The new evangelization in Latin American perspective

Cross Currents, Fall, 1998 by Anna L. Peterson, Manuel A. Vasquez

La Nueva Evangelizacion

The first reference to a new evangelization came on March 9, 1983, when Pope John Paul II, speaking to Latin American bishops gathered in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, called for "a new evangelization: new in its ardor, its methods, and expressions."(4) The pontiff's summons came as part of the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Europe's encounter with the Americas and a preparation for the church's third millennium. However, John Paul's more immediate concern was the continuing erosion of Catholic hegemony and the rapid expansion of other religions, particularly Protestant "sects," in Latin America. Out of this concern, the pope called on the bishops to redouble their efforts to proselytize among those outside the church and to renew the faith of nominal Catholics. Ironically, a similar desire to attract laypeople to church activities had been part of the reason for the spread of CEBs in the 1960s; in the 1980s, however, changing political and economic circumstances and, especially, a new pope gave a different cast to evangelizing projects.

The nueva evangelizacion was more fully elaborated at CELAM's meeting in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in October 1992, inaugurated by John Paul II. Following the pope's 1983 call, the bishops took the new evangelization as a major theme (along with Christian culture and development). It did not mean, they stressed, a rejection of the first evangelization of Latin America during the colonial period, but signaled an effort to build on and complement previous efforts. The new approach represented a "call to conversion" for all Catholics, especially "baptized men and women whose Christianity is devoid of vitality." The bishops called on all parts of the church, including the laity, to be active agents of the new evangelization, each "according to its own nature?

The call for a new evangelization came at a time of significant ideological and institutional realignment within the church. Seeking to reaffirm the church's unity, universality, and hierarchical authority against the radically historicizing consequences of the Second Vatican Council, the Vatican has undertaken a "restoration." According to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and chief architect of the Vatican's conservative realignment, this approach entails a "search for a new equilibrium after all the exaggerations of an indiscriminate opening to the world."(6)

Ratzinger's comment suggests that, as noted earlier, the restoration offensive differs in key ways from postconciliar evangelizing projects. Vatican II's efforts to reach out to the laity focused on increased lay participation in the decision-making process, greater autonomy for local churches and regional episcopal bodies, and the promotion of a plurality of opinions and practices within the church. In contrast, the restoration blueprint enjoins the laity to cooperate obediently with the hierarchy and to follow the Holy See in matters of faith and doctrine. It tends to emphasize "spiritual" and centralized lay movements, such as the charismatic renewal, rather than democratizing projects such as base communities.