The Marian Catechist Apostolate

As promised, I’m going to give you a third way to evangelize, and it involves Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke. 

The third way of evangelizing is really what this series is all about. In fact, it’s really what I’m all about. You can do what I do. What I do is as simple as falling off a log. Do you have to be as proficient or knowledgeable in catechetics as I am? No, but it helps. Neither was I when I first started. Still, I’ll tell you shortly how you can begin doing today—right now—what I do. First, let’s talk about how you begin on the road to proficiency and knowledge.

The first thing I’d recommend to anyone is to make a visit online to the Marian Catechist Apostolate. Why this apostolate? Well, let me tell you about it. Actually, I’ll quote here from the Marian Catechist Apostolate website to begin.

“St. Pope John Paul II was the first to call for a New Evangelization in response to the loss of faith in God in our time. The work of the New Evangelization, he declared, is to proclaim the Good News in such a way as to lead people to faith in Jesus Christ by means of the transformation of their hearts (cf. Novo Millennio Ineunte). Servant of God Father John A. Hardon, S.J. was responding to this call for a New Evangelization when he founded the Marian Catechist Apostolate. 

“In the early 1980s, Pope John Paul II lamented the fact that so many people were living and dying without any knowledge of Jesus Christ. One of the actions he took to reverse this dismal trend was to ask St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta to prepare her Sisters, the Missionaries of Charity, not only to care for the immediate material needs of the poor, but also to evangelize them, to teach them about God’s immeasurable love for them and about His desire to be united with them in Heaven for all eternity.

“Mother Teresa turned to Father Hardon for the help she needed to prepare her Sisters to evangelize the poorest of the poor. Father Hardon was an eminent theologian and master catechist (one who teaches the Faith), the author of over forty major works of theology, spirituality, and catechesis, and one of the world’s most respected authorities on the Catholic Faith. He began to teach the Missionaries of Charity; at the same time, he began to prepare the texts that would eventually become a set of home study courses used to teach the richness of the Catholic Faith and its practice to the lay faithful. Today, the Missionaries of Charity, along with countless lay members of the Church, use Father Hardon’s courses to prepare themselves to be effective witnesses of the Faith to all they meet.

“In time, Father Hardon established the Marian Catechist Apostolate to form catechists, both spiritually and doctrinally, for the teaching of the Faith. Father Hardon was elated when His Eminence Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, then-Bishop of La Crosse, Wisconsin, decided to use Father Hardon’s home study courses to form catechists in his Diocese. Several years later, on December 12, 1999, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, then-Bishop Burke established the Marian Catechist Apostolate as a Public Association of the Faithful. The Apostolate has been placed under the patronage of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of all America and Star of both the first and the new evangelizations. 

“Shortly before Father Hardon died on December 30, 2000, he asked Cardinal Burke to assume leadership of the Apostolate. Cardinal Burke accepted and remains today the Episcopal Moderator and International Director of the Marian Catechist Apostolate.”

You’ll notice in this brief history of the Marian Catechist Apostolate, it talked about courses by Fr. Hardon. These courses, while correspondence courses, are not for the faint of heart. They’re actually fairly difficult. But since Jesus deserves the best we can give Him, they’re really not all that much to do. I can’t recommend these courses highly enough. And since you’ll (hopefully) be taking these courses, let me recommend to you that you become a consecrated member of the Marian Catechist Apostolate. If you become a member, and if you’re able, you can join Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke every summer for a weekend at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in LaCrosse, Wisconsin for the annual consecration weekend. (Been there, done that, and let me tell you the shrine is gorgeous as well as awe-inspiring, and the event is spiritually invigorating!)

The other thing I’d recommend for you is hooking up with the St. Paul Street Evangelization apostolate. They can help support you in all things regarding evangelization. They won’t be everybody’s cup of tea, but I think they’re great.

I’d also recommend that you supplement your learning with a few books. As I told you earlier in this series, it’s not enough to just present Church teachings. If you want to make the Catholic Church attractive to the people you come into contact with—Catholic & non-Catholic—you have to be able to explain why the Church believes the things you’re sharing, which means proving them. This means that you have to gain a basic grasp on Catholic apologetics.

To get started, there are a few books that I recommend. The first is Catholicism and Fundamentalism by Karl Keating. This is the very best book to begin your journey in apologetics. I also recommend Handbook of Denominations. It’s written by three honest and objective Protestants. It’ll come in handy when dealing with lapsed and non-Catholics. The final book is Handbook of Catholic Apologetics, by Peter Kreeft and Fr. Ronald Tacelli.

In the next article I’ll begin explaining a defense of my methods and why you should consider using them.