As every day passes, I am more and more convinced of the need to proclaim the Good News of Jesus in our world of cultural and religious plurality - it's the greatest story ever told. In his recent Apostolic Exhortation "The Church in Europe" Pope John Paul II challenges us in these words: "Let the proclamation of Jesus, which is the Gospel of hope, be your boast and your whole life" (45). Why is he so insistent on the need to proclaim the Gospel - surely it's enough to live a good life, and set an example of honesty and integrity? Of course the way we live is an important witness, but in almost everything he says and writes the Pope makes it clear that more is needed - the Gospel has to be proclaimed.

There is to be a first proclamation: "In various parts of Europe a first proclamation of the Gospel is needed: the number of the unbaptised is growing, both because of the significant presence of immigrants of other religions and because children born into families of Christian tradition have not received Baptism, either as a result of the Communist domination or the spread of religious indifference" (Ecclesia in Europa 46).

But also a renewed proclamation: "Everywhere, then, a renewed proclamation is needed even for those already baptised. Many Europeans today think they know what Christianity is, yet they do not really know it at all. Often they are lacking in knowledge of the most basic elements and notions of the faith. Many of the baptised live as if Christ did not exist: the gestures and the signs of faith are repeated, especially in devotional practices, but they fail to correspond to a real acceptance of the content of the faith and fidelity to the person of Jesus" (Ecclesia in Europa 47).

"Living proclamation requires personal conviction in the speaker in a way that apologetics and theological explanations do not"

So it's not just a matter of introducing Jesus Christ to non-Christians, but also to some of those who are already baptised. The American Cardinal Avery Dulles explains the needs of the second group in another way: "Many Catholics are caught up in a sociological or traditional Catholicism, and seem never to have met the Lord. They know a certain amount about him from the teaching of the Church, but they lack direct, personal familiarity. They have never realised that the deepest identity of the Church is to proclaim the Gospel". Gospel" The problem is not new - it's always been possible to learn the teaching of the Church without ever meeting the Lord. This was my experience in the 1950s.

A number of prizes sit on my bookshelf bearing witness to the fact that at school I was good at R.E. Inside the front cover my name is written in Latin, Carolus Whitehead, just below the phrase "Meritus et Consecutus est". Actually the subject we were taught was described as Religious Doctrine, and important parts of our staple diet were the old Penny Catechism and "Apologetics and Catholic Doctrine" by the Most Reverend M. Sheehan, Archbishop of Germia. The introductory chapter to the book boldly states: "Apologetics is the science concerned with the defence of the Catholic religion. Its aim is to prove from reason the Divine Authority of the Catholic Church". So armed with this So armed with this Church" and my R.D. teacher's stock answer to any tricky question "Holy Mother Church teaches it boy, and that's the end of the matter!", with a pretty good grasp of Catholic Doctrine and able to answer every question asked by the Penny Catechism, I left school in 1961 and headed for Durham University to read history. In my suitcase I carefully packed my well-worn Latin and English Missal (we used to attend Mass daily, as well as morning and night prayers), the faithful Penny Catechism, and the good Archbishop's Apologetics. No-one was going to catch me out with a tricky question about my Catholic faith!

At Durham I was fascinated by the freedom and excitement of University life in the 1960s, and set about enjoying myself and trying new things. Most of the friends I made knew very little about the Catholic Church, and did not find Archbishop Sheehan's arguments particularly interesting! I went to the Catholic Society once or twice, but found the people and the meetings boring, so I joined the CND, took part in protests and sit-ins, and campaigned for the Labour party in the local and then the General Elections. In all of this, I soon discovered that whilst I had an excellent grasp of Catholic doctrine, I was singularly lacking in passion and enthusiasm for it. I became much more interested in politics, Bridge, and Snooker than in my Catholic faith, and the inevitable occurred - I stopped going to Sunday Mass. At the time it just seemed unimportant - part of my past but not of the present. I wondered why, but didn't have the interest to look for the answer - it was to be 12 years before I discovered the truth.

I had been catechised and sacramentalised, but not evangelised. I had never said a clear and unequivocal "yes" to Jesus and his Holy Spirit

So what was missing when I left school in 1961 with a good Catholic education and all my R.D. prizes? The answer is simple - we have already seen it identified by Pope John Paul and Cardinal Dulles. I had never realised that Jesus Christ is central to our faith, and that he was inviting me into a personal, living relationship with him. I had been catechised and sacramentalised, but not evangelised. I had never said a clear and unequivocal "yes" to Jesus and his Holy Spirit - I didn't know I was supposed to do these two things. So when I was baptised in the Holy Spirit in 1974, the scales fell from my eyes and everything began to make sense. Now I am grateful to my teachers, to the Penny Catechism, to Archbishop Sheehan - everything I learned then is of enormous value to me today, but how I wish someone had also proclaimed to me the central truth of the Gospel. What is that truth? That Jesus Christ came, died, rose, and ascended; that because of this, sins are forgiven. It's all about a person, the incarnate word of God, and not just about doctrines and being able to answer questions. Education is important, but it is not the answer for the large numbers falling away from the faith. We do not come to faith through learning the catechism and apologetics - we come to faith when we respond to the proclamation of a lifechanging event. In the absence of this proclamation our congregations will continue to diminish.

Whilst proclamation is the spark that starts the fire in our hearts, other things are also important. First, repentance and then discipleship. In Mark 1:14-15 we find Jesus proclaiming the Good News from God: "The time has come", he said, "and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News". He's giving us an invitation, He's giving us an invitation, News" and to repent is to accept his invitation. It involves a change of both heart and mind, of our whole outlook. To believe is to entrust my whole being to God, to let him be God in my life so that I will become the person he created me to be. If this is to happen, it means setting out on a new journey under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Repentance and discipleship will only happen as a response to proclamation of the Gospel. Living proclamation requires personal conviction in the speaker in a way that apologetics and theological explanations do not, so I remain eternally grateful to those who in 1974 cared enough to proclaim the Gospel to me, giving the Holy Spirit the opportunity to reveal the person of Jesus Christ without whom all the apologetics and doctrines serve little purpose. In the words of Pope John Paul: "….in our communities we need to be seriously concerned about bringing the Gospel of hope to all those who are far from the faith or who have abandoned the practice of Christianity" (47).

I believe this is the greatest challenge facing us today, and the Pope exhorts all of us in Europe to take up the challenge:

Since 1974 I have never, ever, been disappointed in the Gospel of Hope. How could I be? It IS the greatest story ever told - let's proclaim it!

© Charles Whitehead