“Go, rebuild my Church!”
This divine inspiration, which St. Francis received at San Damiano—surrounded by the church’s crumbling walls and oddly shaped stones strewn about on the ground—provides a suitable backdrop for Franciscan Media’s new mission-oriented focus. Like San Damiano during the time of Francis, the Catholic Church today is in serious need of rebuilding. Pew and CARA studies over the last 20 years have shown a decline of Catholic Baptisms, marriages, and Mass attendance. For every one person who becomes Catholic, six are leaving the Church, and one out of every 10 Americans is a former Catholic. (Incidentally, when Francis received his inspiration, church attendance at San Damiano was at zero.) These kinds of statistics are staggering, and they point to the critical need for rebuilding.
But what kind of rebuilding is needed? And how does Franciscan Media fit into this?
Catholic bishops and ministry leaders have been slowly waking up to the fact that they can no longer presume people attending Mass—or children attending religious education or Catholic school, or couples presenting themselves for marriage—have already encountered Jesus Christ, what is often described as an initial evangelization. Without an initial faith, Church teaching remains at the level of religious information, not formation.
Prayer methods, reflecting on Scripture, and spirituality sound more like lifestyle options and not the pathways to meaning and fulfillment that they are. To account for this, Pope Francis has spent much of his papacy emphasizing the need for a more missionary-minded Church: a Church that presents itself as an open door and as a field hospital. This kind of Church is doing spiritual triage in the name of Jesus, the aim of which is to reorientate a person’s faith within the body of Christ.
The Church needs a renewed evangelization and catechesis—what Pope Francis often describes as an evangelizing catechesis. This kind of catechesis is rooted in the Gospel message. Its singular aim is to communicate the truth of God’s love, which he calls in his exhortation the Joy of the Gospel “the primary proclamation.” This proclamation represents the most fundamental and saving Christian truth: that Jesus Christ loves you, he died and rose for you, and he is at your side right now!
Franciscan Media has been sharing this primary proclamation for many years and in many different ways (e.g., St. Anthony Messenger, books, and online resources). Going forward, to support the evangelizing and catechetical rebuild beginning to take place in the Catholic Church, we’ll be reorganizing our content around themes of rebuilding, including: Rediscovering God, Healing Our Relationships with God and Others, Listening to God and Discerning God’s Will, and Following God in the Manner of St. Francis.
Underneath these headings are countless subheadings and corresponding resources that can be customized to speak more directly to the pain points of individuals, families, and parish leaders. Some of this content will remain free to use. But we also want to customize and package our content in ways that support the rebuilding of families and parishes and help us to be more sustainable as an organization.
The Church must be missionary at its core—going where people are, living among them, and sharing the good news of the Gospel message through word and witness. While it used to be the thinking that missionary work was something that took place in a far-off country, the mission fields of today also include Catholic parishes and homes. Franciscan Media wants to be present at these missionary outposts, bringing the care, love, and hope that come with opening oneself up to a radical surrender to God’s love à la St. Francis.
Please pray for us, and know that we are praying for you!
I delve even further into this important theme in my interview with Thank God for Monday. Listen below.
