Scottish Catholic Observer

Culture comes from cult. That is the bold four word proposition of the 20th century English historian Christopher Dawson. Ponder it for a few moments. It is actually a statement of the startlingly obvious isn’t it? He asserts that what we collectively believe as a community subsequently shapes our society and everything within it—art and architecture, media and manners, fashion and family relations, literature and the law. Everything.

Hence party politics—despite being a very visible, attention grabbing and necessary forum for public debate—is actually downstream in the process of cultural change. It is the realm of ideas that is of greatest consequence.

That is why Pope Benedict XVI’s current attempt to intellectually win back the contemporary world to Jesus Christ is as culturally crucial as it is apostolically ambitious.

“The first proclamation is needed even in countries that were evangelised long ago,” Pope Benedict said at the close of the Synod of Bishops on New Evangelisation in Rome on October 28.

“All people have a right to know Jesus Christ and His Gospel: and Christians, all Christians—priests, religious and lay Faithful—have a corresponding duty to proclaim the Good News.”

This New Evangelisation calls upon all of us to re-propose the person of Jesus Christ to our fellow countrymen and women in a way that is intelligent, reasonable and compelling.

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind,” Christ Himself said.

Therefore we bring not only our hearts and souls to the task of New Evangelisation—but also our intellects. Faith and reason do not stand in contradiction while science, in the words of St Anselm, is ‘faith seeking understanding.’

Scotland inspired

With this in mind, it is extremely heartening at the outset of the Year of Faith to return home on holiday to find a Catholic Church in Scotland that seems genuinely inspired by the call to New Evangelisation.

One parish I came across hopes to publically show Fr Robert Barron’s acclaimed television documentary series Catholicism over a 10 week period. Another is sending Christmas cards to their townsfolk containing an explanation of the importance of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ to modern society plus an invitation to their Christmas services.

Interestingly, the scope of many initiatives seems to go way beyond inspiring the lukewarm or calling back the lapsed. Parishes now seem keen to apostolically engage with all the people within their community—Catholic and non-Catholic alike.

“In various parts of the world, the Church has already set out on this path of pastoral creativity,” the Holy Father told the Synod Fathers, ‘so as to bring back those who have drifted away or are seeking the meaning of life, happiness and, ultimately, God.’

Then there is the St Andrew’s Conference in Glasgow’s City Chambers on December 1. Hosted by Glasgow Archdiocese, it will bring together both Cardinal George Pell of Sydney and Bishop Arthur Serratelli of Paterson, New Jersey, to help ferment the New Evangelisation of Scotland.

Optimism

For the first time I can recall, the dominant mentality across the Catholic Church in Scotland is no longer one of ‘managed decline.’ Instead, there is an emerging vibe that seems to be more upbeat and optimistic. All around there are signs of a genuine renewal rooted in an ever-deepening love for Jesus Christ and His Church.

“People today, especially young people, need both truth and love if they are to live authentic human lives,” Archbishop Philip Tartaglia of Glasgow said in his address to the Synod of Bishops last month.

“Evangelisation and the New Evangelisation propose anew to the men and women of our time Jesus Christ the Incarnate Son of God. He is the Truth. He is the Incarnate Love of God.”

In a rare interview given for a new documentary entitled Bells of Europe, Pope Benedict also predicts the emergence of a ‘new springtime for Christianity’ across Europe despite the growing threat from secular social liberalism.

“Ideologies have their days numbered they appear powerful and irresistible but, after a certain period, they wear out and lose their energy because they lack profound truth… the Gospel, on the other hand, is true and can therefore never wear out,” the Pope says.

In the sixth century, it was St Columba’s monastery on Iona and the subsequent rise of a Hiberno-Scottish mission across Europe that saved Christianity in the western world following the collapse of the Roman Empire.

Some 1500 years later and Scotland can again play a significant part in the New Evangelisation. We do indeed live in interesting times.

— David Kerr is the Rome correspondent for a US-based news agency. He is also a former SNP parliamentary candidate