Evangelising Martians

                          Ho, ho, ho! Has a special resonance in China

Some years ago I had to teach a class of English Language students in China, for a whole lesson.

I am not a teacher.

Class sizes in China average 65 to 75 pupils.
It was not something that I wished to do, it was thrust upon me but I did have time to prepare the lesson.

I had been at the school the previous day and seen the English Language materials they were using.

It was December and the teachers had prepared a programme based on the meaning of Christmas.
This involved printouts with stories about a jolly fat man, sacks of gifts, reindeer, elves and poor children.

It was quite a good storyline but it was not about the meaning of Christmas and so I set to that night in order to write the true meaning of Christmas so that I would have something that I could feel confident in the next day.

I found it surprisingly difficult.

 To tell the Christmas story alone and without any preface or follow through appeared to make a nonsense of the whole thing, I might just as well have stuck to the jolly fat man script.

In addition, my copy had to be simple and straightforward; my audience were not strong English speakers, I decided to pitch it at Year 6 level in UK terms, children of roughly eleven years of age.

Of course, the task was made harder by the fact that these children had never heard the name Jesus Christ, they knew nothing of Christianity or even that there was a Supreme Spirit who had made them in His own image and likeness and who had offered up the life of His Son in order that they might be saved.

In the end I finished with a single side of typed A4 paper, possibly a thousand or so words.

It covered Adam and Eve through to the birth of Christ and the Crucifixion and Resurrection. After all, the Nativity does not make sense without the Crucifixion and the Resurrection.

It was, I felt, (a little unhumbly), not bad for one thousand words.

I gave the lesson, quaking in my shoes and I might just as well have been expounding on the theory of relativity to a group of anteaters; I bombed spectacularly.

There was polite applause at the end and a lot of muttering which I understood to be along the lines of "What sort of rubbish was that big nose spouting about? Doesn't he know that Christmas is all about a jolly fat man who, for some strange reason, enters houses by going down the chimney?"

That experience has haunted me somewhat, especially in the light of various reports from our educational system that would give the impression that many British children (and adults) are just as ignorant about Christ and Christmas as those Chinese pupils.

How are we going to spread the good news to them?
And, if the little green men ever materialised today, how would we set about enlightening them with regard to things theological?

Just where do you start? I mean, if you are speaking to a non Catholic, whether they be Christian or atheist, you can be fairly certain that there is some background information that they hold on the subject.

That at least gives you some point of focus; but to be totally oblivious to the Almighty and the historical and spiritual elements involved, that is something else.

If anyone would like to venture a concise history of Christmas and its origins in 1,000 words or less (on their blogs) it would be interesting to compare styles and content.....perhaps, even, Mulier F might give marks out of ten.

It would also spur me on to finding the original that I presented all those years ago in China.

Teaching the great unwashed

It's difficult to know how to approach this subject; how to even refer to those Catholics who have either never known the doctrinal teachings of Holy Mother Church or those who have genuinely forgotten them.
My good friend Jason at Ascending Mount Carmel has a few interesting points to make on the subject.

This yawning gap of knowledge does need bridging and the Holy Father has instructed the troops to set about creating re-evangelisation programmes but, if this process is in the hands of the you know whos, don't expect anything too riveting, or immediate, or effective, or in line with Church teaching.

I have called them the great unwashed. I don't mean to be unkind; I could call them casual Catholics or CINOs or Modernists but "unwashed" says it all to me.

They are in need of help to get them back on the path to salvation, to retrieve them from the wilderness of the past 50 years, to clean them up so that their Faith sparkles as it should.

I have touched on this subject before and received many kind, positive comments, mainly by email.

I cannot help but believe that those Catholics who blog have a role to play in the re-evangelisation process - the trouble is, we are addressing a section of the community who know nothing of blogging and its global network.

How do we reach out?

One way is to produce a newsletter at regular intervals either carrying basic and brief items of current Catholic affairs or, indeed, carrying snippets from the Catholic blogging world.
This newsletter would then be made available online and those who have an interest in doing so would print it off and leave it at the back of their parish church (after first checking with their PP).

One commentator, whom I shall refer to as 'MC' as I do not know if he wishes his name to be revealed sent me the following message:

1. The way I see it is that 'the message' needs to go beyond those that read Catholic blogs. It seems to me that those who need to hear the message very rarely hear it.

2. There is a need for an antidote to The Tablet. We already have one it is called the Catholic Herald but once again the people who need to read it do not seem to be the ones that ever read it.

3. Who is the target audience?

• Those who are generally un-catechised.
• Those who love Catholicism but are embarrassed (due to the present climate) to go that step further i.e. the lady whom I mentioned who said that she was too embarrassed to ask for Holy water because she felt the priest would look at her as if she had gone mad. We need these people to be more confident and start talking openly about all aspects of Catholicism. We can encourage these people to be open about Catholicism once again. No more closet Catholics.
  
• Those 'fringe liberals' who can still be 'saved' if they had it properly explained to them why the rules of the Church are actually present.

4. A free monthly/bi-monthly one sided news letter would at least have some impact because:

• Catholics always pick up anything that is free (sad but true).
• If it is short then the chances are at least one article will be read - Long diatribes must be avoided.
• Copies could be distributed in the editors own Church (and further a field if they could afford to print more).

5. What is imperative?

• The headlines and the article must be pithy and get over the points of view within 2 sentences.

6. We need a network of enthusiastic Catholics who want to get the word out there.

• It seems to me that we already have a network of enthusiastic people, they are called bloggers and many have the same goals. Of course, not all will be interested but that does not mean that bloggers can not be approached. I am quite happy to contact bloggers up and down the country to drum up support. Even if we only get 10 to start with then this is still a start.

MC makes other points but these are the ones I would like to address first.

MC believes that this might be a series of individual efforts whereas, I think a corporate approach might be best. Say, 6 bloggers who produce a monthly item that is then incorporated into the overall newsletter and then carried as a post by X number of bloggers who then proceed to print it off and distribute.

MC has done some good groundwork here and produced a facsimile draft newsletter - I will post this shortly, meanwhile, please donate thoughts and comments and please remember, this is just one step.....others could follow - always eat the elephant slice by slice (old Pembrokeshire saying).

"Happiness, happiness....

....the greatest gift that I possess
I thank the Lord I've been blessed
With more than my share of Happiness!"

Ah, the old Ken Dodd song, so sugary sweet and so divorced from reality - but now according to Bishop Kieran Conry of Arundel & Brighton Diocese, that's what the Bishops of England and Wales are bringing to the programme aimed at getting lapsed Catholics to return to the faith.
H/T to Fr Z here who has a full report here

The plan is to tour the country with this born again Catholic Roadshow and give the troops a taste of life back in the fold. They will be told how frabjously tickled we are to be Catholic Diddymen; nothing about salvation, nothing about a deep and reverent approach to the worship of Almighty God, nothing about the Son of God, Supreme Sacrifice, suffering and humiliation, death on a cross of the common rapist, murderer and thief, zero about three days in the tomb and the resurrection, and nothing about the inestimable power of God's forgiveness......just a little share of happiness 'cos that's what we Catholics are...happy, happy, happy!

They might be more successful if they hired KD for the job!

In America, they have a different approach and it's one that does not patronise.

Just over a year ago Bishop Tobin of Providence Diocese, USA, made an impassioned plea for 'inactive' Catholics to come home; it struck a chord with me, it showed love and understanding and it was about the faith, here it is:

Just click here to read it in full.

If that doesn't bring people back, nothing will, not even Archbishop Nichols with a tickling stick!