r own catholicity, and obeying the mandate of her Founder, strives ever to proclaim the Gospel to all men. The Apostles themselves, on whom the Church was founded, following in the footsteps of Christ, ôpreached the word of truth and begot churches.ö It is the duty of their successors to make this task endure ôso that the word of God may run and be glorifiedö and the kingdom of God be proclaimed and established throughout the world.ö
Thus, Pope Paul VI made clear that it is the obligation of every Catholic to ôpreach[] the world of truth,ö that word being the tenets of Catholicism.
Subsequently, in 1992, the United States Conference of Bishops (Conference) issued a document titled Go and Make Disciples: A National Plan and Strategy for Catholic Evangelization in the United States. In this document, the Conference explained evangelization to mean ôbringing the Good News of Jesus into every human situation and seeking to convert individuals and society by the divine power of the Gospel itself.ö It also revisited Pope Paul VIÆs 1975 message titled ôEvangelii Nuntiandiö (On Evangelization in the Modern World), in which the Pope reaffirmed the evangelizing mission of the Church. This duty to evangelize û to be disciples for God û is a basic duty of all Catholics because all Catholics follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, who was GodÆs disciple. Thus the Bishops explained that Jesus has commanded Catholics to evangelize so that they may enlighten people as he did:
The Lord Jesus, ôthe way and the truth and the life,ö came to us as a teacher, opening for us the wisdom that not only leads to life eternal but also leads to a human fulfillment that reflects the dignity and mystery of our nature. Unless people know the grandeur for which they are made, they cannot reach fulfillment and their lives will be incomplete. Nor will they know that they are called into interpersonal union with God and with each other...