ACCOUNTABILITY: AN ELEMENT OF THE NEW EVANGELIZATION

His Eminence Donald Cardinal Wuerl Archbishop of Washington

This Leadership Roundtable gathering brings back memories of the initial efforts that developed into the Roundtable. I recall particularly the conference on Governance, Accountability and the Future of the Church held at the Saint Thomas More Catholic Chapel and Center at Yale University on March 28, 2003. The Leadership Roundtable has come a long way in the decade since then and has offered a unique and valuable service to the Church.

The origins of the Leadership Roundtable are rooted in the desire for quality Church management that involves accountability and the incorporation of the expertise of the laity in the development and implementation of Church administration, programs and procedures. Your theme for this year’s meeting focuses on best practices for a mission driven Church. I would like to reflect on three elements that contribute to a mission driven Church: clear Church identity, mission or ministry of all Church members, and shared accountability.

The context of a mission driven Church today includes two significant realities that were not part of our discussion ten years ago: the New Evangelization, and Pope Francis and the so-called “Francis Effect,” what he calls “missionary discipleship.”

When we talk of mission driving the Church today, we clearly must include the New Evangelization first touched on years ago by Pope Paul VI, highlighted over and over by Saint John Paul II, institutionalized by Pope Benedict XVI, and made visible in the life and ministry of Pope Francis. This perspective is the life-giving element for best practices that could otherwise remain managerial or administrative functions.

The New Evangelization is a term that has become very familiar in the Church today. Saint John Paul II began more than three decades ago to speak of the need for a new period of evangelization. He described it as an announcement of the Good News about Jesus that is “new in ardor, method and expression.” Pope of the Gospel, Pope Francis cites propositions from the Synod on the New Evangelization. It is against the backdrop of that gathering of bishops and catechetical leadership that I want to offer these reflections today. The starting point, however, for both the work of the Leadership Roundtable and an understanding of the mission or ministry of the Church has to be a clear understanding of the Church’s identity.

Benedict XVI affirmed that the discernment of “the new demands of evangelization” is a “prophetic” task of the Supreme Pontiff. He emphasized that “the entire activity of the Church is an expression of love” that seeks to evangelize the world.

Likewise, in continuity with his predecessors, Pope Francis calls us to the work of the New Evangelization. This was also a major initiative of his when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Already we can see as a hallmark in this papacy the emphasis that the Church “go out” into the world, to not stay wrapped up within itself but to go out to give to people the beauty of the Gospel, the amazement of the encounter with Jesus. When and how we do it must have as its goal – conscious and explicit – the outreach that we can describe as evangelization, or the manifesting of the Kingdom.

It is increasingly evident that the New Evangelization is not one specific action or activity of the Church, but rather a way of seeing a whole range of activities carried on by the Church to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. Thus we can speak about the ongoing outreach to those who have never heard of Jesus, while also speaking of its continuity with the ongoing catechesis that is a part of the life of every believer, while adding the dimension of outreach to those who have simply fallen away from the practice of the faith.

Our need is to see our administrative efforts as part of and an expression of “going out” beyond self-reflection. Pope Francis uses this schema and cites it in its entirety in the introduction to The Joy of the Gospel, his apostolic exhortation that followed the 2012 Synod on the New Evangelization. In fact, he quotes directly from the propositions of the Synod and clearly footnotes them.

The Synod made it very clear that the continuation of the mission of Christ, which began with the Great Commissioning following his death and Resurrection, is what we are engaged in today. As the Acts of the Apostles tell us, as Jesus prepared to return to his Father in glory he charged his disciples, “You will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). That same challenge echoes in our ears and hearts today – we are the witnesses to Jesus Christ, his message, his way of life, his triumph over death and his pledge of new life to all who would walk with him.

