Blessed James Alberione and "The Joy of the Gospel"

How fitting it is that on this feast of Blessed James Alberione, founder of the worldwide evangelizing network known as the Pauline Family, we receive Pope Francis' new document, "The Joy of the Gospel"! The document is the Pope's way of concluding the last Synod of Bishops (o the New Evangelization); is it also the first stage of the next assembly--the Extraordinary Synod on proclaiming the Gospel in the face of extreme challenges facing family life today?

When Father James Alberione was beatified (2003), the Paulines received this message* from then-Cardinal Bergoglio, who was well acquainted with the Paulines of Argentina:

"When I returned from Rome I joyfully received your note telling me that you were celebrating the
beatification of Father James Alberione, founder of the Pauline Family, that will take place on the 27th of this month. I warmly thank you for your kindness and I unite myself with all my heart to this significant ecclesial event. As I already told you in the audience that we had, now we count on a new model and intercessor of singular virtues who has contributed so much to announcing the Gospel with the means of communication. I avail myself on this occasion to thank you and all the members of Blessed Alberione family, for the efficient and dedicated pastoral work that you do for the good of the Church, particularly in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, Argentina."

*Translated from Spanish by Sr. Mary Stephen and Sr. Mary Thecla

What's new about the new evangelization? UPDATED

I'm preparing the conferences for the First Saturday retreat in St Paul; my topic deals with the "New Evangelization," so that has been the filter for much of my spiritual reading lately. Pope John Paul introduced this expression during his visit to Haiti in 1983 (the year I made final vows!), although Blessed James Alberione had kind of hinted at it back in 1926 or thereabouts when he remarked, "The world is in need of a new, prolonged and profound evangelization."

Pope John Paul listed three attributes of the New Evangelization, that second wave of effective proclamation of Jesus Christ: It is to be new in its ardor, in its methods and in its expression. I think it is age to say that just as Blessed James "incarnated" the qualities of "new, prolonged and profound" evangelization in his long life in the use of media, Pope John Paul showed us what the "new ardor, methods and expression" look like in his.

What I have noticed, though, is that any "new expression" tends to make people nervous in a way that "ardor" and "methods" do not. A new expression takes the treasure of Divine Revelation and puts it in an unexpected framework, perhaps using a different vocabulary than one might find in, say, the words used to formulate the dogma itself centuries ago. Instead of seeing the same Divine Revelation, people can fixate on the novel terminology. Wasn't the old expression good enough? And so you find efforts to tell the Good News that are hampered by technical language instead of "translating" the ever-ancient, ever-new reality into words or images that mean something to the uninitiated, or criticisms by an in-group, based not on the way a message would be perceived by someone with no background in theological language, but on how consistent the expression is with earlier, "approved" expressions. It's a pretty big risk to take on "new expressions" of the Gospel!

But the New Evangelization isn't just about words! New "expressions" in our day can especially mean giving a new visual expression to the message of Jesus. The good news about the New Evangelization is that young, ardent Catholics are naturally taking it up! You'll find it in unexpected forms--a book trailer, a "spoken word" video, a heart that knows how to sing!

The book trailer expression

The spoken word (with witness) expression