Renewal Ministries Press Release:

The Vatican Press Office announced today that Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Dr. Ralph Martin as a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization. Ralph was only one of two Americans appointed today. The newly-created Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization was established to promote the “New Evangelization” throughout the Church. Consultors are available to offer advice on various issues and participate in various meetings.

We here at Renewal Ministries experience this as the Lord’s encouragement of the mission and message we have been carrying out for many years now. You have been true “partners” in this message and mission and we wanted to share this news with you right away. Thank you for your support. Rejoice with us!

If you’d like to read some of the articles Ralph has written on the New Evangelization, you can access them by going to our home page at www.www.renewalministries.net and clicking on the link called “Free Literature” at the top of the page and scrolling down the page to “Ralph Martin.” Or you can access that page immediately by clicking here and scrolling down past the booklets.

Please join with me, Sister Ann Shields, in praying for God’s blessing on Ralph’s service to the Church in this new capacity.

Sacred Heart Seminary Press Release

Dr. Ralph Martin appointed by Pope Benedict XVI
to Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization

 

Dr. Ralph Martin, director of graduate theology programs in the new evangelization and assistant professor of theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, has been appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as a consultor to the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization. He will serve for a five-year term.

A consultor is an expert in his or her field who gives assistance to the Holy Father and the Roman Curia on particular issues. Pope Benedict established the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization in October 2010. Its mandate is to assist the Holy Father and the Roman Curia in coordinating plans to rekindle the Catholic faith in the developed western countries, particularly those in Europe and North America which are most influenced by secularization.

Dr. Martin, who has served on the faculty of current faculty to be serving, or who has previously served, on a Vatican council or commission Sacred Heart Major Seminary since 2002, is the fourth member of Sacred Heart’s. The others are Dr. Janet Smith, who serves on the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission; Dr. Edward Peters, who advises the Apostolic Signatura, the Church’s highest administrative court; and Fr. John McDermott, SJ, who in 2009 finished a five-year term with the International Theological Commission.

Dr. Martin is an internationally known evangelist. He is the founder and president of Renewal Ministries, which he established in 1980 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to renew the faith of Catholics through retreats, publications, conferences, and through television and radio. He has published numerous books, articles, pamphlets and videos on living out the Christian faith in a more effective way. Dr. Martin’s television program, The Choices We Face, has been airing on the Eternal Word Television Network since 1985, and is the longest running Catholic television program in the world. He holds a doctorate in sacred theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas in Rome.

Note to reporters: Dr. Martin is available for interviews by calling
313-883-8792 or emailing martin.ralph@shms.edu.

Franciscan University of Steubenville Press Release

Franciscan University of Steubenville
Public Relations
Contact: Tom Sofio
740-284-5893, tsofio@franciscan.edu
Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Franciscan University of Steubenville President Congratulates Friends Named to Pontifical Council

STEUBENVILLE, OH—Both Americans named by Pope Benedict XVI to assist the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization have strong ties to Franciscan University of Steubenville.

On December 7 the Vatican named Curtis Martin, founder of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), and Ralph Martin (no relation), director of Graduate Programs in Evangelization at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in the Archdiocese of Detroit, as “consultors” to the new evangelization council.

The only Americans named as consultors, Curtis Martin received his master’s in theology degree in 1993 from Franciscan University and has spoken on numerous occasions at the University’s Catholic conferences for men and for young adults. Ralph Martin has taught at Franciscan University as an adjunct theology faculty member and for over 30 years has spoken at the University’s popular Catholic summer conferences, as well as assisted in other University evangelical outreach efforts.

“You have the prayers, congratulations, and support of the entire Franciscan University community as you take on this vital ministry,” said Franciscan University President Father Terence Henry, TOR.  “As the Holy Father stated when he established the council, many countries are experiencing a progressive secularization, what the Holy Father termed an ‘eclipse of the sense of God.’  I am certain Ralph and Curtis can give valuable advice to the Church on reawakening a thirst for Christ among people of many nationalities.”

In addition to his work with the Detroit major seminary, Ralph Martin is the president of Renewal Ministries, an organization devoted to Catholic renewal and evangelization. Renewal Ministries is the sponsor of Martin’s “The Choices We Face” a widely viewed weekly Catholic television and radio program distributed throughout the world. Martin also engages in a wide variety of mission work in more than 27 countries.

As founder and president of FOCUS, Curtis Martin directs the work of more than 260 full-time young adult missionaries who reach out to peers on 58 U.S. college campuses in 28 states, inviting them to a closer relationship with Jesus Christ and his Church.  Martin also appears on the popular EWTN program Crossing the Goal.

The Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization is a dicastery of the Roman Curia, whose creation was announced by Pope Benedict XVI at vespers on June 28, 2010, the eve of the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul.

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Secretariat of State

English Translation:

The Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI has added, for a five year period, the most illustrious Mr. Ralph Martin to the Consultors of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization. Let this be brought to the attention of the most illustrious Mr. Martin, so that he may opportunely be made aware of these matters and conduct himself in accord with this directive.

From the Halls of the Vatican, 31 October 2011

+ Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone

Download the original document (PDF).

The Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization

The English Translation:

Illustrious Doctor,

I am pleased to inform you that, as of October 31, the Holy Father has numbered you among the consultants of this Pontifical Council for a period of five years.

Your nomination will be made public through the Press Office of the Holy See on December 7 of this year and will appear in the daily edition of L’Osservatore Romano dated December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In passing on to you the relevant document naming you that is signed by the Cardinal Secretary of State, I would like to wish you every blessing of the Lord for profitable collaboration with this Dicastery in view of that “discernment” that the Holy Father, in his Apostolic Letter Ubicumque et semper, noted as the specific task of this Dicastery so that the New Evangelization, which looks upon “different situations that have different needs,” offers an authentic impulse for the renewal of the life of the Church.

I gladly take advantage of this situation to send you my own personal greetings.

+ Rino Fisichella

Download the original document (PDF).