Our definition of the New Evangelization includes renewal of personal faith. This is both an affective and a cognitive or intellectual renewal of our faith; be confident in its truth – be able to stand in the truth, without hesitation, without apology for what we believe, and share the faith. This is a new aspect of our appreciation of our faith that has not always been recognized in the past. We must be driven out of the excitement we have for our faith to share it.

What we reflect on today has to be seen specifically in light of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel – Evangelii gaudium. The title is as much a description of him as it is the name of his document. From the moment he stepped out onto the balcony of Saint Peter’s Basilica on the night of his election as 265th Successor to Saint Peter, Pope Francis has set a vibrant tone and has become a focal point of faith renewal, not only in the life of the Catholic Church but among many, many people. Perhaps what strikes such an appealing cord is his manner of reflecting on the joy of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Pope Francis is not changing any of the great received teachings in the Church. Rather, he is revitalizing those teachings and highlighting how you do the Gospel –how you live the Gospel’s message.

Today there was a television report on just how popular Pope Francis is and that his tweets are retweeted more than any other person. The news report indicated over ten thousand daily retweets of the Pope’s tweet. Obviously, this says something about the impact he is having and his ability to project the love of God and the compassion of Christ.

What Pope Francis invites us to do is focus our attention on the overwhelming blessing that is the love of God in our lives and in our world. When asked to describe himself, he humbly said he was a sinner. So we all are. But he reminded us that we have all been embraced by the love of God. The invitation of Pope Francis to a fresh way of living the Gospel in our world – which is so desperate for forgiveness, compassion, kindness and love – is a bright ray of hope as we move forward in the Third Millennium.

Let me address that with a personal story. As I took my aisle seat on a plane one day, a woman in the window seat turned and introduced herself and seeing my Roman collar said, “Have you been born again?”

“Yes,” I responded and she immediately asked, “When?” I said, “In baptism. And I have been trying to grow into that new life ever since.” “Oh,” she said, “you’re Catholic,” which led her to another question. “Tell me about this Church thing that is so important to you.”

We began with Matthew’s Gospel and Peter’s confession about Jesus that led to Jesus’ announcement, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.” As the conversation unfolded and she raised a number of significant questions, we talked about how we are all invited into the family of God, how Jesus established the Church as his new Body in the world, how it was Jesus who determined that his Church should have a certain fundamental structure, how the Apostles continue today in the person of bishops to lead the Church, and how the work of Saint Peter is carried on today by the bishop of Rome, the Pope. As we landed and were taxiing up to the gate, the man in the aisle seat directly across from me leaned over and said, “Father, I couldn’t help but hear this conversation. I’m Catholic and I didn’t know all of that.”

The Catholic Church is the enduring, vis- ible yet spiritual, structured yet Spirit-led, human yet divine, presence of Christ in the world today. The Second Vatican Council teaches us that while not the fullness of Christ’s Kingdom, the Church is the beginning, the outward visible sign and instrument of that Kingdom coming to be among us, of communion with God and of unity among all people. When we address questions of governance and accountability in the Church, we must be careful not to use a political model for a reality that transcends human political institutions. It would be a mistake to judge the Kingdom of God by the standard of the kingdom of man.

In his pontificate – including his apostolic exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel – Evangelii gaudium, and in the ongoing process of restructuring some aspects of the Vatican curia – Pope Francis has addressed the issues of Church management and accountability. But he always does this in light of the institutional ability to bear witness to the truth of the Gospel. Even our institutions have to participate in the Gospel driven purpose of the Church.

The gauge of the success of our organizational structures and managerial practices must always be how effective they are in bearing witness to the saving message of Christ. The challenge of our day is to be able to do our work, to carry out our ministry in so consciously missionary a manner that we measure our success by its positive and inviting effect on those we serve and everything around us.

“Pope Francis is the example of evangelization in action. This includes his efforts at restructuring administration and addressing managerial issues. “

What the Leadership Roundtable brings to the fore, and what should be a part of our deliberations today, is not just good management but the question of whether what we are engaged in and what we are proposing constitute best practices that actually engage people in an appreciation of the Gospel and lead them to an encounter with Christ.

