5 minute read
COMMITMENT TO NEW EVANGELIZATION
COMMITMENT TO NEW EVANGELIZATION
USING NEW PLATFORMS TO BRING CHRIST TO THE WORLD
Rev. Richard Pagano (AMU ’08) flashed a good-natured smile from across the computer screen. Sunshine streamed in through his office windows as he finished off the last few pieces of an orange. Now, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Zoom meetings are the all-toocommon meeting platform with those outside the home. However, back then, it was simply the most expedient way to interview Pagano.
Pagano is the pastor at St. John Paul the Second parish in Ponte Vedra, FL. As a diocesan priest, Pagano compared his role in the church to being a soldier in the trenches.
“You have one foot in the world and so you’ve got to be present to the world in all of its filth, worldliness, and as it’s directed by the passions and the flesh. You’ve got to be present there for people.” Referring to the fact that Tom Monaghan, the founder of Ave Maria University, is a proud Marine, Pagano shared how he appreciates being a Gyrene and part of the Ave Maria University family. As a priest, “You’ve got to be like a marine, you’re a trench-man, you’re on the frontlines.”
In addition to his pastoral ministries, Pagano co-hosts the number one Catholic podcast in the country, The Catholic Talk Show, covering a broad range of topics from whether it’s time for Vatican III, to the ranking and sampling of Trappist Beers. For Pagano, media is an extension of his ministerial work of bringing God into the world. According to Pagano, the church’s channels for outreach have changed dramatically. “The church used to build beautiful cathedrals and churches in the public square, utilizing the attractiveness of tapestry, fresco, stained glass, and a rousing preacher to engage and evangelize travelers passing through the square. Now, due to the digital structure, traffic is no longer guided to the physical square. Instead, people are guided to the digital squares of social media, podcast forums, YouTube, and other streaming platforms.” Pagano continued, “What the church needs to do is to find itself in these different formats and forums open to the wider public. We need to begin the discussion in the marketplace of ideas now being driven online, striving to present the idea of God incarnate, the person of Jesus Christ.”
The conviction with which Pagano spoke of evangelization overflows from his own encounter with Christ during his freshman year of college. As Pagano described it, his life pre-conversion was a product of MTV and the rap culture. After blowing out his left knee in high school, Pagano’s college coach at Bergen Community College told him he needed to get knee surgery if he wanted to take his college basketball career seriously. A month after his surgery, Pagano recalled being in a dark mental place and walking down to the basketball courts in a full hip-to-ankle leg brace. After being enticed into joining a game of full-court basketball, he blew out his other knee and had to go straight back to the same orthopedic for a second surgery.
THE CATHOLIC TALK SHOW
“It was the felix culpa of my life, the fortunate fall as Saint Augustine says. I started looking at the door closing on my basketball hopes and aspirations, all of that just fell apart. It opened me up to a desperate prayer I said from my heart. ‘Jesus, I’m doing everything wrong,’ and I really was. Jesus came to meet me on my recovery bed after my second knee surgery. There was a Bible on my kitchen counter, I have no idea how it got there. It was a miracle. It was one of the first miracles I encountered. I opened it up to the book of Ecclesiastics and it said, “Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, all is vanity and chasing after wind.” This Bible passage spoke directly to the emptiness Pagano had been experiencing in his life, and he resolved to change.
This encounter began Pagano’s journey into a deep and vibrant relationship with Christ, strengthened through a devotion to the rosary, consistent reading of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and Sacred Scripture. Years later, while working as a youth minister, Pagano started experiencing an attraction to the priesthood. He attributed his vocational stirrings in large part to the influence of St. John Paul II, who was declining in health at the time. After reading many of St. John Paul II’s books and attending his final papal audience, Pagano decided to answer his calling on the Feast of the Annunciation in 2005.
Pagano’s vocation to the priesthood is actually what landed him at Ave Maria University as a Philosophy major. In fact, he was the first seminarian endorsed by the diocese to attend Ave Maria University. After the local vocations director advised Pagano to visit Ave Maria University, he recalled going straight to a campus daily mass and being impressed by the reverence shown to the Blessed Sacrament. Looking back, he saw it as Our Lady guiding him. Ave Maria University’s devotion to the Annunciation did not escape the notice of Pagano, who observed how it tied in perfectly with him receiving his calling on the Feast of the Annunciation. “She’s got an incredible touch,” Pagano remarked with a smile.
Pagano often encourages many of his college-aged parishioners to attend Ave Maria University and has continued his involvement through AMU’s summer conferences. When asked to summarize what made AMU so special for him, Pagano described it by quoting one of his Theology professors, who once broke down the word university etymologically. “Universitas means a turning together as one and that all practices of academic endeavor come together into the climatic reality of the oneness in truth. That is Veritatis Splendor. That is the very motto of the University.”
Only days after my interview with Pagano, Ave Maria University joined with institutions across the globe in the transition to online learning. AMU professors continued the University’s pursuit of truth through the digital medium. As Pagano spoke of the necessity of online missionary efforts, he unknowingly foreshadowed the following months, when the digital continent would serve as the only means to connect the faithful. Just like the Zoom call, Pagano’s convictions about the new evangelization were prophetic. “I feel very strongly about this. Catholic media is the most important investment in the stewardship of the people of God and the stewardship of time and talent. We need to invest entirely into these digital platforms and forefronts because this is new evangelization.”
by: Madeleine O'Rourk, '20
