A new pastoral letter from Archbishop Alexander Sample provides concrete suggestions every Catholic can follow to take on the work of evangelization.
Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland, Oregon, has laid out an ambitious plan for spiritual renewal in his archdiocese that calls on all Catholics, clergy and laity alike, to take up Jesus’ call to make disciples of all nations with a new fervor.
His vision could serve as a road map for other bishops seeking to transform their parishes, building on a movement which has gained momentum over the past decade that seeks to shift the Church’s focus from “maintenance to mission.”
Pope Leo XIV in April gave new impetus to this approach when he urged the world’s cardinals to unify behind this understanding of the Church’s mission, which he described as “Christ-centered and kerygmatic” as opposed to a “merely institutional mentality of preservation or expansion.”
Archbishop Sample’s pastoral letter on mission renewal, titled “Go Therefore and Make Disciples” and released on Oct. 1 — the feast of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, patroness of missionaries — embraces this understanding of the Church’s mission and calls on every Catholic in the archdiocese to take on the work of evangelization. To
