“Pastoral Problems of the Family in the Context of the New Evangelization.”: the real solution is evangelization, and holiness.

The Family Crisis and Evangelization

BY ERIC JOHNSTON

On the flight home from the Holy Land, a journalist asked Pope Francis the running question, “What is going to happen with communion to the divorced and remarried?”

Francis responded, “The Synod will be on the family, the problems of the family, the treasures of the family, the present situation of the family…. I have not been happy that so many people—even church people, priests—have said: ‘Ah, the Synod will be about giving communion to the divorced.’ … No, the issue is bigger and wider. Today, as we all know, the family is in crisis, it is in crisis worldwide…. Marriage is in crisis, and so the family is in crisis.”

He went on to explain that the original title for these Synods was, “What Jesus Christ brings to contemporary men and women and to the family,” from which we got the final title, “Pastoral Problems of the Family in the Context of the New Evangelization.” “Annulments, all of this,” will be part of the discussion, said the Pope, “but as part of a larger picture.”

To help us think about that larger picture, let us think about three things people mean when they speak of “the New Evangelization,” and how those inform a bigger response to the marriage crisis.

• New Evangelization Means Reaching People Creatively ....
• New Evangelization Means Re-evangelizing Christians ....
• New Evangelization Means Taking Evangelization Seriously ,,,,

........................
Read more: www.crisismagazine.com