I favor the Fellowship hour after Mass myself. In some parishes, this is near impossible as there is no where to have such an event (my old parish in Oil City had this problem). If a church cannot have on on premises after Mass, something should be scheduled for later in the day, perhaps in the evening.
Also think that Churches need to provide Adult CCD classes that are scheduled at the same time as the youngins’ classes and at other times during the week. This would not be a replacement for RCIA. These Adult CCD classes would need to be two-fold 1) Those who are already Catholic and need a refresher or desire to learn and 2) Those who are not Catholic, are not sure about converting, and have questions
Catholic churches are not Protestant churches, and we do not fellowship in the Church proper. I think that is what throws most people. To make the Church more welcoming, I think there needs to be greeters at the door looking out for newcomers and provide them with a “Welcome to the Parish” packet that explains the customs of the Church, an order of the Mass, who can/cannot recieve and why, and an invitation to a fellowship event (such as Adult CCD).
Those are my ideas.
These are such great ideas!
Our church had an Apologetics class, which my husband and I started attending within a few weeks after we started attending Mass. It was a great place to meet Catholics and other Protestants who were trying to learn more about the Catholic Church (which is why we were there).
I agree, too, about the need for some kind of packet or tract or something for people who are unfamiliar with Catholicism. My husband and I actually wondered if there was a separate section of the sanctuary for Protestants (we saw people sitting up in the choir loft even when there wasn’t a choir, and wondered if we were supposed to sit there).
We finally made an appointment with one of the priests and asked him to talk us through a Mass.
I know that there are several little tracts and booklets that Catholic Answers has published, and I would suggest that Catholic churches keep a healthy supply of these out in the lobby/narthex for visitors. It would be money well-spent. (To be honest, I’ll bet a lot of cradle Catholics will pick them up, too!)
My first reaction to Sarabande’s OP was that a parish will NOT seek to make their parish more welcoming/friendly if they don’t see any deficiency in the way they do things. From what I saw on the other thread, many people seem to think that their church is doing just fine, thank you. A lot of people seem to think that if it’s good enough for Protestants, it’s definitely NOT for Catholics.
That’s a shame. The Catholic Church should never mess with the rubrics of the Mass to entice newcomers or please people. But many things are NOT part of the liturgy, Canon Law, GIRM, etc. So why not try them?
I talked about coat racks in the other thread, and from the way some people reacted, it would appear that I was suggesting peep shows and a bar! Honestly, the expense of putting up a small coat rack for newcomers would hardly break the church budget. Even if Catholics feel at ease wearing their coats in church, I assure you that many non-Catholics feel very strange leaving their coats on in a church “service.” So why not be kind and try to accomodate this very simple need? I know that many of you think this is a trivial thing, but believe me, it feels very uncomfortable for many Protestants to be sitting in church in a coat!
I urge everyone to please try to see through the eyes of someone who has never even been in a Catholic Church, someone who has been either Protestant, another religion besides Christianity, or non-believing all their lives. Please don’t think that everyone sees things the way YOU do.
Perhaps in the past, the Catholic Church didn’t receive a lot of “visitors” like this, but I believe that with the propagation of the Internet, people are asking questions about their childhood faith, and going online to study Catholicism. The next logical step is visiting Mass.
Just because we have the Eucharist does not entitle us to ignore visitors or tell them that “we’ve always done it this way” or to refuse to accomodate their simple needs. We need to make a good “first impression” on visitors. This isn’t caving in to pop culture–it’s just simple kindness and part of the “missionary call” to accomodate the culture and people that we are with.
