed by Haman. But then Mordicai wrote to her a second time and gave her the same advice that Dr. Healy gave in her talk. Mordicai said that perhaps God placed her in her current position for this very purpose - that she might advocate for her people. And of course she did, and Haman ended up being hung on the very same gallows that he had constructed to hang Jews. The lesson for us, says Dr. Healy, is to believe that each one of could be in just the right place and at the right time to bring good news to those in darkness. And she had a bit of practical advice. She said if you want your friends or family members who have fallen away to return to the Lord, make sure that you spend more time talking to the Lord about them than you spend talking to them about the Lord. She also said that the most effect asset in Evangelization is the Love of Jesus. So ask the Lord to help you not just know about him, but to fall madly in love with him. When you are in love with Jesus, it will show in your life, and that is more effective than talking to your family members about obligations. I really liked the way she tied the book of Ester to the modern day situation of Evangelization.

Dr. Healy has also written Spiritual Gifts Handbook and Healing as well as Catholic commentaries on the Gospel of Mark and the letter to the Hebrews. Dr. Healy serves the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian unity as a member of the Pentecostal-Catholic International Dialogue. She is one of the first three women ever to serve on the Pontifical Biblical Commission, and is a consultor to the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Thank God we have an Evangelist like Mary Healy.

 

[Bob Carabbio]

I tend to think most Catholics don't like evangelizing but maybe that's just the Cahtolics I myself know?

and I don't know many because... I'm just an un-social person

anyhow... Do you know people who actively try to get people into the Catholic Church? Just wondering....

Who needs to "Evangelize"??? All Roman Catholics have to do is Baptize Babies. Fortunately they no longer MURDER folks who won't convert.

 

[Arch Stanton]

Who needs to "Evangelize"??? All Roman Catholics have to do is Baptize Babies.

That is the initiation sacrament.

 

[Bob Carabbio]

That is the initiation sacrament.

Sure it is.

 

[Psalm1]

I tend to think most Catholics don't like evangelizing but maybe that's just the Cahtolics I myself know?

and I don't know many because... I'm just an un-social person

anyhow... Do you know people who actively try to get people into the Catholic Church? Just wondering....

I think Bishop Barron is pretty effective there.

 

[Deuteronomy]

I tend to think most Catholics don't like evangelizing but maybe that's just the Cahtolics I myself know?
and I don't know many because... I'm just an un-social person
anyhow... Do you know people who actively try to get people into the Catholic Church? Just wondering....

Hello StJerome5, over my 30 years as an unbeliever, I was approached by MANY different people concerning the Gospel. Sadly, none were ever RC or EO, just Protestants (or cult members, at times, like LDS and JW's, though the cult members were hardly preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, of course).

Interestingly however, the Lord used a colleague of mine, a 'former' (cradle) Catholic, to finally lead me all the way to saving faith in Him. That's as close as I have ever come to having a Roman Catholic present the Gospel to me (though again, my colleague, who was led to Christ as a RC by a Protestant believer, led me to Christ as a Protestant too). For what it's worth, he continued to go to his former Catholic church for quite some time after becoming a believer to help his family and friends discover what he had about salvation.

Finally, I was baptized as an infant, was raised in the church (so to speak) and loved it (for the most part ). I regularly attended Sunday School as a kid, and then church in Jr. High and High School. I sang in the children's choir, went on retreats, was confirmed, etc., you know, "the whole 9 yards". As a result, I always thought that I was a Christian (why wouldn't I have), until the day that I actually became one, that is, two months after my 30th birthday (11/2/86)! I'm telling you this to make the point that there are unbelievers in both Catholic and Protestant churches, many who attend for a lifetime and remain deceived about who they really are, just like I did for 30 years.

As I hope that you already know, salvation is about something FAR more than faithfully attending/participating in church and practicing our religion! Rather (first and foremost), it's all about God knowing us, and we Him (Matthew 7:22-23; John 17:3), personally, which is what happens whenever someone comes to true, saving faith in Him (by believing and trusting Him, and by surrendering the reins of our lives to Him, both temporal and eternal).

This was something that I heard a bit about in Sunday School and on retreats as a kid (though I did not come to faith back then, obviously), but never again in church services (in the liberal Presbyterian church that I was raised in) once I was old enough to attend those instead. As singer/songwriter Keith Green used to say, "going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to McDonald's makes you a hamburger" ).

God wants those of us who are truly His to make sure that we are (to always know/have the assurance that we are .. e.g. 1 John 5:13). He, in point of fact, commands us to do so regularly, yes, to make sure that we truly are who we claim and believe ourselves to be ... or that we are not .. e.g. 2 Corinthians 13:5. BTW, if you'd like to know what to look for in yourself (or others) to confirm that fact (I did/most do, at first) I would be happy to tell you what I know/what the Bible tells us to look for. Just let know here or via a PM

God bless you!!

