Roman Catholics are forming Bible studies, being born again, and sending out traveling evangelists…What’s going on?

Archive: Here Come the Catholic Evangelicals

by Nick Cavnar

Some months ago I attended a meeting of church renewal leaders representing several denominations. The only Roman Catholic present, I listened as evangelical and charismatic leaders from the Methodists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and United Church of Christ spoke of their struggles to bring renewal to the churches. I was moved by the commitment I heard in their voices, moved also by the sense of common purpose that united us despite our many differences. But when it came my turn to speak about renewal in the Catholic Church, I found myself in a quandary. For how can any one person hope to sum up the course of Catholic renewal?

When the Second Vatican Council opened in 1962, it set renewal as the official agenda for the entire Catholic Church. Pope John XXIII, who called the council, encouraged the highest possible expectations when he said, “It will be a new Pentecost indeed, which will cause the church to renew her interior riches.” By the time the council closed in 1966, it had opened every facet of Catholic life for renewal and change.

Today, 20 years after Vatican II, renewal remains the rallying cry of the Catholic community. Liberal theologians claim the mantle of renewal as they pick apart traditional morality and basic doctrine. Traditionalists calling for return of the Latin mass also peak of renewal—authentic renewal, they say. Catholics have liturgical renewal, charismatic renewal, parish renewal, marriage renewal, the renewal of Biblical studies, renewal through social action, renewal in religious orders—to name only a few varieties. One popular parish program sums up the present climate by just calling itself “Renew.”

I would not dare claim to identify the Catholic renewal movement from among so many claimants. Yet, among the many, sometimes conflicting cries of renewal, I do hear certain voices that—to my ear, at least—blend together. What is more, they resonate with what I hear from Protestant leaders of evangelical renewal. Indeed, I believe this particular strain of Catholic renewal could eventually prove as significant for evangelicals as for Catholics, for it can really be called Roman Catholic evangelicalism.

On the face of it Catholic evangelicalism seems a contradiction in terms. Within many denominations the evangelical or low-church wing represents the opposite pole from the catholic, high-church types. Within the wider Christian body no gulf has been deeper than that dividing evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics. Many evangelicals do not even consider the Catholic Church to be Christian, while Catholics generally dismiss evangelicals as benighted fundamentalists.

Yet, today you can find people throughout the Catholic Church whose faith can only be called evangelical. These Catholic evangelical emphasize conversion to Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior; indeed, many will point to a specific moment when they “came to the Lord.” They look to the Bible as their basic rule and guide for living. They evangelize others and believe evangelism should be the first priority for the church. You can even find traveling Catholic lay evangelists who sound like Baptists on the revival circuit.

Like their Protestant counterparts, Catholic evangelicals also generally stand on the conservative side of debates over basic Christian doctrine, morality, and social policy. Yet not every conservative Catholic could be called an evangelical. It is something in one’s basic approach to faith—specifically the emphasis on personal conversion, the Bible, and evangelism—that I consider the hallmark of Catholic evangelicalism.

Much of this new evangelicalism traces its roots back to the Catholic charismatic renewal. The charismatic movement swept through the Catholic Church in the United States like wildfire during the 1970s. According to some polls, as many as 8 million Catholics attended at least one charismatic prayer meeting. Today the renewal has lost some of the early momentum, yet it remains the largest lay movement in the Catholic Church.

In the Catholic charismatic renewal, tongues-speaking and other gifts never became a major issue in themselves as often happened among Protestants. For one thing, there was never much controversy over these gifts; Catholic theology had always accepted miracles and mystical phenomena. What amazed Catholics was not that charismatics spoke in tongues, but that they talked about God as if they knew Him personally.

Traveling evangelists

Personal conversion and a personal relationship with Jesus quickly became the major focus of the Catholic charismatic message. Today a whole new movement of Catholic lay evangelism has appeared as an outgrowth of the renewal, with evangelists who travel from parish to parish around the country speaking to Catholics about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Other Catholic lay movements have also emphasized evangelism and personal commitment. The Cursillo movement, which originated in Spain, centers upon a special retreat designed to lead people to a conversion to Jesus. Twenty years ago my older brother sent our staunchly Catholic parents into shock when he came home from his sophomore year at Notre Dame saying he had met Christ for the first time on a Cursillo. Focolare, Marriage Encounter, the neocatechumanate, even the Legion of Mary—these and other Catholic movements all brought something of an evangelical spirit to their participants.

At the same time, Catholics have also had more contact than ever before with Protestant evangelical and charismatic ministries. The 1970s was the “born-again” decade, when evangelicalism rose to national prominence. With the greater ecumenical openness created by Vatican II, more Catholics felt free to read Protestant books, listen to Protestant preachers, attend Protestant revivals. Who knows how many Catholic evangelicals made their commitment to Christ at a Billy Graham crusade or prayed the sinner’s prayer with Pat Robertson of the 700 Club?

Yet, some observers question just how many Catholics have been touched by all this evangelical ferment, and it is probably true that they remain a small minority within the total Catholic Church. For example, the Gallup polls indicate that very few Catholics practice an evangelical-style faith. Only 6 percent of American Catholics say they evangelize others, compared with 15 percent or Protestants. Only 7 percent of Catholics say they read the Bible daily, compared to 21 percent or all Protestants and 48 percent of evangelicals.

Small minorities can have influence far beyond their numbers, however. And one reason I believe the new Catholic evangelicalism will have a growing influence and impact on church renewal is that I hear it echoed at some of the highest levels of the church.

