Cardinal Sean O'Malley: New evangelization places emphasis on the individual

November 29, 2012. (Romereports.com) One month into the Year of Faith, churches in the United States and around the globe are finding new ways to reach out to believers.

Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Sean O'Malley says making it a success is largely dependent on each person.

CARD. SEAN PATRICK O'MALLEY
Archbishop of Boston (USA)
“In great part the effectiveness of the new evangelization is going to be the individual believers who are convinced that they need to talk to other people about their faith and invite others to be a part of our believing family.”

His archdiocese includes nearly half a million students from Harvard and dozens of other colleges and universities.

O'Malley says that in itself creates a large advantage. He is on the lookout for different ways to reach out to those students, and, it turn, have them become evangelizers.

He cites an example from one of his priests back home.

CARD. SEAN PATRICK O'MALLEY
Archbishop of Boston (USA)
“At the beginning of mass he will tell the students to take out their iPhones and to go to their Facebook and mark on there that they’re at Mass and then turn their phones off.”

The result, according to him, is the chance for those students to talk to their friends about their faith and the fact that they go to mass.

But he insists, the very first step begins with each individual, to have an ongoing personal conversation about what their faith means to them. Then, he says, it's their responsibility, as Catholics, to evangelize.