U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Announces the Publishing of Creating a Culture of Encounter: A Guide for Joyful Missionary Disciples

WASHINGTON— The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) announces the publishing of Creating a Culture of Encounter: A Guide for Joyful Missionary Disciples for use by parishes and communities of faith around the country.

This Spanish/English guide will help Catholics live out the call of Jesus to meet those on the peripheries with the Good News of the Gospel for their lives. It offers an organized five-session parish encounter process to help small groups to dig deeper into the Church’s evangelizing mission.  
In each session, participants take up a new aspect of Jesus’ encounter with the disciples on the road to Emmaus and focus on a different element of the evangelical call to spread the Gospel, inspired by Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium. The five-session guide invites participants to See, Judge, Act, Celebrate, and take Missionary Action to follow the pastoral circle process.

This new community resource will deepen missionary discipleship in parishes, lay ecclesial movements, Catholic schools, parish councils, religious groups, and faith formation teams of any cultural or ethnic background. The process of encounter will bear good fruit, as Catholics take up their missionary mandate in families, schools, workplaces, communities, parishes, and wherever they find those in need of God’s love. It is particularly recommended for those seeking to build encounter and unity in culturally diverse environments.

Creating a Culture of Encounter was developed as a resource by the Subcommittee on Hispanic Affairs under the direction of the Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church as an adaptation of the process developed for the V National Encuentro of Hispanic/Latino Ministry

The USCCB has made the guide available for order online at https://store.usccb.org/creating-a-culture-of-encounter-p/7-629.htm

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Keywords: U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB, Creating a Culture of Encounter, Missionary Disciples, V National Encuentro of Hispanic/Latino Ministry, Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, Hispanic Affairs, Cultural Diversity in the Church

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Media Contact:
Miguel Guilarte
202-541-3200