Asking for your strategies for bringing back alienated Catholics

[Celtic_Maiden]

No, I don’t even know where to begin with that. I’ve been thinking I need to call my parish office and arrange to speak with someone, but they’re very, very busy. It doesn’t help that I’m kind of a loner.

In the end, I figure God will make something happen. He always does.

Personally I think you should just find out what time is Confession, and join the Line, while there have a talk with Father on what is on in the Parish. See if there is a Legion of Mary there as they do a variety of things, visiting the sick, go door to door, etc, and you can pick one that suits your personality. I go door to door with them, the different responses is amazing but you also need a thick skin for some of the responses as well, I just offer it up to the Lord .

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

Personally I think you should just find out what time is Confession, and join the Line, while there have a talk with Father on what is on in the Parish. .

It might be better to talk with the priest outside of confession times. Much less time pressure when there’s not a line of people waiting for the sacrament.

And confession itself – even as we’ve seen in this thread – is often the last part of returning, not the first. Many people need time and prayer to get to that point.

 

[Jozefo]

Personally I think you should just find out what time is Confession, and join the Line, while there have a talk with Father on what is on in the Parish. See if there is a Legion of Mary there as they do a variety of things, visiting the sick, go door to door, etc, and you can pick one that suits your personality. I go door to door with them, the different responses is amazing but you also need a thick skin for some of the responses as well, I just offer it up to the Lord .

Thank you for the advice.

 

[Kindness]

Hello all, great thread. I would like to recommend a book called “Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus” by Sherry A. Weddell published by Our Sunday Visitor in 2012. Sherry is a convert to Catholicism who runs a ministry with a Dominican priest Father Michael Sweeney O.P. called the Catherine of Siena Institute. Founded in 1997 their mission was to equip parishes to form lay apostles. They thought that most Catholics just needed solid formation in order to discern and answer God’s call. However after a few years they stumbled across the staggering realization that many very active lay people in the church did not actually have a living relationship with God.

Quote: " We learned that there is a chasm the size of the Grand Canyon between the Church’s sophisticated theology of the lay apostolate and the lived spiritual experience of the majority of our people. And this chasm has a name: discipleship. We learned that the majority of even “active” American Catholics are still at an early, essentially passive stage of spiritual development. We learned that our first need at the parish level isn’t catechetical. Rather, our fundamental problem is that most of our people are not yet disciples. They will never be apostles until they begun to follow Jesus Christ in the midst of his Church."

I completely agree with this and I came across her book because I was searching to know how I could become truly formed and become a true disciple in my faith. I have only started reading it, but she first shows all the latest research which explains how we are losing so many Catholics, who drift away because they never were true disciples. Or, those that become excited and commuted to their relationship with Christ can find it hard to encounter the spiritual growth in their parish that they are looking for (maybe they’re not even sure what it should look like). These Catholics can leave for Protestant churches.

She also says it is very dangerous to assume that young Catholics will come back when they get married and have children for many reasons but one is because so few of them are getting married. We all know the next biggest denomination after Catholics is non-practicing Catholics!

I would love it if any of you want to read this book and discuss it on here. This is an issue I am getting so strongly in prayer. We have everything in the Church but somehow many of our people are still not entering an intimate relationship with Christ, and it needs to be at parish level because that is where we all are!! I can’t wait to keep reading this book - I finally got it in the mail yesterday.

 

[storm123]

1. I suggest looking at this web site which provides a kind of list of all the primary reasons Catholics feel alienated.

catholicscomehome.org/

1. Realize the your grandparents, parents, relatives and younger people are all experiencing the effects of a pagan culture that was marketed as “peace and love” but which was actually a dictatorship promoting open defiance of the Church, especially marriage, and forgetting about everything Catholic. “Do your own thing.” Smoke dope, enjoy porn, live with your girlfriend and have sex with her. With No-Fault Divorce came this feeling of why bother? I can just divorce the guy. No, I’m not talking about mental and/or physical abuse, but I know too many Christians with two or three divorces under their belts. Sure, we can make a mistake once, but two or three times?
2. Guilt. God won’t forgive me for the abortion, the adultery, the porn addiction, the drug addiction, the divorces. God’s infinite mercy is waiting for all.
3. Bad examples all around. I mean, how can anyone watch a lot of TV or see most movies and not think the behaviors are somehow OK or neutral? Or the Church is “too restrictive” in regards to sex. This is a result of people not even knowing what dating is. Too often, it’s ‘let’s hop in the sack,’ ‘the sex is good’ and we may or may not get married.
4. People had a bad experience at some Church somewhere or just saw their fellow Catholics skipping Church altogether.

