Concentration in "New Evangelization" Begins Fall 2004
Mr. Ralph Martin, Assistant Professor of Theology
Director of the Graduate Theology Programs in Evangelization

The graduate theology faculty recently voted to implement a new concentration in the Masters of Arts in Theology program devoted to the "new evangelization." Since 1983 Pope John Paul II has been calling the Church to focus herself on the task of evangelization. The pope recognizes that Christian culture is disappearing and that the Church's pastoral efforts have to embrace more fully the responsibility of mission.

In Novo Millennio Ineunte, his pastoral blueprint for the new millennium, John Paul II makes the strong statement: "Even in countries evangelized many centuries ago, the reality of a 'Christian society' which, amid all the frailties which have always marked human life, measured itself explicitly on Gospel values, is now gone" (NMI 40). In his encyclical Mission of the Redeemer, he prophetically declares: "I sense that the moment has come to commit all of the Church's energies to a new evangelization and to the mission ad gentes. No believer in Christ, no institution of the Church, can avoid this supreme duty: to proclaim Christ to all peoples" (RM 3).

Sacred Heart Major Seminary is responding to this urgent call by implementing in fall 2004 a new concentration in our MA Theology degree program. MA students will now be able to select from four different concentrations: interdisciplinary studies, biblical studies, spirituality—and a new one—the new evangelization.

To specialize in a concentration, eight credit hours must be taken in courses devoted to the concentration. For the concentration in evangelization, courses such as these will be offered on a rotating basis: Theology of the New Evangelization, Evangelization in History, Evangelization and Spirituality, Evangelization and the Contemporary Culture, World Religions and the Challenge of Evangelization, Evangelization and Catechesis, and Evangelization and Life Issues. Students interested in pursuing this concentration should talk to their advisor or contact the dean of studies office.