Pope Francis is the example of evangelization in action. This includes his efforts at restructuring administration and addressing managerial issues. What is it that we offer that warrants our attention to the relationship of what we do, how we do it, and the spread of the Gospel – our message? This brings us to a reflection on the mission or ministry of Church members; what the Church offers.

Occasionally, people will ask me, “What exactly does the Church bring to our society?” or they will ask in a more personal way, “What exactly does the Church offer to me?”

A number of years ago I was invited to speak at the Catholic Center at Harvard University. The theme was “The Role of Faith in a Pluralistic Society.” At the conclusion of my presentation, a man who self-identified as an atheist and who taught in the law school was the first to present a question. He asked, “What do you people think you bring to our society?”

“You people” was a reference to the front row of the audience that was made up of representatives of a variety of religious traditions, all of whom were in their appropriate identifiable robes.

Since he was a lawyer, I asked if he would mind if I answered his question with a question of my own. When he nodded in agreement, I asked: “What do you think the world would be like if it were not for the voices of all of those religious traditions represented in the hall? What would it be like if we did not hear voices in the midst of the community saying, ‘You shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness?’ What would our culture be like had we not heard religious imperatives such as ‘love your neighbor as yourself, do unto others as you would have them do to you?’ How much more harsh would our land be if we did not grow up hearing, ‘blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, blessed are the merciful, blessed are the peacemakers?’ What would the world be like had we never been reminded that someday we will have to answer to God for our actions?”

To his credit, the man who asked the question smiled broadly and said, “It would be a mess!”

The Church brings what it has always brought – an invitation to faith, an encounter with Christ and a whole way of living. Our structures and practices must participate in our witness to the life-giving quality of our message. How we act, function and organize our activities must mirror who we are – the people of God, God’s family, a community of faith.

What we bring is God’s love, Christ’s mercy, the life-giving gifts of the Holy Spirit. We should look and act like the Church of missionary disciples. Just as Pope Francis used his now famous sound bite to describe priests as pastors who have the “odor of the flock,” so too should Church structures, programs and pastoral practices and initiatives as well as those engaged in them – clerical, religious and lay – look like witnesses to the Risen Lord.

So that we could best answer our calling, the Lord endowed his community of disciples with a structure that will remain until the Kingdom is fully achieved. He purposefully chose the Apostles, with Saint Peter as their head, as the foundation stones of “the new Jerusalem,” and he charged them to lead, to teach and to sanctify his flock entrusted to them. As the successors of the Apostles, the bishops – in unity with the Pope – have been entrusted with this, as well.

Whatever management style or model is followed, leadership actions and administration must be oriented toward the mission of bringing to others an encounter with the Good News of Jesus Christ. Managerial decisions must allow room for the Holy Spirit to act.

Mere bureaucratic efficiency is not the goal or the measure of success. Rather, as Pope Francis counseled in his first apostolic exhortation, “The renewal of structures demanded by pastoral conversion can only be understood in this light: as part of an effort to make them more mission-oriented, to make ordinary pastoral activity on every level more inclusive and open, to inspire in pastoral workers a constant desire to go forth and in this way to elicit a positive response from all those whom Jesus summons to friendship with himself.” service and stewardship / administration. The consultation – via our website and regional and parish meetings – generated a series of recommendations and, eventually, statutes. ism that is now rapidly enveloping our society and our Western culture.

Allow me to use the example of our recently concluded first Archdiocesean Synod in the Archdiocese of Washington. It reached its culmination and concluded on Pentecost Sunday, June 8. This celebration brought to a finish over two years of work involving over 200 delegates reflecting the ethnic and cultural and ecclesial face of the Archdiocese of Washington. Its members were primarily laywomen, laymen, those in consecrated life and clergy. We used as a working principle that our effort would strive to be the best Church we can. We accepted as working principles the need to communicate, consult and collaborate.