We are living in a time where people are confused. They need the truth. Yes, some will say no, but don’t count that as a loss, just add that person to your prayer list, and the others - what joy it is to help bring them home.

I encourage going door to door, fully equipped with the necessary knowledge to answer most any question and the willingness to follow through and find an answer to something unexpected, and help that person to lose that feeling of God/the Church won’t take me back. It’s been 10, 20, 30 years! Will God take me back? They just need another human being who is faithful to say yes and encourage them.

God bless,
Ed

I was a lapsed Catholic until 2 months ago, and I can tell you that an attitude such as the one you show here would certainly not have got me back to the Church – certainly not such intolerance or refusal to even try to understand a point of view different from your own or the Church’s. What got me back was noticing the love and compassion and especially welcoming open-mindedness of certain Catholics I met – I was struck by their behavior and believe that it is the grace of God in them that was responsible for their wonderful humanitarianism. I wanted in on that grace, wanted to come closer to God and feel his grace helping me to do similar works of compassion and service.

I believe your kind of intolerance is what is keeping a lot of people away from the Catholic church.

 

[StThomasRocks]

I like to invite them to the age-appropriate fun stuff that isn’t mass. It’s a great icebreaker to get them back into the church without throwing them in all at once. It gives them a chance to warm back up to the church and take it from there. Game nights, church fairs, bible studies, morning donuts, etc.

 

[katydidnt]

One of the easiest ways of bringing more people back into the church is to look for the disabled in your parish. Many of the people who only come on Christmas and Easter are people who are dealing with disabilities like crippling arthritis other issues. They make a special effort to come on those holidays.
I am the Disability Advocate for the parish and one of the things I do is visit people when they are in the hospital and let them know that they can have communion delivered to their homes while they recover, that we can find people to drive them to church if they can no longer drive. I have a lot of Christian movies and Bible studies that they can watch while they are recovering. ( St. Francis and St. Ignatius were converted while convalescing).
You can have special get-togethers for families of children with disabilities so they can network together and develop friendships.

When people see the love and the care that you extend to the least among us, it profoundly affects them, especially those who love that person. When Jesus came, the well stood off and nitpicked His message, it was the sick and those who loved them that flocked to Him.
It is need that drives us to God. Famine that brought the Prodigal Son home. Look after those in need. They are the harvest ripe for the picking.

 

[rushrules98]

Go to www.streetevangelization.com

 

[Celtic_Maiden]

:kiss4you:

I like to invite them to the age-appropriate fun stuff that isn’t mass. It’s a great icebreaker to get them back into the church without throwing them in all at once. It gives them a chance to warm back up to the church and take it from there. Game nights, church fairs, bible studies, morning donuts, etc.

shaw::whackadoo:

 

[Celtic_Maiden]

:kiss4you:

I like to invite them to the age-appropriate fun stuff that isn’t mass. It’s a great icebreaker to get them back into the church without throwing them in all at once. It gives them a chance to warm back up to the church and take it from there. Game nights, church fairs, bible studies, morning donuts, etc. :

:

 

[YinYangMom]

I hope fnr returns to this thread to give us an update. I really liked his idea.

I think the biggest challenge for something like this is getting people to attend, to make time in their lives to learn more about this religion into which they’ve been baptized. I know there are many, many Catholics who have questions about the faith, especially from a personal perspective, but they are embarrassed to ask anyone until they feel secure in that exchange. I think that’s why CA Forums is as successful as it is. It offers anonymity, and convenience (people can post when they want, access their answers when they want).

I have found that several people begin a program or two offered by their parish in the hope that in the design of the program the questions they have will be answered without them having to bring up the subject. Within the third session some of those people tend to drop off, probably because they can tell by then, that their particular issue will not be addressed. It makes me sad.

I’d like to think a regular open forum type setting would catch on, but it would have to have two sessions: one during the day for those whose children are in school or the elderly who do not drive at night, another in the evening for those who work during the day or who home school and can’t get a sitter until then.

It would have coffee and snacks available for perhaps a 2 hour window in the morning or afternoon, and another 2 hour window in the evening. I could see it taking place by the parish library, if there is one, or better yet, a Barnes and Noble type place. I suppose a public library would do as well. People could come to ask any question they have. The facilitator would answer as best they can then refer the person to books, tapes, CDs, websites they could turn to for more detailed information.

The benefit to the facilitator(s) would be getting a feel for the type of programs the parish may want to offer in the near future. The benefit to the person asking the question is convenience, and an opportunity to learn more on their own, having been pointed in a particular direction.