SAN ANTONIO • Since coming on board earlier in the fall as director of the newly created archdiocesan Office of Evangelization, Martha Fernández-Sardina has been busy seeing what other ministries are doing and supporting their good works, while evangelizing or teaching others to do the same.

    She has visited with representatives of, among other groups, Cursillo, Charismatic Renewal, ACTS Missions, Mexican American Cultural Center and the Pilgrim Center of Hope, as well as being the keynote presenter at a large number of conferences, workshops, parish council meetings and retreats.

    She plans to use the background she is obtaining to put together a San Antonio tailored vision for evangelization incorporating what parishes as well as the archdiocese needs. Add to that, Fernández-Sardina brings a great amount of experience from her past positions, including eight years as director of the Office of Evangelization for the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., from 1996 to 2004, and prior to that, her post as assistant continental director of Evangelization 2000/North America.

    “I listen to people to see what they want,” she emphasized. In her brief few months in South Texas, Fernández- Sardina has observed that San Antonio “is a very Catholic archdiocese,” noting the strong presence of the ACTS movement here.
    “The feedback I’ve gotten has been very good. People are excited that the archbishop opened the office,” she said. “They are excited about sharing the faith and excited about about training programs. I see the interest.”

    Fernández-Sardina, a native of New York who grew up between Miami and the Dominican Republic, hasn’t written in stone any long-range goals, although she said some dioceses, such as Corpus Christi, do have an all-out plan. “That would happen somewhere down the road, but I have a good idea of what needs to happen,” said the director.

    “In educating people about evangelization, they are excited but they need to be equipped,” she explained. “Sometimes people don’t understand what evangelization is and they need to be educated.”
    Fernández-Sardina stressed that potential evangelizers need to be excited personally to venture into outreach, while the excitement grows with each encounter. However, Catholics need to be educated in how to explain the faith to people who don’t want to hear about God as well as others who are interested in varying degrees.
    “We equip them by giving them tools and training them in models and methods of personal testimony,” she said.

    The holder of a master’s degree in theology and Christian ministry, Fernández-Sardina said that parishes need to entrust people with the task of outreach to folks that are not regularly coming to church.
    “Evangelization is the mission of the church. We need to make a concerted effort to reach out,” she said. “We need to make sure we are helping people grow in the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ. Some know the church but their love has grown cold.”

    The licensed social worker recalled the words Pope Benedict XVI told youth at World Youth Day in Germany: That the happiness they’re seeking has a name and face — Jesus of Nazareth.
    “We can’t limit evangelization to the faith family. We need outreach to those outside the church,” said Fernández-Sardina. “We need to nurture our existing parishioners, but also seek new ones. We need to be about pastoring the flock, those in the fold, but also with an outreach component.”

    In an October presentation to students at Assumption Seminary, Fernández-Sardina told the future priests that evangelization is incumbent on the church and that it requires an apostolic effort. She quoted from Pope Paul VI, who said, “The church exists in order to evangelize.”
    Fernández-Sardina followed up on that comment, adding, “The parish exists in order to evangelize. We don’t exist for mission, we exist for evangelization.”
    She spoke of the key role of the priest in teaching and preaching, along with perpetuating Christ’s presence through the Mass. “You should be ministers of the Gospel who glow with ferver,” she said, adding, “you should be glow in the dark ministers,” to laughter.

    Fernández-Sardina encouraged the men to target practicing, quasi-practicing and inactive Catholics, singling out young adults, youth and children.
    After those groups were addressed, then secondary audiences such as other Christians, other believers and agnostics, New Agers or atheists could be approached, she said.

    Statistics indicate that there are 63 million practicing Catholics in the United States and, sadly, 21 million inactive Catholic. Unfortunately, too, studies show that in 2005, only 32 percent of practicing Catholics state they are going to church. However, at 23 percent of the population, Catholics comprise the largest religious denomination in America.
    “Christ the Lord is their Lord,” said the archdiocesan evangelization director. “Break into the blah, blah, blahness with your message through lively preaching in your homilies.”

Columns and articles from Martha Fernández-Sardina will appear in Today’s Catholic on a regular basis.