Catholic Evangelization: Stories of Conversion and Witness

Ellen Gable Hrkach reviews Steve Dawson's new book that's filled with stories of ordinary Catholics who've had extraordinary experiences in evangelization. 

Catholic Evangelization: Stories of Conversion and Witness

by Steve Dawson 
Published by Ignatius Press

From the publisher:

This book begins with the inspiring story of Steve Dawson — his dramatic conversion to Catholicism as a young man and his founding of Saint Paul Street Evangelization, an international apostolate that has grown to hundreds of teams in seven countries in just a few years. 

Review:

I’ve never taken the Saint Paul Street Evangelization training, but my husband and I have been involved in “street evangelization” from the first moments of our dating relationship and eventual marriage. At the time, I was a cafeteria Catholic; my morals had been formed mostly by television and peers in the 1970s. Although I continued to attend Mass every Sunday, by the time I met my future husband, I was neither a committed nor faithful Catholic.

With my husband’s gentle and patient approach, by the time we were married in 1982, I became enthusiastic about the Catholic faith. Together, we evangelized relatives, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Baptists, lapsed Catholics, people in line at the grocery store, and everyone in between. We used Frank Sheed’s Catholic Evidence Training Outlines to explain the faith. 

I wish the Saint Paul Street Evangelization had been around when we were first dating and married, as it would have been helpful to us in our evangelization efforts. 

The stories involve a boy who nearly killed himself taking his father’s car for a joyride, a man who murdered his father and was serving a life sentence without parole, a priest who evangelized in the inner city of Rochester, and a Brooklyn gang member who became a prodigal son, among others. One of the contributors, a police officer, had searched for a “non-confrontational way” to evangelize. In the Saint Paul Street Evangelization, he found just that. 

I found this book to be a delightful read, filled with stories of ordinary Catholics who have had extraordinary experiences in their evangelization efforts. While I noticed more than a few typos (unusual for a publisher like Ignatius) and inconsistent punctuation (sometimes within quotes, sometimes outside of quotes), the book’s positive aspects far outweigh the negative. I applaud the authors and contributors, and I highly recommend this book.  

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Copyright 2024 Ellen Gable Hrkach
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