TORONTO - Pope Francis’ “profound sense of authenticity” is what attracts young people to the pontiff, says Catholic media personality Cheridan Sanders.

OTTAWA - The Canadian bishops’ doctrine commission, in a new booklet, is stressing the role of all Catholics in the new evangelization.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa -- Ralph Martin, a leader in the Catholic renewal ministries movement, told an audience at an evangelization summit in Sioux City that he sees a danger in lukewarm faith and a de-Christianized spirit in society today.

OTTAWA - A high-profile Cuban cardinal with a French Canadian connection will lend a latin touch to the Canadian bishops annual conference this year. 

OTTAWA - A summer course on new evangelization at Saint Paul University has given Shauna Healey lessons and confidence to better know and share her faith.

Since the late Pope John Paul II coined the phrase in an address to Latin American bishops in the late 1970s, Catholic thinkers, writers, theologians and pastors have debated what the new evangelization really means. In the lineamenta sent to more than 200 bishops earlier this year in advance of the synod, Archbishop Nikola Eterovic offers several definitions. Among them:

o The new evangelization is primarily addressed to those who have drifted from the Church in traditionally Christian countries.
o There should also be a dialogue with those to whom religion is something foreign.
o The new evangelization is primarily a spiritual activity to recapture the courage and forcefullness of the first Christians and first missionaries.
o As an evangelizer, the Church begins by evangelizing herself.
o Evangelization is facing new challenges which are putting accepted practices in question and are weakening customary, well-established ways of doing things.
o The Church does not give up or retreat into herself; instead, she undertakes a project to revitalize herself.
o The new evangelization is a frame of mind, a courageous manner of acting.
o A new evangelization means, then, to work in our local churches to devise a plan... to transmit the Gospel of hope in a practical way.... becoming more and more the artisan of the civilization of love.
o A new evangelization also means to have the boldness to raise the question of God in the context of these problems.
o In the end, the expression new evangelization requires finding new approaches to evangelization so as to be Church in today’s ever-changing social and cultural situations.

A year ago, Archbishop Anthony Mancini of Halifax wrote a letter to the people of his diocese about the New Evangelization. He challenged Catholics, saying, “Become true and active disciples of Christ, committed to the mission of proclaiming the Gospel, again, as if for the first time.”

The “New Evangelization” is a call from Blessed John Paul II for every believer to come to a deeper understanding of their personal faith. This summer, I’m doing this as part of Catholic Christian Outreach’s (CCO) summer mission, Impact, in Halifax. Impact is a 15-week mission trip for university students. We are working in 11 parishes across the archdiocese of Halifax. And it is no coincidence that the theme of Impact 2012, “Behold, I make all things new” from Revelations 21:5, can be found directly in Mancini’s letter.

ROME - Celebrating Mass in Pope Benedict XVI's cathedral, Rome's Basilica of St. John Lateran, a group of U.S. bishops prayed for the Pope and reflected on what they need to do to respond to his call for a new evangelization.

Bishop Michael J. Sheridan of Colorado Springs was the homilist and principal celebrant of an evening Mass May 3 during the "ad limina" visit of bishops from Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming.

On the eve of the bishops' meeting with Pope Benedict, Bishop Sheridan led his fellow bishops in a reflection on the Pope's insistence that strengthening the faith of Catholics, reviving the faith of those who have fallen away and sharing the Gospel with others means they must preach that Jesus is the son of God and continues to live in the church and the Eucharist.