{"id":591,"date":"2012-02-15T17:41:42","date_gmt":"2012-02-15T22:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/thecc\/?p=591"},"modified":"2012-02-15T17:41:42","modified_gmt":"2012-02-15T22:41:42","slug":"catholic-new-evangelization-who-has-even-heard-of-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/2012\/02\/15\/catholic-new-evangelization-who-has-even-heard-of-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Catholic New Evangelization: Who has even Heard of It?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Archdiocese of Detroit (AOD) has been engaged in a planning process called Together In Faith<\/em> since 2000, and this process surfaced \u201cNew Evangelization\u201d and \u201cyouth ministry\u201d as top priorities for the diocese to address.\u00a0 However, little or no research on the New Evangelization (NE), from a sociological perspective, has been conducted.<\/p>\n

Sociologists have not even answered basic questions, such as, \u201cHow many parishes have a NE committee?\u201d or \u201cHow many people have heard of the NE?\u201d Consequently, I started a research project on the NE in the AOD. \u00a0After several years in the field, 3 telephone surveys of parish offices, and the administration of a social survey to six suburban parishes, I am prepared to present some basic descriptive statistics on how many parishes within the AOD have NE committees and how many parishioners have heard of the NE.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Table 1\u2014Does Your Parish Have an Evangelization Committee? (Archdiocese of Detroit)<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

Response from Telephone Interviews<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

2005<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

2008<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

2011<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

N<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

N<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

N<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

55<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

17.9<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

72<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

25.3<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

96<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

35.2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

No<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

231<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

75.0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

164<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

57.5<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

135<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

49.5<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Sort of<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

3<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

1.0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

6<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

2.1<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

15<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

5.5<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Going to start one<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

6<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

1.9<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

13<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

4.6<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

9<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

3.3<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

No response from parish<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

13<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

4.2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

30<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

10.5<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

18<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

6.6<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Total<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

308<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

100<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

285<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

100<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

273<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

100<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

In 2005, 2008, and again in 2011, we made telephone calls to every parish in the archdiocese asking if they had an evangelization committee. \u00a0\u00a0Table 1 presents the results and suggests the reach of the NE has doubled over time in the AOD, but I\u2019ll note a few caveats.\u00a0 First, while the percent of parishes in the archdiocese with an evangelization committee increased from 17.9% to 35.2%, this increase between 2005 and 2011 might be deceiving for a couple reasons.\u00a0 First, the change is due partly to the substantial number of parishes that closed since 2005.\u00a0 That is, while the percentage of parishes with evangelization committees doubled, the number of evangelization committees has not (55 to 96; or 14 less than a doubling rate).\u00a0 Digging even deeper, the simple question, \u201cDo you have an evangelization committee?\u201d elicited a variety of vague responses.\u00a0 Indeed, vagueness prevailed in the phone conversations.\u00a0 Calling parishes and asking the above question, prompted the following responses: \u201cwell, I think so but I\u2019m not sure – what do you mean exactly when you say evangelization?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWe used to have one I think, but maybe it is just done through our Christian service commission now.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI think we just sort of do it but have no committee per se.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWell, yes, sort of, it is just in everything that we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

First, let\u2019s deal with the issue of parish closings and changing numbers of parishes over time.\u00a0 Since we are examining the same population of parishes over time, calculations about change over time can be made\u2014as long as we keep only parishes that responded during all years.\u00a0 Dropping cases with any missing data is what sociologists call listwise (or casewise) deletion. \u00a0For example, of the 327 parishes in the telephone database, 240 responded to the NE question in both 2005 and 2008.\u00a0 Using these 240 parishes as a base, 22% of parishes had an evangelization committee in 2005 and 30% in 2008.\u00a0 Then, for parishes who responded all three years, N=220, we find that in 2011 39% said they had a NE committee.\u00a0 So, even after taking into account the closing of parishes, it is clear that the number and percentage of evangelization committees reported in the AOD has increased; the trend is clearly upwards.\u00a0 And this linear trend of approximately a 10% increase each wave is significant: 20% or 44 of 220 in 2005; 29% or 64 of 220 in 2008, and 39% or 86 of 220 in 2011 for parishes with complete data (F linear(1,219) = 46.232, p<.001).<\/p>\n

