CARITAS For Children, as a Catholic lay apostolate, consciously heeds the Church’s call to “make disciples of all nations” as it serves the needs of disadvantaged children through its child sponsorship programs. CARITAS does this even as other charitable organizations seem to be making efforts to conceal their Catholicism through name changes and the like.

But which is the “better” approach, really?  After all, we see signs of Catholicism’s decline nearly everywhere we look. Church closings, a shortage of priests and nuns, the “consolidation” of parishes, declining Mass attendance (especially among the young), scandal and corruption, and popular culture’s apathy and disrespect, are all symptoms of this unfortunate state of affairs.

Sister Lydia, who is one of four sisters who help to run Providence Home, a residence and care facility for disabled children and adults in Nkokonjeru, Uganda, grades students' assignments while sitting outside on a Thursday evening. The Little Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi have no shortage of young women entering their order. They have more sisters than they have funds to educate.

So what can your typical busy Catholic do to help reverse this negative trend? The task seems overwhelming but, over the last several decades, the last few popes have begun to develop a proactive strategy called the “New Evangelization.” Pope Saint John Paul II first spoke of it in 1979, calling for a New Evangelization that, while remaining the same in substance, was “new in zeal, new in method, and new in expression.”

So, how important is evangelization to the mission of the Church? Pope Paul VI taught that the Church “exists in order to evangelize,” and Pope Francis has stated: “Every Christian is challenged, here and now, to be actively engaged in evangelization.” But for many Catholics, the thought of evangelizing in a pluralistic society brings to mind carrying little booklets and straining relations with friends and family. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, however, warned us not to confuse the New Evangelization with proselytism. Echoing this, Pope Francis has said that the Church “does not grow by means of proselytizing,” but “by attraction, by witnessing, by preaching.”

So, with the New Evangelization comes a new emphasis on, as Pope Francis puts it, building bridges and not walls (the Latin title for the Pope is Pontifex Maximus, which means “bridge builder”). In the prevailing cultural landscape, squabbling with a Mormon co-worker over the doctrine of the Trinity is building a wall. Leading a life attractive to others in its abundance of charity and love, on the other hand, builds any number of bridges. Pope Francis clearly recommends the latter approach as the better way.

Along with a new emphasis on bridges instead of walls, what other kinds of changes does the New Evangelization envision? Our next blog post will answer that question, and examine how CARITAS For Children can help Catholics grow into the new evangelical role the Church envisions for its flock.

Tim Hall is CARITAS For Children’s Regional Director of Church Outreach. Tim has a Master of Theology degree from Notre Dame.