Evangelical Catholic - Evangelical Roman Catholicism

Evangelical Roman Catholicism

In Roman Catholicism, the term evangelical Catholic refers to Catholics in complete communion with the Catholic Church who exhibit, according to Alister McGrath, the four characteristics of evangelicalism. The first is a strong theological and devotional emphasis on the Christian Scriptures. Secondly, evangelical Catholics stress the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the cause of salvation for all mankind. A personal need for interior conversion is the third defining mark, and, consequently, the fourth is a deep commitment to evangelization.

Evangelical Roman Catholics see these evangelical emphases as the core of the 2,000-year tradition of Catholic Christianity. Evangelical preaching movements such as St. Dominic's, who was called the Vir Evangelicus (evangelical man), are a common point of reference. To Catholics, the term 'evangelical' refers to its etymological root - the Greek word euangelion - which means 'good news' or 'Gospel', not to Protestant Evangelicalism. To Catholics, being evangelical is understood in the context of the adherence to the dogmata and tradition of the Catholic Church and in a Catholic interpretation of Scripture, and not in the doctrinal and ecclesiological upheavals of the Protestant Reformation.

Increasingly, the Roman Catholic Church is appropriating the evangelical witness of the recent popes and their encyclicals, especially Pope Paul VI's Evangelii Nuntiandi (On Evangelization in the Modern World), John Paul II's Redemptoris Missio (The Mission of the Redeemer), and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's Declaration Dominus Iesus (The Lord Jesus), for which Benedict XVI was primarily responsible, when he was Prefect of the Congregation. New bibles, catechetical materials, youth ministry programs, and young adult ministries witness to greater evangelical zeal within the Church. Campus ministry and parish ministry are focusing more of their resources on outreach (pre-evangelization and evangelization). A Catholic organization called the Evangelical Catholic even exists for the purpose of equipping Catholic ministries to be evangelical.

Since the call to evangelization is so integral to the Catholic faith and solidly attested to in ecumenical councils, the writings of the Church Fathers, and papal teaching, Father Richard John Neuhaus looked for the day when the term 'evangelical Catholic' was no longer necessary - when identifying as 'Catholic' implied active evangelization so strongly that the addition of 'evangelical' was unnecessary.