Since the Vatican Council there has been a growing awareness in the Catholic hierarchy that the church’s strategy for Christian formation no longer works. Catholics had always put their main focus simply on getting people into the church. As long as you had gone through the sacraments and some basic doctrinal instruction, the depth of your personal conversion was rarely questioned. People were catechized and sacramentalized, but often never evangelized.

In other times and places, where the church could count on a strong surrounding Catholic culture, this strategy worked quite well. People grew up in an atmosphere that encouraged and fostered faith in Christ; they did not necessarily need a more deliberate evangelism. But in today’s highly secularized society, the old system has broken down. The turbulent 1960s and ’70s, when young people in particular deserted the church in droves, forced the Catholic hierarchy to admit that many who had gone through years of catechesis and all the sacraments had nevertheless failed to develop a deep personal faith.

Consequently, the Catholic hierarchy is placing more emphasis on personal conversion and on evangelism. The late Pope Paul VI issued an encyclical letter “On Evangelization in the Modern World” that declared, “the church must evangelize herself by a constant conversion and renewal if she is convincingly to evangelize the world.”

Pope John Paul II, especially, has emerged as a force for evangelical renewal in Catholicism. His first encyclical letter focused on Christ as “the Redeemer of Man,” declaring that “the only direction for our intellect, will, and heart is toward Christ, the Redeemer of man, because there is salvation in no one but Him, the Son of God.”

In his travels throughout the world, Pope John Paul has constantly sounded the invitation, “Throw open your doors to Christ.” In statement after statement, he has emphasized that personal repentance and conversion are the key ingredients of church renewal, and he has specifically encouraged lay movements that focus on evangelism.

John Paul has appointed many bishops in the same mold. Here in the United States, the new Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston is one example. Cardinal Law has given his support to several key segments of what I call Catholic evangelicalism, and has shown great interest in fostering cooperation with Protestant evangelicals as well.

Moving into ministry

With the support of many other bishops like Bernard Law, Catholic evangelicals are now moving into a wide range of ministries within the church. Last year, for example. I attended a meeting in Florida to organize a new network of Catholic lay evangelists. The small group of perhaps 25 people represented a striking variety of ministries. Some were publishing tracts for Catholics, others were involved with a magazine called The Catholic Evangelist, others traveled the country to speak in Catholic parishes, others sponsored evangelistic retreats. There were ministries devoted to family life. ministries that served the poor, ministries that trained others to evangelize.

Small ministries of that type—and some not so small—are springing up among Catholics throughout the country. When you look to see who is behind them you always find the same people: Catholics who come from the charismatic renewal or a similar movement, Catholics who emphasize personal conversion, the Bible, and evangelism.

When you examine the more institutional church programs—the new permanent diaconate. for example, or the Renew parish program mentioned earlier—you find the same people involved. When you look at the fast-growing field of Catholic television, they are there again. And now even in Catholic seminaries. A recent study shows that some 30 percent of the seminarians were involved in a charismatic prayer group before entering seminary!

These developments in the Catholic Church convince me that the Catholic evangelical renewal is here to stay. I am not sure what will happen to some of the individual movements within it. The charismatic renewal. for example. shows some signs of entering a new stage of growth and other signs of continued decline. Yet, I believe we will see the continuing presence and influence of a Roman Catholic evangelicalism that emphasizes persona I conversion, personal commitment, and the preaching of the Gospel.

Protestant evangelicals are not always quite sure what to make of their counterparts in Roman Catholicism. Some evangelicals can accept the idea of a Roman Catholic becoming a born-again Christian, but don’t understand how a born-again Christian can remain a Roman Catholic. They may be glad to hear John Paul II proclaim. “Open the doors to Christ!” But they shake their heads when he calls for greater devotion to Mary or reasserts papal authority.

Clearly, the theological issues that divide Catholics and Protestants are still with us. Nor do they seem likely to vanish soon—even among those who consider themselves evangelicals. Nevertheless, I find among many Protestant evangelicals, especially those from the mainline denominations, a new sense of unity with Catholics based on the fundamental beliefs we do share.

The battles evangelicals face in the United Methodist Church or United Church of Christ have now shifted to those points which unite Catholics and Protestants rather than those that divide us—the nature of Christ, the inspiration of Scripture, the morality of homosexuality and abortion. As more than one Protestant leader has said to me. “I feel I have far more in common with sincere Catholics who believe that Jesus is the Son of God, believe in the Virgin Birth. and believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. than with some liberals in my own denomination who don’t seem to believe in much of anything.” The appearance of a Catholic evangelicalism can only serve to increase this sense of unity.

Yes, Catholic evangelicals remain convinced Catholics, who fully accept Marian devotion, the mass, papal infallibility, and all the other doctrines of their church. But because they also share the evangelical desire for a truly Scriptural, Christ-centered faith, these Catholics are concerned to understand and express their beliefs in Biblical terms that may, in the long run, prove more comprehensible to Protestants.

Even then we are unlikely to find ourselves anywhere near agreement, but we may at least better understand each other’s positions. And possibly, in the light of that understanding, some of our barriers will prove smaller than we have thought.

It may seem self-serving for me to say it, but I believe Protestant evangelicals have every reason to welcome the appearance of a Catholic evangelical renewal. An evangelically revitalized Catholicism could prove a powerful ally in our common struggle against secularism within and without the Church. But more importantly, Catholic evangelicalism offers hope for a Christian unity based not on a watering down of our deepest convictions, but on a common faith in the one Savior, Jesus Christ.

Nick Cavnar is the executive editor of New Covenant, the magazine of The Catholic charismatic renewal. Residing in Ann Arbor, Michigan, he is also a freelance writer and has been published in God’s Word Today, Catholic Digest, and Charisma.