|
By Priscilla Greear, Staff Writer
ATLANTA—Sally Mews led a workshop July 20 at the Cathedral of
Christ the King, offering practical guidelines to implement the evangelization
program she wrote, “Catholics Returning Home,” that will be part of a
year-long outreach to inactive Catholics.
Directors of religious education, adult education coordinators and
priests gathered to learn how to implement the six-week program. The new
initiative to invite Catholics back to church gently guides those interested
back into active participation in church life.
Archbishop John F. Donoghue has asked all pastors to organize a
team of parishioners to focus on the archdiocesan “Come To Me”
outreach at their respective parishes, which, in addition to Mews’
program, employs the secular media and evangelization efforts already in
existence in the archdiocese. Currently 65 parishes have evangelization teams.
Keri Allen, director of evangelization and adult education at the cathedral, is
directing the initiative.
“We want to create ways in the archdiocese” to welcome
Catholics back, Allen said. A committee appointed in January by the archbishop
guides the entire outreach.
Mews, who made her own way back to the church after years away,
wrote the program out of her own desire “to make the journey back to the
fullness of faith one filled with love and compassion.” From Chicago,
she’s been active in evangelization since returning in 1980 and has
participated on the National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ subcommittee
that developed the national directory, “A Time to Listen ... A Time to
Heal.” Her program is one of 12 model programs for reaching out to
inactive Catholics and has been successfully implemented in Chicago, St. Louis
and Indianapolis.
The archbishop introduced Mews at the July gathering. “A tax
accountant and CPA, Sally Mews does not have a Ph.D. in psychology or a degree
in theology. She has instead drawn from the wisdom and experience gained in her
own search for wholeness after a difficult beginning in the church. Like the
apostle Matthew, she is another tax collector called to help return wandering
Catholics home to the church,” he said.
Opening her talk, Mews recommended that the program be offered in
September and after Christmas and Easter and publicized a few months before
each of those times. In the program, the first two sessions allow participants
to express any deep-seated feelings of anger and resentment they may harbor
towards the church. Many return because of major life events like death,
illness, marriage or family crisis. “In sharing, it allows them to talk
about what memories they have and seeing that the church is made up of human
beings. The church or Jesus doesn’t kick you out. You’re still
welcome. There is hope,” she said.
Another valuable component is to have team members who once
drifted themselves share their stories. “If they are able to hear other
people who’ve been in the situation it allows them to open up and begin
the healing process,” she said.
Other sessions address changes in the church since Vatican II,
particularly changes in the Mass and the sacrament of reconciliation. Sessions
also reintroduce participants to Catholic beliefs. An ideal group has 10-15
members and should not break up into smaller groups in order to keep it moving
and allow more learning. On handling angrier souls, she told of a program
participant at her parish who constantly voiced his opposition to nuns shedding
their habits.
“It’s important to have the agenda or schedule of what
you’re going to do and be able to forge on and kindly say, ‘I’ll
talk to you about that later.’”
She explained it’s better to not have question and answer
sessions that can lead discussions right to the most complicated issues.
Compassion is a key ingredient and programs need to have very welcoming, caring
catechetical instructors in a safe, healing environment.
It’s better not to combine the program with those for people
considering becoming Catholic as many inactive Catholics have pent up pain and
need more attention, Mews continued. And it’s best if priests lay low the
first two sessions “so people can share and vent and can let any hostility
dissipate.”
“A lot of people are very afraid of the priest ... It’s
good for priests and pastors to show a lot of teeth and then leave,” she
said. “The priests do everything and they do nothing in this. If the
priest and the pastors are not behind it, it’s not going to go
anywhere.”
Presenters should come from a variety of ministries, Mews said, to
lay out a more colorful welcome mat. Many are misinformed and may have about a
third-grade level Catholic education, however intelligent, and they must be
educated gently.
“They just feel so overwhelmed. A lot of them feel they
don’t know what’s going on, (like) ‘where do I start?’... A
lot feel guilty, (thinking) that they’re excommunicated. They (think) they
can’t even come back” because of things like homosexuality and
remarriage and can’t believe the church wants them back, she said.
The great challenge lies ahead, she said, as some estimate that
there are 17 million inactive Catholics. “You have a big target market.
The key to this market is publicity” through things like articles in
parish bulletins, press releases, radio, cable television, parish announcements
and signs, she said. “Make the invitation, (but) you don’t chase them
down and they’ll come when they’re ready.”
Mews said that returning Catholics generally come to church and
may attend the program intermittently for years as they begin to feel better
about it. The program shouldn’t dig too deep but channel them afterwards
into small group ministries and education to help them get involved and work
through personal issues. Parishes may want to offer follow-up programs for
graduates addressing recurring topics, she said. “What you want to do is
channel them and have people ready to take them. You want to direct them to
these other areas.”
After the workshop Allen explained that Mews’ program is a
way for parishes to meet the archbishop’s request that all parishes have
an ongoing program to welcome back inactive Catholics, noting that parishes
with other effective programs don’t have to change them.
“It’s one way to bring people back into the church. It
may not be the only way,” she said. The goal is “bringing them back
home, unifying our family, letting them know that we care and we want them back
home. There are a lot of hurt people back there and it’s about letting
them know we care and we do notice ... It’s like the shepherd going to the
lost sheep.”
A more in-depth program overview will be held Aug. 19 and Allen
hopes participants will bring support for it to their parishes, encourage
people to join teams and “be excited about reaching out to inactive
Catholics.”
Patti Miller, adult education coordinator at St. John Neumann
Church, Lilburn, said that at her parish, which lacks a program, returnees most
often get involved in RENEW faith-sharing groups where they feel comfortable.
They want to know what the church really teaches and are seeking structure.
“The ‘Catholics Returning Home’ program would give
them a place to actually go with the issues,” she said.
Miller, who will supervise the new program at her parish, likes
its simplicity, as an excess of information will make it harder to continue
long-term.
Gemini Alexander, director of religious education at St.
Peter’s Church, LaGrange, is also eager to begin planting seeds through
the program.
“We are very small. I like the publicity idea with the
invitation to come home and I do like the idea of priests speaking at Christmas
and Easter because people come out of the woodwork,” she said.
“I’m very excited the church is doing this. I think it’s a big
step in evangelization.” |
