Jon Leonetti over at the Catholic News Agency has just published a three-part series on Catholic evangelism. The first part can be found here, and the second and third parts can be found through the link on the first page.
The third part addresses what often is going wrong when someone leaves the Catholic Church, and I think he is right. Peter Kreeft makes the same general point that Leonetti does when the former states that "spirituality abhors a vacuum." Kreeft notes that if a soul is not getting fed (as it ought to) in a particular Catholic parish, it will find another group. Of course, many people also leave the Catholic Church because they are not willing to live up to the exacting moral requirements the Church upholds (in obedience to Jesus and the apostles), such as the prohibition of remarriage after divorce, artificial contraception, abortion, homosexual behavior, etc. Sadly, however, there still remain many people who are not hearing the gospel proclaimed at their neighborhood Catholic parish, and so they go elsewhere. Why is this sad? Because they end up missing out on the riches of grace Jesus wants to pour into their lives through the sacraments, most especially the Eucharist. But of course, the sacraments are not magic. The soul must be open to receiving the torrent of grace that Jesus wants to give, and if these same souls are not hearing the Gospel proclaimed, how will they then be properly disposed to receive the sacraments, the Word made flesh?
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