If you want a glimpse at what the New Evangelization might mean, take a gander at this intriguing piece from a Catholic newspaper in Texas. The advice it contains seems both practical and prayerful — and sounds like plain old common sense:

“There is not one single solution or magical solution available to bring people back to the church. But inactive Catholics are like a million fish in the sea. Just by casting your net, you are bound to capture a few,” said Father Frank DeSiano to over 200 people representing at least 40 different parishes and missions at the second evangelization conference sponsored this year by the Diocese of Corpus Christi’s Department of Evangelization.

Father DeSiano, a Paulist priest from Queens, New York, was one of the main speakers at the two-day evangelization institute held July 21 and 22 at Most Precious Blood parish hall.

The event, titled “The Thirst for Souls,” was presented as a practical guide to help parishes form evangelization teams.

The overall purpose of the event was “to initiate, to form, to train evangelization teams and to activate them in each parish,” explained Father Eduardo Montemayor, director of the diocesan office of evangelization, and a member of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity.

Father Montemayor said the word ‘evangelization’ comes from the Greek word, ‘evanelizo,’ which means to proclaim good news.

Father Montemayor, Father DeSiano and Tim Staples gave presentations on how to evangelize and each had their own style.

Staples specializes in how to define and defend the Catholic faith in today’s secular society. His love for the Catholic faith and all of its gifts was evident as he challenged today’s popular culture which often sends out the message that God does not exist and that money and material goods are all one needs to be happy.

Father DeSiano’s evangelization gifts are teaching people the basics in how to bring people back to the Catholic Church.

A Paulist priest for 35 years, Father DeSiano has written numerous books and held missions on that aspect of evangelization.

He shared his methods of finding, meeting and bringing inactive Catholics back to church in simple and affordable ways any parish could utilize.

Father DeSiano stated that the easiest way to find any inactive Catholic is to go over parish records, which consists of at least 30 percent of those classified as “inactive.”

Father DeSiano categorized inactive Catholics as those who do not see a need to go to church every Sunday.

Reasons they give for not going to church are varied such as moving to a new neighborhood, no Catholic church close by, too busy, and the perception that the church just wants money.

“We can no longer count on people who were raised Catholic to identify with the Catholic Church when they become young adults. The Catholic identity is not sticking with 18 to 30 year old generation X,” said Father DeSiano.

“This is a generational problem due to all of the other messages going on in society. The messages of ‘have money, buy things, have sexual pleasures’ plus the decline of authority and the decline in community ties” have allowed people to slip away from the church, explained the priest.

He added that there are easy ways to bring people back to the church and the first step is prayer.

“Evangelization must involve the whole parish in praying for success.”

The second step is for parishes to reach out to inactive Catholics by striving to meet families moving into its neighborhood. Moving is a huge predictor of a Catholic individual or family becoming inactive.

A parish which is welcoming and makes an effort to contact people new to the neighborhood is much more likely to bring people in its doors.

There’s more, so I’d suggest reading the whole thing. Then, go out and start knocking on doors …

Photo: Father Frank DeSiano, from the South Texas Catholic