Knights of Columbus, FOCUS leaders offer comments at synod

October 29, 2012

Two American auditors at the Synod of Bishops, Carl Anderson and Curtis Martin, offered interventions during the synod’s proceedings on October 26.

“The Christian family is essentially missionary,” said Anderson, the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus. “But its mission--which flows from its being--is far greater than any external activities of evangelization, social or political reform to which Christian families commit themselves. These activities truly bear fruit when they flow from the foundational mission that places the family founded upon sacramental marriage at the heart of the very mission of the Church. In the words of John Paul II, ‘the family has the mission to guard, reveal and communicate love’--the love that is a reflection of the Trinitarian communion and that shares in ‘God’s love for humanity.’”

“The Catholic laity must accept their co-responsibility to evangelize,” said Martin, founder and president of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS). “In my work with university students we have used a simple three-step process to form disciples: Win, Build, Send.”

He added:

1 - Win: We, who have encountered Jesus, go out and love people, because Christ first loved us. In the midst of our friendships with them, we introduce them to our greatest friend, Jesus.

2 - Build: Once they have encountered Jesus, we build them up in the knowledge and practice of the faith. There is a crisis of faith and many Catholics have not embraced the teachings of the Church, they do not know that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist, or of the inerrancy of Sacred Scripture. They have not accepted the difficult teachings, such as Humanae Vitae; without the fullness of Catholic faith, authentic renewal is impossible. We must be transformed.

3 - Send: As these young disciples grow in their practice of the faith, they are sent out, with our continued care, to begin the process anew. Holiness will take a lifetime, but the work of evangelization can begin shortly after an authentic encounter with Jesus; think of the Samaritan woman at the well.

 

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Further information:

• Bulletin of the Synod of Bishops No. 29