Bringing back Catholics

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curiousone

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My parish is starting an evangelization program that will focus on reaching out to fallen away Catholics and ones who have left for other denominations. I was hoping to hear from people who may have ideas or who have even been a part of similar programs to get some ideas. We will be sending out post cards to invite people back to church. Thank you for any and all ideas and please keep us in your prayers!
 
Yes, we will be using some things. I should have mentioned that.
 
I’m a big believer in reaching out to non-practicing Catholics. Sometimes just knowing that people care is enough to bring people back.

We tried a program in my parish and ran into the problem of having far more people wanting to help in welcoming than in wanting to come back. The returnees found it a little overwhelming. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but doesn’t work for everyone.

What we ended up doing was having one person – me – designated as a contact person for returning Catholics. And then I tried to connect people where needed. The problem is that people leave the Church for a variety of reasons and they’re interested in returning for a variety of reasons.

Sometimes they’ve had a bad experience with a priest, staff member, or parishioner. And all you can do is apologize and ask them to give us another chance. Others have married outside the Church or have a prior marriage. You can welcome them back, but you also need to connect them with the pastor so the issues can be addressed. Some of them just need a friendly face they can sit with at Mass so they don’t feel totally alone. That’s where the volunteers come in. The needs end up being very individualized.

I think your idea of sending postcards is a good one. Something that happens all too often in large parishes is that people fall between the cracks. You don’t notice that someone is gone so you don’t take any steps to reach out to them. This will at least let people know they are missed.
 
Yes, I think I recall hearing of a survey where the big reason people left the church was because they felt there was a lack of caring in the community.
 
How would you track down fallen away Catholics? I imagine most that fell away young will have since moved. Maybe let parishioners take postcards to hand out to people they know in this situation or send on to people who live out of town.
 
We are going to go off the parish directory first. We are not a huge parish so a lot of them we will know are currently not attending.
 
It is a good out-reach that your parish do. What you can do depends on what your plan of action is, since it is at a parish level.

Our parish is very big. When we started doing that a few years ago, we found out that less that twenty percent of the parishioners were chuch going. Even less who are active and willing to be involved to do the outreaching.

You can start with the census or your parish directory. We zoned our parishioners so that each group can concentrate on their area.

You can send leaflets, church notices and visit the families or having gathering/rosary in a family house. Yes, it won’t be easy as each has their own reason for not going to the church, but with the effort at least they are not forgotten.

All the best and God bless.
 
curiousone said:
fallen away Catholics
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You’re not going to have much success if you use antagonistic terminology like this. It’s condescending, insulting and more likely to end up getting the door slammed shut in your face rather than gaining a willing ear.

If you approach these people with an air of your superiority and/or their inferiority, you’d be wasting your breath, and probably even drive them further from the Church. You’d be better off staying at home and taking in a game.

If you want to evangelize, the best method, and the one Our Lord personally recommended, is to lead a life worth emulating. If every Catholic did just that, our churches would be bursting at the seams.
 
The OP was talking about out reaching to fallen away Catholics, those who perhaps are not seen in the church.
 
And I was referring to addressing or treating them as “fallen”. It’s not a constructive attitude to have when you want people to consider what you have to say.
 
I think they fall into many categories - active, lapsed, nominal, not practicing, fallen, and so on.

I agree with you if the term means to degrade them though I don’t think that is the intention. They can change the term but they still have to categorize those Catholics who do not go to church to roughly know the general picture.
 
I certain wish you all the best with this as there isn’t enough Catholic outreach. I’m sure there will be all sorts of different circumstances and reactions from this diverse group of people.
 
The phrase “fallen away” was used here on the forum as a description, not as the words being chosen to use as part of the evangelization.
 
My diocese set up signs in front of their parishes and in other places advertising “Catholics Returning Home” and has a number to call. It worked fairly well. I had a few friends and a family member or two return to the church from it
 
  1. Gatherings for 20s and 30s for friendship and marriage - I believe many Catholics lose their faith by marrying non Catholics. There’s many exceptions to the rule but I believe being Catholic is more important then having similar tastes in movies or sports teams. Churches should organize 20s-30s meet up groups. Usually there are not enough in just one church but a Meetup location per diocese would be large enough crowd.
  2. Tim Staples (writer speaker) often makes a brilliant observation while speaking to crowds. If you want to speak to non weekly church Catholics it’s easy, they are at mass every Christmas and Easter. You don’t even need to find them. They all show up at church those 2 days a year. His 2nd observation is that people often say a church has never given them anything. So on that day maybe provide them with a book (I recommend Little Flowers of Assisi). And let them know about church activities.
  3. Closed churches. I often have attempted to go to churches as 2pm and am shocked that they are locked. I believe churches should be open 24/7 and perhaps Eucharistic adoration as well. So many are strengthened not by words but by seeing the prayers of others at church.
  4. Along with this, every church should have a day on the weekend of reconciliation. And it should be advertised and spoken about so that all parishioners know it’s available and encouraged. This rarely happens.
 
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curiousone said:
My parish is starting an evangelization program that will focus on reaching out to fallen away Catholics and ones who have left for other denominations. I was hoping to hear from people who may have ideas or who have even been a part of similar programs to get some ideas. We will be sending out post cards to invite people back to church. Thank you for any and all ideas and please keep us in your prayers!
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May the Holy Spirit BLESS your endeavor and your Pastor.

My prayers will be with you,

Easter Blessings,
Patrick
 
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