EVANGELIZATION PLAN

Evangelization, like catechesis, is foundational to a person’s faith journey. Without evangelization, catechetical instruction becomes detached from lived faith. Evangelization therefore, could be described as simply passing on the faith to others for the good of all. The rapidly growing number of fallen away Catholics and the increasing population of the unchurched in our midst reveals that we are not evangelizing as well as we should.

In the Lenten Listening Sessions of 2006, a repeated concern that surfaced was “Our parishes need to feed our people.” Additionally, we heard frequently that parishes and their staff members are looking for resources and support from the Diocese in their efforts at evangelization outreach and faith formation. Keeping this in mind, the Office for Evangelization and Faith Formation will, in addition to its other endeavors, develop a Diocesan Plan for Evangelization based on the USCCB document Go and Make Disciples.

This plan will reflect elements congruent with successful diocesan evangelization plans in other dioceses. A primary step that will help assure success in this effort will be to train diocesan staff and parish leadership teams to be evangelizers. Parish leadership teams will in turn lead their parish community members to be evangelizers as well.

The Diocese of Greensburg will use and benefit from modern media and technology (television, radio, and the Internet) to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. One of the goals of the Evangelization Plan is for the diocese to assist parishes in promoting news of local events, Web sites, and community outreach opportunities into a process and tool for evangelization. A final, yet major piece of the Evangelization Plan, will be the proactive evangelization of the community through time-honored techniques that involve personal contact, relationship building and home visitation.