The New Evangelization recognizes that in countries where the Gospel has already been preached there is an “eclipse of the sense of God.” What brings a new urgency to our mission is the acknowledgment of just how widespread and profound the new secularism is.

What the working sessions and the invitation to recommendations provided was an opportunity to hear voices of the membership of the Church of Washington. I take great pride in the fact that when all our work was finished, members who had served as delegates reminded me that what they were setting before me were their words, their reflections, their conclusions.

In the age of the New Evangelization we have to be able to carry on our ecclesial ministry, institutionally and personally. And it must be done in an aura that invites communication, the sharing of information, and consultation – the ability to hear back and reflect on what was communicated. And finally, it must involve collaboration, the working together that provides the mechanism to resolve, formulate and move forward with programs, practices and structures.

Pope Benedict XVI, during his visit to the Archdiocese of Washington in April 2008, underlined three challenges the Gospel faces in our society. In his homily at vespers with the bishops of the United States during a meeting at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, he reminded us that we are challenged by secularism, the materialism around us and the individualism that is so much a part of our culture.

It is against this background – a diminished appreciation of the faith – that Pope Benedict called all of us to the New Evangelization, and Pope Francis challenges us to go out and meet people where they are so that we can walk with them towards a closer bond with Jesus.

Over 15,000 recommendations arrived as we began the consultation part. This was preceded by an effort to communicate to all members of the Church the understanding of our call as a Church in the areas of worship, education, community,

The pastoral letter, Manifesting the Kingdom, on the first synod of the Archdiocese of Washington is an effort to tell the story of that Synod and what I believe it to be –an example of collaborative ministry in the age of the New Evangelization. The style of ministry today is so important because the context of the New Evangelization, and the very reason we need to re-propose our Catholic faith to the world, is the secular-

This brings us to reflect on the wider accountability of all of us to share the Good News, to pass on the Gospel message, to be an active agent of the New Evangelization.

In our reflections on the Church, Church management and best practices in a mission driven Church and how we accept our tasks as agents of the new Pentecost, I would like to highlight a number of theological foundation stones. I will touch on four of them.

First is the anthropological foundation of the New Evangelization. If secularization with its atheistic tendencies removes God from the equation, the very understanding of what it means to be human is altered. Thus the New Evangelization must point to the very origin of our human dignity, selfknowledge and self-realization. The fact that each person is created in the image and likeness of God forms the basis for declaring, for example, the universality of human rights. Here, once again, we see the opportunity to speak with conviction to a doubting community about the truth and integrity of reality such as marriage, family, the natural moral order and an objective right and wrong.

Second is the Christological foundation of the New Evangelization. As has already been noted, New Evangelization is the re-introduction, the re-proposing, of Christ. Our proclamation of Christ, however, begins with a clear theological explanation of who Christ is, his relationship to the Father, his divinity and humanity, and the reality of his death and Resurrection. At the center of our Christian faith is Christ. But the Christ we proclaim is the Christ of revelation, the Christ understood in his Church, the Christ of tradition and not of personal, sociological, or aberrant theological creation. On our own, none of us could come to know the mind, heart, love and identity of God. Jesus came to reveal the truth – about God and about ourselves.

Third is the ecclesiological foundation of the New Evangelization. The New Evangelization must provide a clear theological explanation for the necessity of the Church for salvation. The Church is not one among many ways to reach God, all of them equally valid. While God does wish all to be saved, it is precisely out of his universal salvific will that God sent Christ to bring us to adoption and eventual eternal glory.

Pope Francis in his homily on the Solemnity of John the Baptist reminded us, “We are Christians because we belong to the Church. It is like a surname: if our name is ‘I am Christian,’ our name is ‘I belong to the Church.’”

This, the Pope points out, is necessary because “others before us have lived faith and transmitted it to us, have taught us.”

