Q. What is the difference between proselytizing and evangelizing? — M.J.O., New Jersey.
A. According to Fr. John A. Hardon’s Modern Catholic Dictionary, proselytizing originally meant “to convert someone from one religion to another, either by bringing the person to full acceptance of the new faith and ritual or at least sympathy with it. The more common meaning, however, is to induce people to change their religious affiliation by using unfair and even unscrupulous means.”
Evangelizing, according to Pope Paul VI, “means to bring the Good News into all the strata of humanity, and through its influence transforming humanity from within and making it new. ‘Now I am making the whole of creation new’ (Rev. 21:5). But there is no new humanity if there are not first of all new persons renewed by baptism, and by lives lived according to the Gospel” (Evangelii Nuntiandi, n. 18).
Fr. Hardon explained that “evangelization, therefore, includes three distinctive elements: 1. interior conversion to Christ and His Church; 2. affecting not only the individual person but the whole culture; and 3. as a result, changing this culture and its institutions to make them Christian and Catholic….In general, to preach the Good News, as lived and taught by Jesus Christ. More specifically it means bringing the Christian revelation to persons and cultures to whom the Gospel has not yet been effectively proclaimed.”
Q. Since the Bible describes the number 666 as the mark of the beast or Antichrist, and also says or refers to the Antichrist as a he, to me there is also a hint at the Antichrist being a world leader. Could the Antichrist be a woman who is an evil world leader? After all, the Devil is cunning and completely evil. Nothing would surprise me. — D.L.H., Iowa.
A. The Antichrist is specifically mentioned only in the letters of John (cf. 1 John 2:18, 2:22, 4:3, and 2 John 7), and John identifies the Antichrist as “whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist” (2:22). St. Paul doesn’t use the word “Antichrist,” but talks about “the lawless one . . . the one doomed to perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god and object of worship, so as to seat himself in the temple of God, claiming that he is a god” (2 Thess. 2:3-4).
Paul goes on to say that “the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord [Jesus] will kill with the breath of his mouth and render powerless by the manifestation of his coming, the one whose coming springs from the power of Satan in every mighty deed and in signs and wonders that lie, and in every wicked deceit for those who are perishing because they have not accepted the love of truth so that they may be saved. Therefore, God is sending them a deceiving power so that they may believe the lie, that all who have not believed the truth but have approved wrongdoing may be condemned” (2 Thess. 2:8-12).
Commenting on these verses, the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible says that the lawless one is “a man of extraordinary evil. When he comes, he will deify himself, claiming to be God (2:4); he will dazzle the wicked with displays of his power (2:9); and he will deceive the world with falsehoods of every kind (2:10). Most identify this figure with ‘the antichrist’ prophesied by John (1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 1:7) (CCC, nn. 675-77).”
The commentary also says that “the Antichrist will declare himself God and demand to be worshiped,” but “Christ will descend from heaven as a divine Warrior to destroy the man of lawlessness with a word and trample the last remnants of evil underfoot (1 Cor. 15:24).”
While some evil historical figures, such as Nero and Hitler, have been labeled as antichrists, the common Catholic interpretation is that the Antichrist is a real person who will engage in a final apocalyptic struggle with Christ before the end of the world. It will be a man, not a woman, since the Antichrist will mimic Christ. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (n. 675) says that “before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers [cf. Luke 18:8; Matt. 24:12].”
The persecution of the Church, the Catechism continues, “will unveil the ‘mystery of iniquity’ in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh [cf. 2 Thess. 2:4-12; 1 Thess. 5:2-3; 2 John 7; 1 John 2:18, 22].”
In paragraph 676, the Catechism says that “the Antichrist’s deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgment.”
After going through “this final Passover,” says the Catechism (n. 677), the Church “will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection [cf. Rev. 19:1-9]. The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God’s victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven [cf. Rev. 13:8; 20:7-10; 21:2-4]. God’s triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world [cf. Rev. 20:12; 2 Peter 3:12-13].”
Q. I can remember hearing then-Bishop Fulton J. Sheen observe that throughout history the Church has gone through a major crisis approximately every 400 years, and it was his opinion that the Church was at that time entering such a crisis. He further commented that it was his belief that the laity would be responsible for bringing the Church out of this crisis. I believe that time has confirmed that the Church is indeed going through a crisis, with many obvious assaults from within and without.
In observing the current Church, it seems to me that faithful, orthodox leadership against the assaults is coming from Catholic lay sources like The Wanderer, Crisis Magazine, The Church Militant, and many lay authors and commentators. With a few exceptions, I see very little leadership from our clergy against the assaults. My question: Do you think that Bishop Sheen will be proven to be correct in his belief about who would ultimately be responsible for bringing us out of the current crisis? — D.M., via e-mail.
A. Bishop Sheen was right about many things, and he could be right about this, too. In his parish bulletin column recently, Fr. George Rutler of St. Michael’s Church in New York City recalled Msgr. Hugh Benson’s novel, The Lord of the World, and said that “the protagonist, if one can apply that term to an Anti-Christ, imposed a new world religion with Man himself as god. His one foe was Christianity, which he thwarted in part by using ‘compromised Catholics and compliant priests to persuade timid Catholics.’ Since then, that program has been realized in our time, to an extent beyond the warnings of the most dire pessimists.”
After reciting a litany of the problems facing our society today, Fr. Rutler said that “it is incorrect to say that the coming election poses a choice between two evils. For ethical and aesthetic reasons, there may be some bad in certain candidates, but badness consists in doing bad things. Evil is different: It is the deliberate destruction of truth, virtue, and holiness. While one may pragmatically vote for a flawed candidate, one may not vote for anyone who advocates and enables unmitigatedly evil acts, and that includes abortion. ‘In the case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is therefore never licit to obey it, or to “take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or vote for it”’ (Evangelium Vitae, n. 73).”
He said that “at one party’s convention, the name of God was excluded from its platform and a woman who boasted of having aborted her child was applauded. It is a grave sin, requiring sacramental Confession and penance, to become an accomplice in objective evil by voting for anyone who encourages it, for that imperils the nation and destroys the soul. It is also the duty of the clergy to make this clear and not to shrink, under the pretense of charity, from explaining the Church’s censures. Wolves in sheep’s clothing are dangerous, but worse are wolves in shepherd’s clothing.”
Faced today with “compromised Catholics and compliant priests,” it may indeed be the role of an informed and courageous laity to bring the Church out of the present crisis. God has raised up great saints in the past to save His Church, and He will do so again.
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