Evangelization means proclaiming and living the Gospel, and it includes, in a special way, outreach and service to the poor.

This was emphasized by Pope Benedict XVI on several occasions recently, including his trip in mid-May to Brazil.

Speaking to the head of an Eastern-rite church May 28, the pope urged Christians in India to share the Gospel and to reach out to other believers to promote justice and solidarity. “Now is the time of a new evangelization ... a time of respectful and fruitful encounter between religion and cultures for the good of all, and especially the poorest of the poor,” he said.

The next day, in his World Mission Sunday message, Pope Benedict said the primary task of every Catholic is to bring the Gospel to a world debased by poverty, violence and human rights abuses. Individual Catholics must see themselves not simply as “collaborators” in the church’s evangelizing mission but as being “protagonists” and jointly responsible for carrying it out, he said.

The responsibility of every Catholic to take an active part in the church’s evangelizing mission was one of Pope Benedict’s central messages to people during his May visit to Brazil. And he linked this to reaching out to the poor, saying the church — and this means all its members — must be “the advocate of justice and the poor.”

Evangelization “has always developed alongside the promotion of the human person and authentic Christian liberation,” he said. He noted a point he stressed in his 2006 encyclical, God Is Love: “Love of God and love of neighbor have become one; in the least of the brethren we find Jesus himself, and in Jesus we find God.”

Pope Benedict also emphasized that the “encounter with Christ in the Eucharist calls forth a commitment to evangelization and the impulse towards solidarity,” because “it awakens in the Christian a strong desire to proclaim the Gospel and to bear witness to it in the world so as to build a more just and humane society.”

He added: “From the Eucharist, in the course of the centuries, an immense wealth of charity has sprung forth, of sharing in the difficulties of others, of love and of justice. Only from the Eucharist will the civilization of love spring forth.”

How is this mission of evangelization to the poor to be carried out? What does it mean to bear witness to a more just and humane society?

As one response, Pope Benedict called for “pastoral initiatives” of sending lay or religious missionaries “to homes on the outskirts of cities and in the interior (of cities) to enter into dialogue with everyone in the spirit of understanding, sensitivity and charity.”

If the persons missionaries encounter are living in poverty, he said, “it is necessary to help them, as the first Christian communities did, by practicing solidarity and making them feel truly loved. The poor ... need to feel the church is close to them, providing for their most urgent needs, defending their rights and working together with them to build a society founded on justice and peace.”

Pope Benedict noted that “the Gospel is addressed in a special way to the poor.” Again quoting from his 2006 encyclical, he stressed that “the church cannot neglect the service of charity any more than she can neglect the sacraments and the word.”

While the pope was addressing Catholics in Brazil, his words should resonate with all members of the church in all places. If the Gospel is addressed in a special way to the poor, we who live in the Archdiocese of Louisville also have a responsibility to reach out to the poor and to be their advocates.

There are many ways of doing this in our parishes and our local community. We can, for example, take an active part in the parish St. Vincent de Paul Society conference or other parish outreach efforts. We can support or give volunteer service to local Catholic organizations that serve the poor — organizations that often lack sufficient resources to respond to human needs.

We also can be advocates for the poor by becoming involved in advocacy groups or by urging our federal and state lawmakers to give priority to government programs to increase health care and safe, affordable housing. We can join in the campaign of Catholic Charities USA to cut poverty in half by 2020.

This is not simply humanitarian work. It’s about living our faith. It’s about proclaiming and living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.