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Archdiocese of Detroit’s I AM HERE website features powerful photo essays of real people’s transformative encounters, prayer resources through Hallow, and inspirational messages urging people to give Jesus’ Real Presence a chance to change their lives. / Courtesy of Archdiocese of Detroit

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 18, 2022 / 05:23 am (CNA).

The transformative power of encountering Jesus Christ in the Eucharist is a phenomenon that is often difficult to fully comprehend. To help those who are searching for Jesus’ presence, the Archdiocese of Detroit and Hallow App are launching the I AM HERE campaign.

The campaign allows parishes as well as individuals to get involved. Through the teachings of the National Eucharistic Revival, a grassroots effort led by the U.S. bishops aiming to inspire and teach about the Eucharist, I AM HERE aims to promote a true devotion to the Real Presence.

The I AM HERE campaign launched on June 14. The campaign includes a website, social media, and testimonies from real individuals whose lives were changed by the presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Hallow app is also assisting the organization with a series of free audio prayer meditations to help listeners pray.

“Something that I think is really unique to the way we do evangelization and mission is direct communication in the Archdiocese of Detroit. We’ve always highlighted and seen the power of personal testimony and personal stories.” Emily Mentock, associate director of strategy for the Detroit Archdiocese, told CNA.  

The National Eucharistic Revival and I AM HERE come in response to the small percentage of Catholics who believe in the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. A 2019 Pew Research Center survey found that 69% of Catholics see the bread and wine as symbolic, while only 31% see the bread and wine as the body and blood of Jesus.

Because of this statistic, Mentock told CNA that they want to focus on the 31% who do believe and have them share their stories. She tells all people to, “open your heart and mind to what might be possible.”

“We hope to see our parishes transformed by people growing in love for Jesus Christ and in their zeal to communicate this love with others,” said Edmundo Reyes, director of communications for the Archdiocese of Detroit.

The I AM HERE website features powerful photo essays of real people’s transformative encounters, resources for intentional prayer through Hallow, and inspirational messages urging their audience to give Jesus’ Presence a chance.

“You are never alone. In your brokenness, sorrows and frustrations, Jesus wants to say to you, ‘I am here,’” says the main message on the I AM HERE page.

Through a budding social media presence on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, the campaign will feature personal testimonies of eucharistic encounters. The campaign’s press release also states that campaign organizers, partnered with parishes, will gather stories of parishioners to help encourage others to find Jesus in the Eucharist themselves. Parishes wishing to get involved can contact iamhere@aod.org.

The stories on the I AM HERE website feature individuals from all different walks of life. From teenagers to the elderly, each person has a unique experience to share. The variety of testimonies is meant to show the audience that there is no requirement to find Jesus’ Real Presence, only that you “sit in his presence and open yourself up to his voice.”

“Mass is an obligation, you know, whether you believe in the real presence or not. But adoration only makes sense, really, when you’re going to go and look at and put yourself in front of this host if you think that Jesus is present there: body, blood, soul, and divinity,” Mentock told CNA.

“So we really want people to see the I AM HERE message. What’s sort of underlying it all is that it’s not just a devotion. It really is Jesus being here with us and breaking through the brokenness of our world to meet us and transform us in the gift that is the Eucharist.”

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 24, 2020 / 04:01 pm (CNA).- A measure expanding abortion access in Massachusetts has passed both the state house and senate, and could prompt a veto from the governor.

 
On Nov. 18, the state senate passed amendment… […]

Detroit, Mich., Mar 8, 2018 / 05:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A lawsuit threatening a Catholic adoption service is political maneuvering that will do nothing to help children in need of loving homes, families and supporters told a federal court in Michigan during oral arguments this week.

In their latest dispute against a religious entity, Dumont v. Lyon, the ACLU sued in September in order to prevent Michigan from working with faith-based adoption agencies that hold traditional views about marriage, including St. Vincent Catholic Charities.

A 2015 law, which was passed with the backing of the Michigan Catholic Conference, prevents state-funded adoption and foster agencies from being forced to place children in violation of their beliefs. The law protects them from civil action and from threats to their public funding. When the law was passed, about 25 percent of Michigan’s adoption and foster agencies were faith-based.

Shamber Flore, a young woman who was adopted through the foster care program at St. Vincent’s, said that children in foster care need more access to families with loving homes, and that the ACLU’s lawsuit endangers that access.

“I grew up exposed to prostitution, poverty and drugs, but thankfully and fortunately my story didn’t end there,” Flore said in a statement. “I have had the privilege of having my story rewritten and I know this wouldn’t have been possible without the help and aid of St. Vincent.”

The government cannot find foster homes for every child in need, Flore added, and therefore must rely on private agencies like St. Vincent’s to fill in the gaps.

“I am both hurt and confused as to why the ACLU would want to shut down an organization like St. Vincent that only brings good to the greater community,” she said.

“(Foster children) deserve more people, more agencies, more open hearts to fill the shortage of families willing to care for kids like myself. If the ACLU has its way, there will be less helping hands, less homes and ultimately less hope for foster kids, and we can’t let the ACLU take that away.”

The ACLU’s new lawsuit will do nothing to actually help the increasing number of foster children in need of safe and loving homes, said Melissa Buck, a mother who adopted five special needs children with St. Vincent’s.

“This is a petty, needless lawsuit that prioritizes scoring cheap political points at the expense of children,” Buck said in a statement.

“St. Vincent didn’t just save the lives of our children, they’ve accompanied us in the joy of giving them new ones,” Buck noted.

“This is important work. It is also very difficult work. If the ACLU wins their lawsuit, all of this will be taken away…and it would hurt many other families just like mine,” she said.

According to data compiled by Child Trends, more than 600 foster children age out of the foster care system each year in Michigan without ever having been adopted. Studies show that children who age out of foster care without a family are less likely to graduate high school, attend college, or find employment than those who are adopted.

Despite the shortage of available foster families, St. Vincent Catholic Charities found more new foster families than almost 90 percent of other agencies within its service district, according to Becket, the law firm representing the agency.

“St. Vincent particularly excels at finding homes for hard to place children like kids with special needs, larger sibling groups, or older children,” Stephanie Barclay, legal counsel with Becket, said in a statement.

“Despite this heroic and important work, the ACLU sued the state of Michigan to forbid the state from relying on adoption agencies like St. Vincent solely because of its religious beliefs about marriage. But St. Vincent’s beliefs have never prevented a child from being placed in a home,” Barclay said.

This case is not the first time that Catholic Charities has come under fire for reserving adoptions to a mother and a father. In 2006, Catholic Charities of Boston was forced to shut down its adoption services because of a state law barring “sexual orientation discrimination.”

The same year, Catholic Charities of San Francisco was forced to close for similar reasons.

In 2010, after a law redefining marriage, the Washington, D.C. branch of Catholic Charities was forced to close its foster care and adoption services for holding the belief that children should be placed with a married mother and father.

In 2011, Catholic Charities affiliates in Illinois were forced to close after a new requirement stipulated that state money could only go to adoption services that offered those services to same-sex couples.

In the past, gay couples working with other agencies have been able to adopt foster children that were in the care of St. Vincent’s in Michigan, and the ACLU’s clients in Dumont v. Lyon could have done the same, Barclay noted. The clients also live closer to four different adoption agencies other than St. Vincent’s.

“Instead…the ACLU has gone out of its way to target St. Vincent and to try to shut down their programs,” Barclay said.

“Based on today’s hearing, we’re hopeful that the court will listen to the stories of the foster families and children before it who will bear the brunt of the ACLU’s petty lawsuit.”

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