Cardinal: Sacraments, social work key to parish evangelization

November 15, 2018
Nicholas Wolfram Smith
 
Concern about an aging church and loss of faith among the young has concentrated many Catholics’ minds on the need for evangelization. At an Oct. 30 lecture, more than 100 people turned out to hear about how a parish community can meet that need.
 
In his lecture at Star of the Sea Parish in San Francisco, Cardinal Francis Arinze, the 86-year-old former prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship at the Holy See, said parish evangelization depends on parishes recommitting to their liturgical and sacramental life in partnership with a renewed dedication to the needy in their communities. Cardinal Arinze discussed many of the ideas about how parishes can evangelize their communities in his new book “The Evangelizing Parish,” published in July by Ignatius Press.
 
In addition to the importance of placing the Eucharist in a central position in the church, and encouraging reverence toward it through adoration, Cardinal Arinze proposed parishes rethink how they present other sacraments. The sacraments of initiation, especially baptism, are opportunities, he said, for priests or parish assistants to reach out to people who have grown apart from the church. Cardinal Arinze also asked priests to sacrifice their time to make reconciliation more available for people seeking forgiveness. Anointing of the sick, the cardinal added, should be offered as a means of healing to anyone who is seriously sick, and not just the dying.
 
Parishes can also approach the sacrament of matrimony differently, he said, by putting an emphasis on psychological, theological, pastoral and theoretical preparation for married life, and “not just on the cake.”
 
Cardinal Arinze also encouraged parishes to set times to pray together the Liturgy of the Hours, which the Second Vatican Council praised as “the public prayer of the church.” While time could be an issue, he reminded the audience that “there is enough time for things you consider important.”
 
Priests and laity need to look not only at what happens inside their walls for evangelization, but also meet the needs of people in their local community.
 
“The parish that wants to be evangelizing gives service to the poor, and regards this as a high priority,” he said.
 
Cardinal Arinze said parishes should look at addressing material and spiritual needs in its social service and encouraged people to reimagine who the needy are. While some people live with addiction or poverty, he added others need encouragement in their faith or in living their vocation, or attention if they have not been to Mass.
 
“All these people need to find in the church a community that gives them a sense of belonging,” he said.
 
Cardinal Arinze outlined the kinds of service parishes could do, from serving the homeless, to paying hospital fees and school tuition for those who cannot afford their bills, to engaging with unemployed youth or victims of prostitution.
 
“While not all situations can be resolved by the parish,” he said, “every parish is called to liberation of the poor, enabling them to be part of society.”
 
Cardinal Arinze suggested parish councils establish social service committees to discern the needs of their local community and how to serve them.
 
Failing to uphold their obligations to the poor carries spiritual danger, Cardinal Arinze said, pointing to the words of Pope Francis in “Evangelii Gaudium,” where the Holy Father wrote that however much a church community “may talk about social issues or criticize governments,” failing to take concrete actions to help the poor means “it will easily drift into a spiritual worldliness camouflaged by religious practices, unproductive meetings and empty talk.”
 
After the talk, one audience member asked the cardinal about how to engage atheists about the faith. Cardinal Arinze said to “meet them, love them, respect them,” and move gradually in inviting them to the church.
 
“If they see you as a good witness of Christ, it becomes more powerful than words,” he said.