Although there was now greater emphasis being placed on the ministry of evangelisation in the Archdiocese, he encouraged Roman Catholics to step up to the plate and do much more, saying, “The early Church understood very well the importance of evangelisation, but over the years our culture seemed to have suggested that we don’t have to do too much of it any longer.”

Speaking to a full church at a special concelebrated Holy Mass to mark the 20th anniversary of his priestly ordination on February 18, Monsignor Alexander said, “Evangelisation is the most important work we can do in the Church. As a priority, this was made very clear during the tenure of Pope Paul VI as well as during the years of John Paul II and even our present Pope, Benedict XVI.”

Taking excerpts from a book written by Canadian priest Fr Bob Bedard, Founder of the fraternity Companions of the Cross, the Vicar said Fr Bedard had high praise for the good work being done by the Catholic Church, but he also felt that the Church had forgotten how to evangelise.

Monsignor Alexander said the Church had “a false sense of optimism that people who had left the Church will return.” He said there was no assurance of this, because they had not really been evangelised. He said they might have been good Catholics, but not properly evangelised.

Msgr Alexander said Roman Catholics are regarded as “sitting ducks” by other religions, because through lack of evangelisation, they have not been able to develop a real and true relationship with God.

He pointed out that there were three basic areas of evangelisation:

• Proclamation of the Gospel. “We’re still proclaiming, but we need to make it more attractive;
• Bringing the person(s) to a place where they can recognise their need; and
• The divine action of God himself – we begin the process but God completes it.

Msgr Alexander’s homily was quite timely as it put the spotlight on the Church’s focus for the year – New Evangelisation – with all the ministries and departments of the Church working to develop the process and methodology of evangelisation.