~Deuteronomy
p.s. - do you know any RC's who evangelize, IOW, any who witness and preach the Gospel message itself, rather than simply the RCC? Thanks

Romans 10​

17 Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.​

​

 

[Deuteronomy]

Hello again @stjerome5, I also meant to say that over the last 36+ years (since becoming a believer), I have continued to have a number of people (who didn't know me/didn't know that I was a believer) witness/preach the Gospel to me. All of them have been Protestants, just FYI (I've never even had an RC or an EO invite me to come to church).

That said, I know that there are some in the RCC (like St. Francis) who preach the Gospel itself/a person's need for the Savior, rather than simply trying to get them to come to church. Some have called it a "new evangelism" within the RCC, and that was encouraging to hear.

In fact, (if you'd care to read it) here's an article about the quote that St. Francis is famous for/credited with saying (even though he never said it, or anything like it ).

What St. Francis of Assisi Didn’t Actually Say​

Albert Chevallier Tayler, "St Francis" (1898) (photo: Public Domain)

Glenn Stanton / Blogs / October 30, 2015

Last Sunday, our faithful deacon in the midst of his excellent homily used a quote that most of us have heard, perhaps many times.

“Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.”​

It is always attributed to St. Francis of Assisi—founder of the Franciscan Order—and is intended to say that proclaiming the Gospel by example is more virtuous than actually proclaiming it with voice. It is a quote that has often rankled me because it seems to create a useless dichotomy between speech and action. Besides, the spirit behind it can be a little arrogant—which I’m sure our deacon didn’t intend—intimating that those who "practice the Gospel" are in reality more faithful to the faith than those who preach it.

But here's the fact: Our good Francis ~never~ said it, or anything close.

None of his disciples or biographers have these very quotable words coming from his mouth. It doesn't show up in any of his writings. Not even close, really. The closest comes from his Rule of 1221 on how the Franciscans should practice their preaching:

No brother should preach contrary to the form and regulations of the holy Church nor unless he has been permitted by his minister . . . All the Friars . . . should preach by their deeds.

Essentially, make sure your deeds match your words. While there's a nice and good sentiment in the statement—be sure you live out the grace and truth of the Gospel—the notion as it is typically presented is neither practical, nor faithful to the Gospel of Christ. It does not align with St. Francis' own practice.

His first biographer, Thomas of Celano, writing just three years after Francis' death, quotes him instructing his co-workers in the Gospel thusly:

The preacher must first draw from secret prayers what he will later pour out in holy sermons; he must first grow hot within before he speaks words that are in themselves cold.

Our man clearly spent a great deal of time using his words when he preached, “sometimes preaching in up to five villages a day, often outdoors. In the country, Francis often spoke from a bale of straw or a granary doorway. In town, he would climb on a box or up steps in a public building. He preached to . . . any who gathered to hear the strange but fiery little preacher from Assisi.” He was sometimes so animated and passionate in his delivery that “his feet moved as if he were dancing.”

We must know that it's simply impossible to proclaim the Gospel without words and of course our good Francis knew this as well as any. The Gospel is inherently verbal, and preaching the Gospel is inherently verbal behavior.

St. Paul was quite clear in this, asking the Church at Rome (Romans 10:14):

How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?​

The New Evangelization is not a silent evangelization. So next time you hear one of your brothers or sisters in Christ use this quote to encourage or challenge you in the labors for our faith, gently guide them from the land of misinformation and into truth.

~https://www.ncregister.com/blog/what-st-francis-of-assisi-didn-t-actually-say

~Deuteronomy
p.s. - interestingly, I've experienced more push-back about the points that the above article makes from mainline Protestants than from Roman Catholics (perhaps the RCC has informed you all concerning the truth about St. Francis?). One of my (Protestant) teachers had something to say about it however (in response to the quote that St. Francis is famous for making, but never wrote or said, that is), and this is it:

"Saying, preach the Gospel, use words if necessary, is like saying, feed the hungry, use food if necessary" ~Theologian Ligon Duncan​

​

 

[Mike McK]

Those outside the Church do not know a thing about the Church... but feel free to spoutate on about it just the same

Could you please tell me, specifically, what I've said about Catholicism that's wrong?

 

[cjab]

I tend to think most Catholics don't like evangelizing but maybe that's just the Cahtolics I myself know?

and I don't know many because... I'm just an un-social person

anyhow... Do you know people who actively try to get people into the Catholic Church? Just wondering....

The hierarchy has a massive job just to Christianize those within the Catholic domain, let alone evangelize outside the church. Many virulent atheists I come across have connections to Catholicism: either went to a Catholic school, or were baptized Catholics. Over half raised as Catholics have left the church at some point in their lives. Unfortunately lapsed Catholics usually become atheists after becoming disillusioned.

Since those outside Catholicism are "heretics," I would guess evangelization of other denominations is viewed as dangerous, as exposing the faithful to the depredations of heretical thought. Traditionally evangelization has been seen as synonymous with conquest: hence the large Catholic populations in South and Latin America. Catholicism does appear to be naturally spreading in relatively poor / unsophisticated / repressive countries like China / Africa, but I guess is experiencing the oppression of political atheism in the West leading to liberalism/de facto apostasy amongst its priests, as are other denominations.

Catholics do take in people from other denominations, especially those disillusioned with the Anglican/Episcopal denomination.