On October 11, 2011 Pope Benedict XVI issued a Motu Proprio Porta Fidei calling Catholics to a Year of Faith from October 11, 2012 to the Feast of Christ the King, November 24, 2013. His mission was that Catholics would focus on deepening their Faith so that their daily lives would reflect their relationship with Jesus Christ.
Our Holy Father envisioned all Catholics would appreciate this opportunity and take advantage of it as being of fundamental significance in our lives. Thus, he called upon the Church, on inter-
national, national and diocesan levels to offer initiatives that the faithful could avail themselves of to assist them in coming to an even deeper appreciation of and understanding of their Faith, thereby better able to live life as believers in God, in the Church and in the world.
Benedict XVI encouraged believers to also take personal responsibility through worship, prayer and study and reflection to grow in their faith. He further envisioned that this effort during the Year of Faith would strive to reach out to inactive Catholics, and alienated Catholics with the hope that through God?s grace and the welcoming of individual dioceses and parishes, brothers and sisters who are not presently with us might upon reflection and consideration find their way back to the Church.
There are many initiatives in our own diocese that have happened, are in the process of happening, and are being planned. From reports I have received many people have had positive feelings about what they have experienced. We need to continue to push on to the end of the Year of Faith--and to beyond its formal ending, November 24 of this year.
Earlier this week I met with a committee of people to begin framing what we as a diocese would be looking to incorporate into our Catholic life throughout our eight county diocese. Working to enliven the living of our relationship with Jesus Christ cannot just cease--it cries out for the Faithful person to continue on as we are all on a journey leading, God willing, to an ever-deepening relationship which would translate into our relationship with people being more and more Christ-like. As we go forward I will keep you informed as to what will be happening after November 24, 2013.
The last point I wish to leave you with addresses the relationship between the Year of Faith and the New Evangelization. Pope Benedict clearly saw a relationship between the two. In addition to the emphasis of the Year of Faith embracing Catholics and Catholics who presently are not active in their Church participation, he foresaw Catholics who strengthened their Faith and their relationship with Jesus Christ as being credible witnesses to non-Catholics as evangelists in obedience to Jesus? Mission ?Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.? Matt 28:19
Being evangelists is really not an option for the true believer--rather, it is a significant part of a believer?s very lifestyle. The Apostle Paul states it very well in his letter to the Romans wherein he says: ?Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach?? The answer to the last question Paul raises about the one who is to preach is, of course, you and me by word and by example of our living our relationship with Jesus Christ daily. If you experience hesitation about this response, please consider ?If not me, then who will proclaim the Gospel? If not now, then when will the Gospel be proclaimed? If not the truth of the Gospel, then what shall I proclaim??
Recall Jesus said, ?I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.? May each of us, may all of us live the Year of Faith so that all of us will be proclaimers of the Faith of the Church to one and to all.
(The above column by Most Reverend Richard Lennon, Bishop of Cleveland originally appeared in the Friday, April 26, 2013 issue of the Catholic Universe Bulletin, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Cleveland.)