A Plan for Evangelization

Go and Make Disciples!

Growing in Our Faith: All of us are becoming better disciples as we grow in our personal relationship with the Lord in the Community of the Catholic Church.
Sharing Our Faith: Welcome and invite others to learn about and share in the Catholic Faith and encounter Jesus Christ in the sacraments.
Making the World a Better Place: Change society with the power of the Gospel as Disciples in Mission.

This is how all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another (John 13:35).

My Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Evangelization is a word that scares most Catholics. For some, it is a Protestant word. This is understandable because for centuries the word fell into disuse within the Catholic Church. However, Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II recovered this ancient word and placed it at the center of their teaching. Why? Because no other word more faithfully captures the meaning of the central mission of the Church for all ages.

Evangelization comes from the Greek word, euangelizo, which means “bringing the Good News of salvation.” Jesus life, death and resurrection is the “good news” (Mark 1:1). Saint Paul used the word to refer to the ministry and mission of Jesus. The early Church, including the Early Church Fathers, used the word often in their writings. All of us, by virtue of our Baptism are called to evangelize. The Great Commission of Jesus, “Go and make disciples . . . ” has the same force today as it did two thousand years ago.

For Catholics, the deepest encounter with the Risen Christ is found in our Liturgy. We celebrate and preach a Eucharistic Lord, a Jesus who always comes with and through His People, the Church. We become communion and thus a Eucharistic people. Since Jesus never comes alone, each Catholic evangelizer sees his or her evangelizing work as part of the mission first given to the apostles and still directed by their successors, the bishops.

Pope Paul VI defined evangelization in this broader sense when he wrote that “evangelization is bringing the Good News into every human situation, and through its influence, transforming humanity from within and making it new.”

At my direction and under the aegis of the Archdiocesan Office of Evangelization under the direction of Dr. Peter J. Zografos and in consultation with the Archdiocesan Evangelization Commission this brochure was designed to help you gain a better understanding of evangelization. May God bless each of you with a faith that burns with the fire of his love for you.

I remain yours in Christ and Mary,

Most Reverend Roger L. Schwietz, O.M.I.
Archbishop of Anchorage