It is probably not a surprise for me to admit that I do not agree with everything that Pope Francis (at least) appears to be doing. I will not go through a long list, but let me say just this much: whatever he personally believes, the Catholic Church's teaching on marriage, reception of communion, and sodomy does not, and cannot, change. That being said, the Holy Father has stated a few times, in different contexts, that he wants the entire Catholic Church to be more "outgoing" and open to Evangelism. I have to ask, however, after five years of his pontificate: are we? Or, have his efforts actually made us become even more inwardly focused than we were before? It is sad to say, but I think that is exactly what has happened.
No pastor can say things as confusing as he has (and give virtually no helpful clarification) without expecting people to begin to fixate on the Church itself, and ask "what in the world are we doing?" The end result is we think less about reaching out to those who do not know Christ (somewhat like not wanting to invite guests over to the house when the whole place is sloppy and dirty!) and more about our own identity. This can lead to a good deal of self-focus that prevents us from proper evangelism.
Yet, even with saying that, I think that we may find that there is actually a good effect. As we see many times in the Scriptures, God is able to take the worst of events and turn them into good things that end up revealing His glory. In other words, I am saying that we should consider our evangelistic efforts less as a specific planned event, and more as the natural outgrowth of who we are. If we plan something while we are confused, we can make confused plans. If, however, we grow in our faith and are able to live it out better, then we are naturally better evangelists in whatever state of life we are called to.
As I mentioned in my last post, we are supposed to evangelize "by example" more than by "argumentation" (though sometimes it is good and necessary to make a cogent and logical argument to refute foolish thinking--which can be a wonderful example that we as Catholics know how to think, and are not just "dumb sheep"). With that said, we should realize that much of that example should be more an issue of living out the Catholic faith naturally. It should be just as natural to acknowledge our Lord in public as it is in private. Is it possible that people will stare? Yes, that might happen--but having people see our faith is the goal, is it not?
As many people today struggle with their faith, and are having difficulty with various temptations, it seems that "just living as Catholics" is more of a challenge than in years past. When our faith is challenged, though, we can take advantage of it and do the work to deepen our understanding of it. The result will be that we know who we are, what we believe, and how to live, more than we did before. Therefore, we will find ourselves to be evangelizing merely by being good Catholics. In this way, we can say that it is almost easier to evangelize in the Catholic manner than in the protestant manner; because it is something that is supposed to flow right out of who we are as God's servants.
So as the Holy Father has caused many of us with a traditional mindset to look more closely at our faith, we could say that he has caused us to be "less evangelistic". The long term result, however, would clearly be that we would become better at living out the gospel, and thus better at showing it to others naturally (I give credit for this idea to Ross Douthat who makes the point in his profound book on Pope Francis, "To Change the Church"). Therefore, living as good Catholics--e.g. observing a clear Friday fast throughout the year, praying in public, controlling our tongues, saying no to pagan music and corrupt movies, etc.--is how we evangelize more than any other way. So live your faith, and live it clearly and openly (regardless of society's rejection of it) and you will be preaching the gospel to those around you; likely without even thinking about it.
