Sociologist tells religious educators to reach fringe Catholics

Published: 2004-05-03

OTTAWA (CNS) -- Fringe Catholics need to be evangelized, a Canadian sociologist told religious educators. "To the extent that you, as Catholics, are serious about evangelization, you have a mandate to do what no other group in the country can do, and that is to get serious about targeting Roman Catholics who are on the fringes of the church," sociologist Reginald Bibby told participants April 30 during the conference of the National Office for Religious Education. About 500 people participated in the April 29-May 2 conference. "It's never been the role of the sheep to find the shepherd," said Bibby, author of several books on religious trends in Canada. "And given the reluctance of Catholics to turn elsewhere, there's good reason to believe that if the Catholic Church fails to reach inactive Catholics, they're not really going to be reached by anyone." The key to evangelizing fringe Catholics lies in doing what Jesus did, he said: "Ministering to their needs ... you need to make contact with those Catholics, you need to engage them in conversations, you need to explore their interests and needs."

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