{"id":72634,"date":"2025-12-29T00:05:39","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T00:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/?p=72634"},"modified":"2025-12-29T00:05:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T00:05:39","slug":"priest-expert-in-new-evangelization-on-todays-catholic-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/de\/learn\/priest-expert-in-new-evangelization-on-todays-catholic-moment\/","title":{"rendered":"Priester und Experte f\u00fcr die Neuevangelisierung \u00fcber den heutigen katholischen Moment"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n Father Manuel Chouci\u00f1o. \/ Credit: ACI Prensa<\/span>\n<\/div>\n

Madrid, Spain, Dec 23, 2025 \/ 07:00 am (CNA).<\/p>\n

Father Manuel Chouci\u00f1o, an expert in new evangelization who has surprised many by organizing an escape room in a Spanish monastery, is convinced that Catholics \u201care in vogue\u201d because people \u201care tired of feeling so empty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having arrived just three months ago at the parish-monastery of the Divine Savior of L\u00e9rez, which belongs to the Archdiocese of Santiago de Compostela, Chouci\u00f1o saw in the place, an old Benedictine monastery, great possibilities for evangelization.<\/p>\n

The monastery had been empty since 1835 due to the forced expropriation of Catholic Church property known as \u201cthe ecclesiastical confiscations,\u201d but in the eyes of a priest with more than 40 years of experience in youth ministry and recreational activities it was full of possibilities. And the parishioners were ready to follow him.<\/p>\n

\"Chouci\u00f1o,
Chouci\u00f1o, on the left, in white, with some of the actors in the \u201cescape room.\u201d Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Miguel Chouci\u00f1o<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhen you see that there\u2019s been a rather long period where people are somewhat discouraged pastorally, and then you see that they\u2019re willing to work, that there\u2019s interest and enthusiasm, then you just take the plunge and say: Let\u2019s move forward with whatever it takes,\u201d he explained in a conversation with ACI Prensa, CNA\u2019s Spanish-language news partner.<\/p>\n

About 700 people were able to enjoy the experience, which immersed them in the world of medieval monastic life through various challenges that entire families completed: discovering the monks\u2019 prayer times by listening to bells, identifying and combining herbs used in Benedictine medicine, and finding a hidden message with the help of a mirror.<\/p>\n

This activity is the spearhead of a plan as ambitious as it is creative that seeks to respond to society\u2019s spiritual thirst.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems to me that the trend is that we Catholics are going to be in vogue for a while,\u201d Chouci\u00f1o said, convinced that \u201cpeople are tired of feeling so empty. So they need to return; it\u2019s something that\u2019s ingrained within us, we can\u2019t avoid it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Society is \u201cexhausted by all the woke ideology and all the boring talk. And what they want is something a little deeper, something that will answer the important questions of existence. That\u2019s where they return, at least those of a Christian background, to reconsider their faith,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Welcoming, not judgmental, communities<\/h2>\n

The escape room project is part of the response to this spiritual thirst, because, \u201cfor them to feel comfortable returning or starting their journey, we have to make it a little easier for them with our language, but also with our personal attitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this regard, he emphasized that priests and communities must be \u201cwelcoming, not judgmental,\u201d and willing to \u201clove them, cherish them, and welcome them into their home, not our home,\u201d like the prodigal son.<\/p>\n

The priest is part of a new pastoral unit along with four other priests who are in charge of 10 parishes and feel very supported in these new initiatives by the archbishop of Santiago de Compostela, Francisco Prieto, who was responsible for the new evangelization in the Diocese of Orense, where he is originally from.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve taken the hard road. We\u2019re going after the people who would burst into flames if they stepped inside a church,\u201d he explained, which is why it\u2019s necessary \u201cto propose initiatives that appeal to them,\u201d such as guided tours of the monastery, where he even shows them his room.<\/p>\n

In these events, he takes the opportunity to explain to them the project for the monastery-parish to become a large pastoral center for the territorial vicariate of Pontevedra, open to all Catholic initiatives and also to civil society.<\/p>\n

Upcoming big event: \u2018Barbecue and prayer\u2019<\/h2>\n

The program of new evangelization activities they are developing during this end of Advent and until Epiphany already includes other interesting events. A Christmas party after midnight Mass; a festive family gathering on the feast of the Holy Innocents, as a prelude to the secular New Year\u2019s Eve celebration; and \u201ca combination of the two best things in the world,\u201d which the priest has dubbed \u201cbarbecue and prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event will take place on Sunday, Jan. 4. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have a fantastic barbecue,\u201d commented Chouci\u00f1o, who has cooked for groups of up to 400 people in the past and is convinced that \u201cit\u2019s a very powerful tool for evangelization.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement has a theological basis. The parish priest has been in the Archdiocese of Santiago for eight years, but before that he was in the Diocese of Orihuela-Alicante, where he attended a series of lectures titled \u201cThe Meals of Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lord\u2019s not stupid, and if he used gatherings around a table to convey the Gospel, it\u2019s because during a meal we all let down our guard, we relax, we talk about everything and ask about everything,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

Chouci\u00f1o seems like a bottomless well of ideas for evangelization, and only his determination surpasses his enthusiasm: \u201cI keep threatening that I\u2019m going to keep giving it my all here for as long as I can.\u201d <\/p>\n

Dieser Artikel <\/em>wurde zuerst ver\u00f6ffentlicht<\/em><\/a> von ACI Prensa, dem spanischsprachigen Nachrichtenpartner von CNA. Der Text wurde von CNA \u00fcbersetzt und angepasst.<\/em><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/268649\/priest-expert-in-new-evangelization-on-today-s-catholic-moment<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Father Manuel Chouci\u00f1o. \/ Credit: ACI Prensa Madrid, Spain, Dec 23, 2025 \/ 07:00 am (CNA). Father Manuel Chouci\u00f1o, an expert in new evangelization who has surprised many by organizing an escape room in a Spanish monastery, is convinced that Catholics \u201care in vogue\u201d because people \u201care tired of feeling so empty.\u201d Having arrived just [\u2026]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":73113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[100],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-72634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian-news"],"mb":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/christianpure.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Priest-expert-in-new-evangelization-on-todays-Catholic-moment.webp?fit=672%2C448&quality=75&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"mfb_rest_fields":["title","jetpack_publicize_connections","jetpack_featured_media_url","jetpack-related-posts","jetpack_sharing_enabled"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72634"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=72634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}