“I don’t want to go to hell,” she said. That stopped me cold. 

I was talking with an inquirer shortly after Pope Leo XIV was elected. I was trying to learn what brought her to us. Her words made my heart clutch. Fear of going to hell was a worry throughout my childhood. Well-meaning teachers would caution me to go to confession regularly to ensure I didn’t die in mortal sin.

Then in high school, I was “evangelized” by some fellow students who didn’t see God as a stern judge, logging every misdeed. For them, God was a God of love and mercy who wants the very best for us.

That shift—from fear to love, from judgment to mercy—was life-changing for me. And I wonder if longing for love and mercy is what’s drawing people like my inquirer to church now, especially in the wake of the pope’s election. The pope’s very name is meant to proclaim God’s love for us.

Pope Leo XIV, from Chicago, chose his name to honor Leo XIII—the pope who defended the dignity of workers during the Industrial Revolution. Leo XIII spoke out against systems of poverty, racism, and economic exploitation. The new pope is saying we have to continue to speak out. For Pope Leo XIV, salvation isn’t a someday reward—it’s a call to end the hell people are living in now.

Evangelization begins at the Cross

Liberation—the healing of wounds, the lifting of burdens, the restoration of dignity—happens when we embrace the Cross of Christ. The Cross isn’t just a symbol of suffering. It is the ultimate expression of love where God does not judge us but becomes one with us in our brokenness. 

This is the good news. Not that God will spare us suffering, but that Christ refuses to let us suffer alone.

And so when we enter someone into the catechumenate, we mark them with the Cross. We trace it on their forehead, their shoulders, their heart—not to scare them, but to name the path they’re already walking. Because for so many of our seekers, like the woman I met, the Cross isn’t a future challenge—it’s a present reality. They are already carrying heavy burdens. What Jesus offers them in the Cross is unity. In Jesus, we have a Savior who is one with us in our suffering. 

The reason for our ministry

So what does all this mean for us as catechumenate ministers? We already know that evangelization is the reason the church exists and the reason our ministry exists. Pope Paul VI taught:

Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize… (Evangelii Nuntiandi [December 8, 1975]).

And the catechumenate is the church’s most direct, focused, and intentional form of evangelization. That is why it is so important that we break our bad habits of treating the catechumenate as a kind of school. The catechumenate is a journey of faith. It is a journey to the Cross. 

When the inquirer said she was afraid of hell, I should’ve told her: You’ve already walked through hell. You don’t need more fear. You need a community that walks with you to the Cross—and a Savior who’s already there.

This is the mission. This is why we’re here.

So here’s the question

If the people coming to us are already carrying crosses, already walking through fire, will we meet them there—or will we wait for them to be “ready”?