IMAGE: CNS photo/Cindy Black
By Carol Zimmermann
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Cindy Black’s copy of “Evangelii
Gaudium” — Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation on the church’s mission to
evangelize the modern world — is worn from use, marked up and with notes in
it.
Black,
executive director of Redeemer Radio, a Catholic radio station based in Fort
Wayne, Indiana, said she is inspired overall by the 2013 text, which she
considers a guide, but one sentence particularly stops her in her tracks.
The
line, from paragraph 49 reads: “If something should rightly disturb us and
trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so many of our brothers and
sisters are living without the strength, light and consolation born of
friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith to support them,
without meaning and a goal in life.”
That
quote, for her, sums up why Catholics need to share their faith and it has been
her own motivation in recent years. She also takes to heart a message Capuchin
Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the papal household, said years ago in
a homily about the parable of the lost sheep. He suggested viewing the parable
differently when thinking about the modern church — not that a shepherd leaves
his flock of 99 sheep to find the one that is lost but that 99 sheep are lost
and one remains.
“The
danger for us is to spend all our time nourishing this one remaining sheep and
not to have time — also because of the scarcity of clergy — to seek out those
who are lost. The contribution of the laity in this situation seems
providential,” he said in his Advent homily.
Black
said she tells “anyone who will listen” that story, emphasizing that Catholics
need to find some way to reach out beyond those already in the church which
requires re-thinking the way things are usually done.
Unpacking
more of what the pope is saying in “Evangelii Gaudium” or “Joy
of the Gospel” and gaining a deeper understanding of how Catholics can effectively
evangelize in the modern word is something Black hopes to gain during the
“Convocation of Catholic Leaders: The Joy of the Gospel in America”
in Orlando, Florida, July 1-4.
The
Fort Wayne native and mother of two is attending the convocation, sponsored by
the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, with a delegation from the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. In a June 5 interview with Catholic News Service, she said she hopes
delegates are “open to the Holy Spirit” and willing to be reinvigorated
in their mission.
She has
been to enough conferences over the years in her work at the Indiana diocese
in adult faith formation, youth ministry and evangelization offices to wonder:
“How many times can we strengthen the same people over and over?”
She
hopes the convocation will not be so much about making the 3,000 delegates
stronger in their faith but equipping them to go back and enliven their
parishes and ministries and reach out to those no longer in the church, especially
young adults.
At Redeemer
Radio, where she has worked for a year and a half, in her work in diocesan
ministries for about a decade and anecdotally among friends and parishioners, Black
often has had people ask her for prayers for their grown sons or daughters who
no longer go to church.
This is
not an isolated trend either. She points out that the church has an 85 percent
attrition rate for young adults, adding that it is no different for people who
attended Catholic schools, went on missions, or not. As she sees it, the church
needs to really face this fact and listen to these young people to find out
what prompted them to walk away. To reverse this trend, she said, church leaders
are going to have to make changes, take risks and try new things.
That’s
what Pope Francis is calling us to, she said, to go out not with the idea that
“we have the truth in the upper hand” but to recognize where
others are in their faith journey and to get them to a deeper relationship with
Jesus.
When
she applied for the job at the Catholic radio station, she was already
accustomed to reaching out beyond the parish walls. She said in her interview:
“If your goal is to pat the one (sheep) on the back, I’m not your
person.”
Instead,
she hoped to challenge the listener, those on the peripheries that just happen
to tune in, which is something she hopes will only be further reinforced at the
convocation.
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Follow
Zimmermann on Twitter: @carolmaczim.
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