Michael Dopp is the founder of Mission of the Redeemer Ministries and the New Evangelization Summit, a premier conference and multi-site event which has reached thousands of Catholics across the globe. 

His dedication to evangelization is an inspiration to those of us in Proclaim. I caught up with Michael to talk about the history of evangelization in the Church, and the recent call from popes for all of the faithful to realize their missionary identity and commit to sharing the Gospel with others.  

JC: Michael, thanks so much for taking the time to talk with us. So, the Church has always had a mission. When did you notice a new priority being placed on the evangelizing mission of the Church? Did a shift occur at some point, and if so, when? And why?

MD: Hey Josh. Great to chat with you. It sounds funny to say, but the mission of the Church is mission. In other words, the very task Christ gave to the Church is to evangelize, to be on mission. 

Over the course of the last 2000 years this missionary vocation has never been forgotten although the amount of attention paid to it has waxed and waned. It is undeniable that since the pontificate of St John Paul II, there has been a renewed effort to live out that missionary vocation in an explicit and consequential way. He was the very one to give us the term "new evangelization." 

But it is also possible to look earlier than Him, perhaps to the Second Vatican Council which St. John XXIII seemed to envision as an opportunity for the Church to re-invigorate herself with missionary vitality. Someone like George Weigel points even earlier to the pontificate of Leo XIII which he believes set the groundwork for what would happen with Vatican II and the launch, by John Paul II, of the New Evangelization.  

I offer these three different points in time in order to argue that there was not just one particular movement within the life of the Church that inaugurated this new emphasis on missionary activity but rather that there has been a general re-awakening to her vocation, although this "re-awakening" has been facilitated and defined by some very concrete actions (such as the calling of Vatican II and the introduction of the new evangelization).

JC: Has this emphasis on evangelization intensified with successive popes? I think people identify the term most strongly with St. John Paul, but tell us about how the call to a New Evangelization has been carried forward by his successors.

MD: You are correct that it was John Paul II who coined the term, but it is one that has indeed been carried forward by Pope Benedict XVI and now Pope Francis. While Benedict did not write a particular document on it, he did discuss iron a number of different occasions. Francis did give us a document, Evangelii Gaudium, which was focused on evangelization and discusses in detail the New Evangelization. 

We could also look backward to St Paul VI whose post-synodal apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi in some way prepared the ground for what John Paul II would do. Thus, while we can credit John Paul II with launching it, I like to see this continuity within the papacies of the last 50 years as a sign of the Spirit's work in all of this. Each of those popes reflected in their own way on the missionary call of the Church and the Christian, and so enriched our understanding of it. 

JC: What kinds of things are preventing an even fuller response to the call to evangelize on behalf of the faithful? What can we do to respond with greater urgency in our parishes and personal lives? 

MD: That is a great question, Josh, and one that has no easy answers. It seems that there are a multitude of factors that are, as you say, "preventing a fuller response to the call to evangelize." These can vary from the culture that we find within parishes which is often hostile to evangelization and those interested, to Catholics who feel ill-equipped and unprepared to share their faith, to the lack of deep conversion in our own hearts, which is the first thing necessary in the discovery and fulfillment of our evangelical vocation.  

There is no simple way to overcome these, nor is there a single solution that solves these and other problems. I think as a start, a renewed commitment at all levels of the Church to the simple proclamation of the Gospel and the call to conversion would, at its very least, begin to awaken and call forth faith among those who remain within the Church.  

This call to faith and conversion could then echo out from the heart of the Church toward those who have fallen away and finally into the whole world. If we don't preach Christ, and Him crucified, if we can't call people to repentance and faith, if we don't speak about the fundamental importance of conversion, if we do not invite people to be open to an encounter with the Lord, then it is no wonder that many of our fellow Catholics do not have the requisite faith to even start evangelizing.  

But if we did this, not only would we see conversion among members of the Church, but also through effectively evangelizing them, they would also be learning how to evangelize others.

JC: Tell us about how the conference you founded, the New Evangelization Summit, can assist in building up a missionary movement in parishes.

MD: The New Evangelization Summit has been an incredibly important conference in the Church for the last five years and there is no one who is more surprised by it than me. What it has managed to do is to inspire Catholics in such a way that they are open and committed to their evangelical vocation they received at baptism.  

The model of it—a conference in Ottawa that is then streamed to Host Sites globally—allows us to have an incredibly large and wide reach, but also allows people to be moved by some of the greatest Catholic speakers in the world, all from the convenience of their parish.  

The fruit we see is both significant and diverse and this is what we hoped for. The NES does not give a masterplan for evangelization but rather seeks to awaken the unique call within each person, so the way that they live it out after the conference is varied. Some are more courageous in their conversations with others; some organize evangelically-minded events in their parishes; while others launch initiatives that seek to make Christ known.

JC: Where can people get more information about hosting NES at their parish in 2020?

MD: If they go to newevangelization.ca or newevangelizationhostsite.ca, they can learn more about what we have coming up next year. I'd also love to hear from them directly and have the chance to share more about this. They can reach me at [email protected].

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