The Deacon and the New Evangelization Today

Reverend Frank DeSiano, C.S.P.

One of the new elements in the New Evangelization is, of course, how every baptized person
should come to see themselves as an evangelizer. Although the Church has been saying this for
almost 40 years, Catholics, by and large, see evangelization as something that belongs to
experts, not something they can do in daily life.
For this reason, deacons can have a special role in the New Evangelization, arising from their
hybrid character as being both clergy and perceived lay people. Although misperceptions
about their state must drive deacons crazy, there still can be a distinct benefit. Precisely
because deacons are often misconstrued as lay persons, deacons can play a pivotal role in
helping all Catholics see a place for themselves in the evangelizing ministry of the Church
inviting, sharing, welcoming, and witnessing.
How might the recent Synod on the New Evangelization challenge deacons in a particular
way? Consider two dimensions: (a) leading outreach to Catholics disconnected from their
faith; and (b) understanding the larger cultural issues that deacons can address in their teaching
and preaching.
Outreach to Disconnected Catholics
Even the most successful Catholic parish reaches only 40% of their registered parishioners on
a regular basis. This means that 60% of Catholics have only casual, or else no, involvement
with their parish. These disconnected Catholics tend to be young adults (the postConfirmation crowd) and young families. Deacons can bring to a parish community a distinct
voice that calls awareness to this broader, dormant Catholic community.
One of the obvious ways to do this is through the ministry of preaching. In each of the Gospel
cycles, but particularly in Lukes, we have strong images of people who are disconnected,
people whom Jesus touches. Mark gives us the paralytic (2:1- 12), Matthew gives us Levi (9:9)
and the Canaanite Woman (15:21-28), Luke gives us a spate of powerful images: the lost sheep
(15:3-7), the Prodigal Son (15:11- 32), the Good Thief (23:39-43). Deacons can connect their
congregation to these overt images of compassion and liberation by tying them to the ways we
invite and welcome people to our parishes.
Part of the deacons burden in these sermons revolves around creating images that bring absent
Catholics to mind, without demonizing them or condemning them. Deacons can present these
disconnected Catholics as our friends, neighbors, fellowtravelers, often with a residual

Catholic identity that can be built upon.

Work to foster a ministry that looks less like Catholics reaching out to them, and much more
like Catholics reaching out to ourselves.
Deacons can also lead these ministries in the parish. Several designs for reaching inactive
Catholics have been developed such as (www.paulist.org/landings; www.
catholicsreturninghome.org; and www. awakeningfaith.org), and parishes can adapt these
programs to their specific local needs. These ministries bring tremendous consolation, but
finding people to lead them often seems difficult for parishes.
Deacons can fill in an important gap.
Wider Cultural Issues
The distinct pressures of the culture in which we are living today, particularly in Europe and
the United States, have created a new situation for the Church, one in which traditional forms
of sharing faith no longer seem effective, hence the New Evangelization. Deacons can also
have a special role to play in the wider cultural issues that attend this New Evangelization.
Some of the preparatory documents for the Synod on the New Evangelization tried to outline
this cultural issuepointing to a change in the mentality of modern people, one that closes off
a needed openness to God and transcendence. Individuals have grown inured to their need for
salvation and the fullness that relationship with God can bring to them. People have truncated
images of themselves which make God, and the things of God, seem incidental or
inconvenient.
Because of their lives among the people, deacons can tell their story of faith in a way that
makes stories of faith seem credible to people today. Deacons can lead people from their
ordinary, family experiences into a dimension which makes God more accessiblemore
apparent to modern people. Bring your own struggles to live faithfully to the pulpit and the
classroom, to home visitations and nursing homes, to mens clubs and co-workers, showing
how the quest for God is part of all human experience, even modern experience.
As this article was being written, those preparing for the Synod were developing themes
centered on a working document, the instrumentum laboris, which offered reflection on how
our Catholic Faith brings an important perspective to certain areas of life, certain sectors of
culture. Through reflection and prayer, what Catholics can bring to modern life in these areas
becomes clearer. Deacons can bring more clarity to these areas in the various forms of your
ministries of Word and charity.
Saeculum. This term refers to the actual world in which believers and non-believers have

regular interchange today. It is a neutral term (the word secular can have a negative
meaning).
What does faith have to bring to the saeculum today? Is it not the case that faith helps the
world know its own value, that faith can give the world a vision by which to live and work, one
that cannot come in any other way? How do we articulate this in our ministries?
The Social Sector. The great movement of people has changed the social reality of our lives,
particularly migration and the uprooting of people from their native localesand often their
inherited faith identities. Deacons can help sensitize parishioners to newcomers, connect
parishes to parishes in other cultures, give leadership in parish initiatives welcoming
immigrant neighbors to the parish, and underline the alienation many people feel because of
geographic dislocation.
The Economy. This sector refers to the way modern people have come to think primarily in
economic terms, but also how elusive the economy can be in creating justice for people. What
does the Gospel have to say to the growing divisions between rich and poor, between richer
nations and poorer nations? How does the Gospel free us from a blind reliance on economic
motives to a more enlightened sense of an economics based in solidarity? Deacons can give
powerful voice to the divisions and how faith can help us overcome them.
Civic Life. The working document talks here about the massive shift from a world torn apart
by Communism only 40 years ago, to a world at risk of global conflict with Islam. Deacons
can reflect on why we always seem to have enemies, why we see others as alien to ourselves,
of how we are challenged to see Gods compassion in every situation. More particularly,
deacons can do some research on Islam, noting the ways in which its values and ideals have
some affinity with Catholicism, and urging a basic under- standing of Islam. After all, look at
how misunderstood Catholics have been in American history. Is not Islam in danger of similar
shabby treatment? How do we see Islam as a potential ally?
Scientific Research and Technology. While there is danger that these can become new idols,
even perceived as offering salvation to humakind, how can deacons urge a true dialogue with
science, and a proper use of technology, one in proportion to the other values of life? If science
has become the seeming universal answer to human ills, what are the ways in which the
deepest ailments of human life remain untouched, and untouchable, by science?
Deacons can help people see how science helps to open humankind to wonder and, at root,
does not conflict with faith. Deacons can also offer courses that show the place of technology
in modern life, particularly in the sharing of faith.
Communications. This sector refers to the way that the various forms of media have become

virtual modes of modern thinking. Deacons can explore the effect this has on the way humans
think about themselves and the way they end up treating others.
Deacons can help congregations be both appreciative, and critical, of media, particularly the
more extreme and polarizing forms of modern media. Deacons can help people clarify their
attitude toward the use of media through a more profound faith perspective.
There will be much discussion about the New Evangelization in the coming years.
You, as deacons, have the opportunity to help the Church be a community of disciples,
reaching out to those who are disconnected, and engaging modern people in a modern world.