He warns against a “do-it-yourself Church” and he highlights that “there are those who believe that they can have a personal relationship direct and immediate with Jesus Christ removed from communion and mediation of the Church. They are dangerous and damaging temptations.”

He concludes that part of the homily by the simple exhortation, “remember: being Christian means belonging to the Church.”

Fourth is the soteriological foundation of the New Evangelization. Intrinsic to the understanding of God’s presence with us today is the awareness of what we mean by his Kingdom. The Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed and established and that is manifest in his Church will reach its final fullness only in glory. The fullness of the Kingdom is yet to come but it is present in its beginnings here and now. Our actions now have consequences that endure. What we achieve here and now as a manifestation of the Kingdom remains. “Heaven and earth will pass away,” Jesus said. But his words that are everlasting life will never cease to be realized.

In concluding these reflections, I want to note some of the qualities required for effective Church ministry today, whether it is at the level of management or Gospel proclamation. Since both are tied together, whatever we are doing must take on the aura of the mission driven disciple. Pope Francis speaks about missionary discipleship. There are qualities of the mission driven disciple who manifests a mission driven Church. I will touch on four that, for me, stand out: boldness or courage, connectedness to the Church, a sense of urgency, and joy.

In the Acts of the Apostles the word that describes the Apostles after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is “bold.” Peter is depicted as boldly standing up and preaching the Good News of the Resurrection; later Paul takes up the theme, and in frenetic movement around the world accessible to him, boldly announces the Word.

Our enthusiasm for the faith and our conviction for its truth should always be expressed in love. As Saint Paul reminds us we must not only speak the truth but do so in love. It is not enough that we know or believe something to be true. We must express that truth in charity, with respect for others, so that the bonds between us can be strengthened in building up the Church of Christ.

As our Holy Father, Pope Francis, has reminded us and as the Synod pointed out on many occasions, people are not brought to the love of Jesus Christ by angry denunciations. As is being demonstrated around the world, the response to Pope Francis and his message of “loving invitation” is extraordinary. He tells us, “A Church which ‘goes forth’ is a Church whose doors are opened.” Our faith convictions “have pastoral consequences that we are called to consider with prudence and boldness.” The evangelizers for the New Evangelization also need a connectedness with the Church, its Gospel and its pastoral presence. The authentication of what we proclaim and the verification of the truth of our message that these are the words of everlasting life depend on our communion with the Church, and our solidarity with its pastors.

Another quality of the New Evangelization and, therefore, those engaged in it, is a sense of urgency. Perhaps we need to see in Luke’s account of Mary’s Visitation of Elizabeth a model for our own sense of urgency. The Gospel recounts how Mary set off in haste in a long and difficult journey from Nazareth to a hill country in the village of Judea. There was no time to be lost because her mission was so important.

Pope Francis begins his apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium with the reminder that, “The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Christ…with Christ joy is constantly born anew.” Our message should be one that inspires others to joyfully follow us along the path to the Kingdom of God. Joy must characterize the evangelizer. Ours is a message of great joy: Christ is risen, Christ is with us. Whatever our circumstances, our witness should radiate with the fruits of the Holy Spirit including love, peace and joy.

How, then, do we answer question, “What is at the heart of a mission driven Church and how would we measure the excellence of best practices in such a Church?”

I think we need to begin with our own conviction that there is an awakening of the Spirit in the hearts of many people, young and not so young, and that the pretensions of the secular order are not able to satisfy the longings of the human heart. We can profess with pride and conviction that the Gospel message continues to be the answer to our needs and longings today. We re-propose Christ as the answer to a world staggering under the weight of so many unanswered questions of the heart.

At the very core of our convictions, however, is our faith. It is our Catholic faith that urges us toward committed transparency, verifiable accountability, missionary discipleship. It is our Catholic faith that we proclaim with renewed adherence, awakened conviction and great joy. It is summed up in the simple acclamation: Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again.