Dear Friends in Christ,
In his Apostolic Exhortation, Ecclesia in America, (“The Church in America ”), Pope John Paul II appealed to American Catholics to engage in a new era of evangelization. What the Holy Father envisioned was a new initiative to encourage Catholics to deepen their understanding of the faith by providing youth and adults with educational opportunities to learn more about the teachings of Christ.
Traveling throughout the diocese, I am struck by the number of Catholics who candidly acknowledge a felt need to learn more about the faith. In an increasingly secular society where the teachings of the Church are challenged or dismissed, they find themselves unable to adequately explain or defend our beliefs. The “Evangelization through EDUCATION” campaign aims to prepare a cadre of seminarians, priests, deacons, and lay people who are well educated in the Catholic faith and who are equipped to go out into the diocese to offer comprehensive instructions in the faith.
An educational program of this nature must be long-term, and with the endowments that the “Evangelization through EDUCATION” campaign creates, we will have on-going revenues to establish and anchor the program.
“As generous distributors of God’s manifold grace, put your gifts at the service of one another, each in the measure he has received.” (1 Peter 4:10)
Thank you and with prayerful best wishes, I am
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Most Reverend Dennis M. Schnurr
Bishop of Duluth
