Evangelizing Culture

Our Mission

Ministry and research are the two arms of the Neri Institute with the goal of fully engaging the New Evangelization in culture and promoting the dignity of every human being. Our primary ministry projects include 1) college, young adult, and high school ministry and education, and 2) door-to-door ministry/evangelization, and 3) communications and media, while our primary research project is an investigation of the function of natural law surrounding various issues concerning human dignity and culture. Our research feeds our ministry initiatives. We are also developing curricula and other teaching and outreach materials related to evangelizing post-Christian men and women, natural law and human dignity. We engage faith and reason in the New Evangelization. We will teach and encourage anyone who will listen!  

The Need

In our culture there is great need for the work of the Neri Institute as well as a call from the Catholic Church to engage the culture in precisely the manner we propose. The culture of the United States, along with much of the developed world, has become militantly secular and post-Christian, seeking to eliminate God from public life and marginalize Christians. Our young people are being "evangelized" by the culture and are drifting away from the life of Faith. In addition, the “culture of death” is strong and is based upon erroneous ideas of the human person and a general degradation of human dignity. In response, the Church has called for a New Evangelization to re-propose the Faith (including foundational principles of Truth), as well as a re-emphasis on teaching the natural law. Charity requires us to teach people the meaning and purpose of life as well as answer questions like, "What good must I do...?" and, "What is the right thing to do?" and, "What is the meaning of my life?" and, "What is true love?" This is the call of Christ and His Church. This is the work of the Neri Institute.

The Inspiration

The formation of the Institute was inspired by Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI and their call for the “New Evangelization,” and their tireless efforts to promote the dignity of the human person. It was also their example of (and call to each of us) to intellectually engage our secularized cultures, particularly by demonstrating that faith and reason are not opposed, but form a coherent and necessary whole.

St. Philip Neri, often referred to as the “second apostle of Rome,” has been an inspiration, as well, in his easy and friendly style of discipleship, and in that, showing the love of God for all people. St. Philip did not seek to form a Catholic “ghetto” to hide from the problems of Rome, but rather engaged the largely depraved culture of his day so as to transform it.

We pray we can be faithful imitators of those who have provided the inspiration for our mission! Mary, Star of the New Evangelization, pray for us.

"I sense that the moment has come to commit all of the Church's energies to a new evangelization and to the mission ad gentes. No believer in Christ, no institution of the Church can avoid this supreme duty: to proclaim Christ to all peoples" (Blessed John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio, 3, 1990).