Regarding the vagueness theme, however, the percentage coded as \u201csort of\u201d also increased significantly over the years, from 1% to 2.1% to 5.5% (F linear (1,219) = 10.74, p = .001).\u00a0 These data confirm, in our estimation, the ongoing \u201cvagueness\u201d if not outright confusion about what the NE is among our respondents.\u00a0 Indeed, I was giving a presentation on these data in April 2011 and several professional <\/em>ecclesial ministers said to me, \u201cI see your giving a presentation on the NE; you know, what is the NE anyway?\u201d\u00a0 This confusion was exacerbated by the lack of distinction between evangelization and NE in our phone call question.\u00a0 Many of the \u201cYES\u201d responses referred specifically to RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults).\u00a0 In other words, these parishes (approximately 20) considered the RCIA their evangelization committee (we coded them yes, because in the end they said \u201cyes\u201d).\u00a0 In reality, however, the RCIA and the NE are not coterminous.<\/p>\n

So, while there has been an increase in the percent and number of parish evangelization committees between 2005 and 2011, most parishes do not have such a committee and many asked us \u201cWhat do you mean by the new evangelization?\u201d or \u201cWhat is the new evangelization?\u201d\u00a0 Remember, too, the percentages above are inflated by inclusion of RCIA as evangelization by some respondents.\u00a0 So, a clear majority of parishes in AOD do not have a committee focused on evangelization and are not organizationally structured to focus on the NE.<\/em>\u00a0 At most, perhaps 45% of parishes will have a committee in 2012 focused on the New Evangelization in AOD.\u00a0 This liberal estimate is based on the linear trend presented above.<\/p>\n

Obviously, some parishes do have active evangelization committees, and some parishioners might know about NE regardless of whether their parish has a committee.\u00a0 So, we decided to directly survey parishioners and staff.\u00a0 Our survey was conducted in three parishes that had evangelization committees and three that did not.\u00a0 All six were suburban parishes and had similar socio-demographic profiles — thereby providing a basis for assessing the unique influence of evangelization committees.\u00a0 The first question on the NE survey was: \u201cHave you ever heard of the New Evangelization (NE) in your parish, vicariate, or diocese?\u201d<\/p>\n

Examining staff members within the parishes, we pulled from the survey how the professionals in the parishes answered the question \u201chave you ever heard of the NE?\u201d<\/p>\n

Table 2\u2014 \u201cHave you ever heard of the NE?\u201d by Position in Parish<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

Position in Parish<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Yes, Has Heard of NE<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

No<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Don\u2019t Know<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

No Response<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

N<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

N<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

N<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

N<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Staff<\/td>\n\n

31<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

43.7<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

31<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

43.7<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

6<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

8.5<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

3<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

4.2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Congregation<\/td>\n\n

731<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

22.8<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

1867<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

58.2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

396<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

12.3<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

215<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

6.7<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Visitor<\/td>\n\n

39<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

12.0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

213<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

65.3<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

50<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

15.3<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

24<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

7.4<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

No Response<\/td>\n\n

84<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

22.3<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

181<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

48.1<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

36<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

9.6<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

75<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

19.9<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Total, N = 3982<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

885<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

22.2<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

2292<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

57.6<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

488<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

12.3<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

317<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

8.0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

We found that 43.7% had never<\/em> \u201cheard of the NE\u201d (table 2).\u00a0 Still, an equal number of staff members at the parishes had heard of NE as did not hear.\u00a0 If the NE is to continue to grow, it is important for more parish staff to \u201chear\u201d about the NE — for only 22.8% of their parishioners have heard of it (Table 2: out of 2,598 parishioners, only 731, or 22.8% had heard of NE).<\/p>\n

Finally, parishioners in parishes with evangelization committees have heard of the NE significantly more than those who are in parishes without evangelization committees (see table 3 below: with committee 32.3% and without 10.9%), and these committees appear to be spreading, albeit starting from low levels.<\/p>\n

Table 3\u2014Having Heard of the NE by Type of Parish<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

Does Parish Have an NE Committee?<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Yes, Has Heard of NE<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

No<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Don\u2019t Know<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

No Response<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

N<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

N<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

N<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

N<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

681<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

32.2<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

1007<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

47.5<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

278<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

13.1<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

152<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

7.2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

No<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

204<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

10.9<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

1285<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

68.9<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

210<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

11.3<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

165<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

8.9<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

Consequently, we believe NE committees are an indication of a larger process of the institutionalization of the NE in the AOD.\u00a0 Michelle Dillon asked not long ago, how will John Paul II\u2019s influence be institutionalized in the Church?\u00a0 One answer might be the NE.\u00a0 Future blogs will try to substantiate that claim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Archdiocese of Detroit (AOD) has been engaged in a planning process called Together In Faith since 2000, and this process surfaced \u201cNew Evangelization\u201d and \u201cyouth ministry\u201d as top priorities for the diocese to address.\u00a0 However, little or no research … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":444,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/444"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":737,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591\/revisions\/737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}