In today's culture the word 'preaching' has a certain derogatory connotation. Nevertheless, 'Being a preacher in today's culture' was the theme of this year's Inter-Europae Ordinis Praedicatorum (IEOP), an annual meeting of European Dominican provincials that was held recently in Malta.
Fr Allan White, UK Dominican provincial from 2000 to 2008 and now socius (assistant) to the Master of the Order of Preachers based in Rome, with responsibility for northwest Europe and Canada, explains that one of the main challenges the Church faces today is that the way Christianity was traditionally communicated sounds strange to contemporary generations.
"To a certain extent Christianity is always going to be counter-cultural," he admits. "It cannot become a religious apology for what contemporary culture happens to believe at any moment in time. But at the same time we have to translate the realities of the Gospel in ways that can be understood by modern culture, and restructure the Christian narrative in ways that are more accessible to people today, without diluting the Christian message. In other words, we need new evangelisation," he says.
For the Dominicans, the two essential elements of 'preaching' are 'proclamation' and 'witnessing', but Fr White admits that people today tend to learn more by example than by precepts.
"The image of individuals who are seen as contributing something to society, especially to the poor, marginalised, oppressed, and distressed people, is much more powerful than that of someone preaching on a pulpit," he says.
"People nowadays tend to distrust authority but they very much respect authenticity, so another challenge for those who want to preach the Gospel is to deepen their authenticity," he says.
A common experience for the Church throughout Europe, especially in countries that have traditionally been Catholic is that there has been a rejection of the vision of an authoritarian Church. There is a quest for a personal, individual autonomy. This also expresses itself in the desire to free the culture from what is often considered as restraining elements, and since one of the principal formative elements in much of European culture has been the Church, there is an attempt to distance culture from the forms of expression of Christianity.
Fr White points to the irony that while modern society sees itself as open, pluralist, tolerant, and liberal, and 'value free', it presents secular liberal values and excludes traditional Christian values as worthy of consideration.
"This shows that the culture is only liberal, tolerant and pluralist to a certain extent. So another challenge facing the Church is: How can you have a discussion with someone who feels you are not worth arguing or discussing with because what you say is seen as completely irrational, totalitarian, and illiberal?"
He says that committed Catholics are finding it difficult to contribute to certain areas of public and political life, and this is similar to religious persecutions of the past. "There must be space for the rights of conscience. A substantial part of our traditional and heritage cannot be excluded from current moral debates without risk to society itself," he says.
He warns that when people are habitually excluded they end up becoming involved in sects, because they have no stake in contributing to the values of society, and this leads to religious terrorism and fundamentalism.
"Whereas in the past the Church in Europe has taken it for granted that people will come to us, now we find that we have to go out to encounter them," says Fr White.
During the IEOP meeting in Malta, the Dominican provincials were particularly struck by an interesting way in which the Dominican Order in Belgium is reaching out to people. Dominican friars have opened and run a bar at the Catholic University of Louvin, called Blackfriars, modelled on an traditional English pub.
"This is an extension of monastic hospitality, the friars welcome anyone who wants to come; you can just have a drink, but most people who come have a spiritual thirst and hunger and want to explore this hunger and thirst with the friars in a non-threatening environment. And from this, all types of contacts, networks and relations spring up. It is a kind of half-way house. Some people on their way out of the Church have found it to be a place where they can be helped and reintegrated, and for some who are on their way in, they can find their place through it."
Fr White believes that the quality of the preaching of the Word, of the celebration of the liturgy and the accessibilty of the pastor are the three most important things in terms of gathering and sustaining a Christian community.
He remarks that at the last synod of bishops in Rome, it was agreed that the quality of homilies generally had to improve.
"This is one of the main encounters that most people have with the Gospel and Christian doctrine during the week. "It has got to nourish them for the rest of the week. There is certainly room for improvement," he said.
He recalls the advice of an elderly brother when he was being ordained: "Say a good homily, celebrate Mass properly and stand at the church door to show you love your people."
The decline in Sunday Mass attendance is both "dramatic and worrying" says Fr White, but more than being caused by inferior homilies, he sees a connection between Church attendance and culture.
Also, Fr White says that the Church is also nurtured and promoted by families. "But in Europe, the traditional family unit is now a minority. It is today just one option among others, and is no longer priviledged by civil society and legislation, in the name of pluralism, tolerance, non-exclusion," he says.
Fr White admits that the Church is sometimes not very good at the way it presents itself in the media. And to compound the problem, Church teachings are not always well reported. "It is very difficult to engage in a dialogue in circumstances in which you are continually being misrepresented. You end up arguing about the misrepresentation rather than the reality. So the Church comes across as defensive."
But he also points out that whereas the media, especially in northwestern Europe, is hostile towards the Church and Christianity in general "surveys show there isn't the same degree of hostility among ordinary people.Nevertheless, the media also provides the Church with new opportunities to evangelise the culture.
As a good example, he mentions the global Word on Fire media ministry, led by Fr Robert Barron, a theologian and podcasting US Catholic priest, which seeks to evangelist through ministry's own website wordon fire.org, as well as You Tube, TV, radio, DVDs, books and lectures and retreats. The Dominicans' English province is also using the internet more actively, with its own website torch.op.org, which includes sermons and podcasts by a number of English Dominicans, and godzdogz, an internet project of the province's student-brothers.