A Witness First Lives the Life He Proposes: Evangelization and the Catholic Lawyer

Abstract

This essay was presented at the lecture for legal professionals in Baltimore, Maryland, on May 21, 2015. The roots of the word evangelization are, literally, in the words that mean “to bring good news.” We live in a world that craves good news and, by virtue of our Baptism, all of us – lawyers included – are called to bring good news to a world that, despite all appearances to the contrary, aches for good news and deeply yearns to know the God from whom all good news comes, and to whom all good news leads. I am convinced that there is a powerful role for us in the legal profession to play in this great task of evangelization by being joyful, hopeful witnesses to what is good, just, and simply right. Each are called to respond to the call to evangelize in our own circumstances. This essay explores, briefly, the opportunities that we may have to evangelize, or “bring good news” as lawyers, in three distinct settings: in the ways in which we educate future lawyers; in the way in which our profession is practiced; and, in the substantive law of our land itself.