St. Mary’s Catholic Church is located less than five miles from the campus of Bob Jones University in the Buckle of the Bible Belt, a part of the world in which many Protestants still regard Catholicism as a pagan cult pretending to be a Christian Church or, at best, a fatally compromised version of the true Gospel. In such an environment, those who are casual, cultural, and cafeteria Catholics quickly become either ex-Catholics or Evangelical Catholics, and that is paradoxically one of the reasons why our congregation and many other Southern parishes are flourishing: the unique challenge for Catholics seeking to live their Christian faith in the South leaves no room for spiritual mediocrity, doctrinal confusion, uncertain commitments, or a lukewarm interior life.

During the nearly 27 years of his pontificate, Pope John Paul the Great called the universal Church to the urgent mission of fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 27.16-20), a project he called the New Evangelization. And another way of expressing our commitment to the work of the New Evangelization is to say that we must become Evangelical Catholics.

By our Baptism, we are called to receive the Gospel as a complete, coherent, comprehensive Way of Life, and Evangelical Catholicism begins with accepting the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the power of God unto salvation for all who believe. This conscious acceptance of the Gospel as the supernatural gift of God by divine revelation then moves us to surrender everything in our lives to the Lord Jesus through the obedience of faith. Moving from being a Church member by convention to a Christian disciple by conviction is a remedy for many of the false catholicisms of our time, and the priests and people of St. Mary’s are dedicated to the formation of each and every person in our congregation as an Evangelical Catholic. To help guide pastoral practice at St. Mary’s, I have crafted Eight Principles of Evangelical Catholicism, which are available on the page of this site by that name.

Being Evangelical Catholics requires that we know the Gospel, believe the Gospel, live the Gospel, and share the Gospel with others. Becoming Evangelical Catholics is a lifelong adventure of believing and living the liberating truth of the Word of God. The Lord Jesus says, If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. (John 8.32)