Is your parish looking outward? Or only inward?
Is it concerned with reaching out to Catholics who rarely show up to Mass anymore? And increasing attendance? Or is it struggling just to support the Catholics who happen to show up? Silently content when people finally stop trickling in?
Does it encourage everyone to go to confession regularly? Or does it only quietly promote it, worried about the logistical problems that would occur if everyone actually did?
Is your parish overjoyed at the crowd that shows up to Mass at Easter and Christmas? And figuring out ways to engage and inspire them to keep coming back every Sunday? Or is everyone secretly glad that so many people don’t show up every Sunday because of the changes that would need to be made to accommodate them?
Is your parish known in its community (among Catholics and non-Catholics alike) for reaching out to others? Or is it known for a lack of activity?
How most of our parishes answer these questions gives us a good glimpse into the near future of Catholicism. Unfortunately, I think most, at least here in the United States, affirm the latter of each of these points. They’re not thriving. They’re in maintenance mode.
Sure, we’ll take good care of you if you walk through the door. But please don’t walk through the door. We are over-worked and burdened enough as it is.
And that’s true, many parishes - and especially our pastors - are burdened and busy enough as it is. But lessening their burden must not mean hoping for a lighter load, it must mean finding more shoulders to lift it.
If that’s your parish, what are you doing to help? And what are you doing to find and inspire other Catholics to help also?
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I agree that many parishes seem to be in “maintenance mode”, but we must encourage them to reach out. In some parishes, a shortage of priests would make reaching out more challenging but priests need to direct and appoint individuals to evangelize. Where there is a shortage of priests, the pastor must inspire the parishioners into evangelization.
Evangelizing is not an option. Look at Canon Law #771.2; it says that priests and bishops must share the good news with everyone that lives within their perspective areas, including non-believers! Just following this directive will yield tremendous fruit for the Catholic Church. And we have the greatest “Good News” with our “Divine Mercy Sunday” feast!
Combining this Canon Law directive with using Divine Mercy Sunday as a tool for evangelization, will make every parish grow. This great Feast of Mercy which offers to individuals, the complete forgiveness of sins and punishment, is the greatest news since the Resurrection. If you read the decree for the plenary indulgence that is offered on that Sunday every year, you will see, in the last paragraph, the “Duties of Priests”.
The “duties” include telling everyone about the indulgence, making extra time for Confessions, and leading the prayers for the indulgence. It is very clear that the Vatican has set everything into place for priests to use this special Sunday, directly after Easter Sunday, as a great tool for evangelization. Pope John Paul II died on the Vigil of Mercy Sunday.
It is about time that we wake-up and smell the coffee. Jesus is coming!
Who’s we, white man? At my parish, any and all committees are merely servants of the pastor, and for the last 30 years everybody who is active in the parish has been concentrated on keeping the school open. Since the school has now been closed for five years, this leaves us without a purpose; latley,we have been inspired to learn that the school building needs a new roof, which will call for a new round of fundraising, which is what we do. Our social action committee does four events a year, in which surplus goods are collected from parishioners and donated to “the poor,” who remain invisible to the congregation. The real, underlying problem is complacency. If you suggest that zeal might be more in accordance with Catholic teaching, people, especially the pastor, get a glazed look in their eyes and change the subject. Where can we go from here? We don’t know where we are, let alone where we’re going.
My parish is very active in inviting inactive Catholics (we even have a group of parishioners going door to door to invite the registered but inactive members of the parish). RCIA is always active and every year we have new people joining the church and I can tell you that they are very faithful to attending mass. The sad reality is many people just don’t think attending mass is a priority. Parents send their children for catechesis to prepare for the Sacraments but no one goes to Mass!!! Our priests talk about confession and they do hope that when the inactive Catholics show up on Christmas and Easter that they come back regularly.
One of the most important thing the parish can do is make the R.C.I.A. very active. The Catholic intellectuals who are devoted catholics should take sincere interest in this and it will have a great impact. We can attract many non christians to Christ.
Fishers of men or aquarium keepers?
Many inactive and returning Catholics want an easy way to to ease back into the Church - to talk about the faith with others who are on the same journey back and to meet Catholics who are authentically living out their faith.
Landings is just one of those lay run programs. My returnees tell me that the reason they came back to our parish, is that we seemed to care enough to invite them back and to provide a re-entry ministry. They need friends in the community that will be an encouragement to them to get back to the sacraments and to Jesus.
Aquarium keepers…that’s funny! Most are in maintenance mode. Most definitely. Yet despite all that general apathy towards reaching out to others and the “please don’t walk through the door” attitude, people are continually being drawn to the Church by the beauty of the Catholic Faith. Not in huge numbers, but they are there. They are drawn to the liturgy, to the clarity of the doctrine, to the steadfastness of the Church against the tides of the culture of death. I think we just need to learn better how to proclaim the gospel in a contemporary and authentically Catholic way. And, we need to have a clarity of mission. The Universal Church understands exactly what she’s about. The Church exists for evangelization. I think that this gets muddied a bit at the diocesan and parish level where many different things are competing for priority. Where are we spending our money? That’s where our priorities lay. And it’s definitely not outwardly focused on evangelization.
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