CNA Staff, Jan 17, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
After the Archdiocese of Philadelphia found that 83% of baptized Catholics are missing from the pews in the archdiocese, Archbishop Nelson Pérez decided to launch a missionary outreach program in his archdiocese to “invite people home.”
The number of “missing Catholics” is based on Mass count attendance data compiled each year by the archdiocese. (The number relates only to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.)
Pérez is launching a 10-year missionary endeavor to bring Catholics back to the pews by implementing “missionary hubs” in many parishes in the area. The missionary hubs are designed to work with existing parishes and ministries by providing additional resources to minister to those who have left the Church.
Pérez said he does not want to “perpetuate this cycle” of “widespread parish closures” due to finances and number of priests — something many dioceses are facing in the United States.
“I want to begin to close this distance between many of our loved ones and the Church,” Pérez wrote in a pastoral letter earlier this month. “I want people to know that the Lord is still calling them, that they are of great worth, have a divine purpose, and an eternal home.”
Pérez recalled that one of the first questions he was asked when he became archbishop was “will you close parishes?”
“I didn’t come here to close parishes; I came here to build up the Church of Philadelphia,” Pérez said.
One strategy Pérez plans to employ is to provide parish life directors — deacons and consecrated or lay individuals who manage operations of a parish, allowing retired and senior priests to continue to minister to souls “without bearing the responsibilities of administration.”
The missionary hubs are designed to grow the Church by working with various existing Catholic ministries, reaching out to those not actively involved in the Church, and providing local community and resources. Ultimately, they are designed to bring people to Jesus through both the Eucharist and service to the poor, according to Pérez.
The large-scale initiative will be gradually “phased in over a 10-year period,” Kenneth Gavin, chief communications officer for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, told CNA.
“This process will require tailored approaches to be successful across the diverse five counties of the archdiocese,” he said. “We also want to allow sufficient time for people to learn more, discern their participation, and refine our efforts over time.”
The archdiocese hopes to make the approach sustainable over time. In terms of funding, Gavin told CNA that the initiative “will be primarily subsidized by private philanthropic funding secured over time and hopefully endowed for long-term sustainability.”
The missionary hubs are part of a large-scale initiative to renew the Church in Philadelphia, known as the New Way Forward.
“The archbishop recognizes the urgency of reaching out to the 83% of baptized Catholics not regularly practicing their faith while continuing to serve more effectively and efficiently the 17% who do attend Mass,” Gavin told CNA.
“This is the impetus of the New Way Forward in the Church of Philadelphia, a process to renew the local Church over the next 20 years and invite everyone to deepen their relationship with Jesus Christ,” Gavin continued.
To reach the people of Philadelphia, Pérez advocates for a “pastoral change of heart.”
“I want to embark on a new form of pastoral planning by asking a new question: ‘Where does the Church need to be and how?’” Pérez said. “We need to inspire a pastoral change of heart that focuses on those who are absent.”
Pérez took inspiration from the “missionary disciples” Pope Francis wrote about in the 2013 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), who are involved in the community and then go forth and “seek those who have fallen away, stand at the crossroads and welcome the outcast.”
“We must be a community of missionary disciples focused on renewal, rebuilding trust, and inviting people to a relationship with Jesus Christ!” Pérez concluded.
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It’s all very hilarious. Why not just proclaim the Gospel? Everything is a new program of some sort…a gimmick.
It is about formation, surely! As a Catholic, we must understand our Faith and because we understand, we believe, we hope and we love.
An initiative to be encouraged, but still, “the most unwelcome thing in the world is the answer to a question that has not been asked.” So, as a beginning and in each case, and as a question, what was it, exactly, that initially “caused” the 83% to drift or even turn away?
In addition to Archbishop Pérez’s strategy for a “pastoral change of heart,” might there also be a place for unambiguous steadfastness in what is held to be really true and therefore doctrinal? The erosion probably wasn’t due to the absence of greeters at the doors of the church.
Already, from the 1970s when the hemorrhaging began:
“Adults
discovering their spiritual emptiness,
look to the Church
not for a breezy bon mot,
but for the hard truths of
mystical life, fasting and prayer.
Lapsed Catholics,
tiptoeing back into Church
on Sunday Morning,
look not for a communal meal
and a handshake,
but for a holy Sacrifice
and the promise of redemption.
Our faith is like a strong drink,
or a plate of hearty food.
We can make it easier to accept,
by watering it down
and taking out the spices.
But who wants a watery drink,
or a tasteless dish? (“If the salt
has lost its savor…”)
Our society is begging for red meat.
If we offer a thin soup, instead,
we shall rightly be rejected”
Many Catholics are taking an easy way out of attending Mass by “watching it on Television” is what I hear. That includes family members who grew up with Catholic School training. When Covid permitted this action, it became a norm for some. I have been told “God understands.” But my thought is you cannot receive the Blessed Sacrament by television. I do pray for people to return to worship Our Lord Jesus Christ at Mass on Sunday and week days too. There is so huge a need for this, so many prayers and sacrifices needed to bring the world of today back to God, our Creator and Redeemer!
I am concerned about the church asking every Tom , Dick and Harry what they “want” in a church and then be willing to accommodate it. When you stand for everything, you actually stand for NOTHING.
Priests have for some decades now been unwilling or afraid to preach Catholic belief on many topics, especially abortion and sexual behavior, sin, and other things. I get they are afraid of blow-back. But then what are you really standing for? I have friends who have adult children who recently married. Few young people marry in the church these days. I have heard shallow excuses for why. Recently a friends child went to arrange Baptism for their baby. The priest asked if they ever planned to marry in the church (they had a “garden” wedding) They told him no to his face. Yet he agreed to Baptize their baby. Further my friend said the couple have no plans to move ahead to have the child confirmed. Why are we accepting this? I frankly dont think this casual attitude should be supported by the church by accommodating occasional “when I feel like it” requests. They are not church goers. The sacraments mean nothing to them. You should either be IN or OUT of the church. If you choose to be out, so be it. Such members do nothing to strengthen the church or pass on the faith anyway. They will frankly not be missed. A smaller but more faithful membership might actually be more effective.
LJ: What you write is on-the-mark. How can those poorly educated in the faith ever be fully integrated in the Church if priests go along with the “Church of Have It Your Way” nonsense that began in the 60’s. That attitude of feckless priests and bishops has only resulted in an ongoing degration of Christ’s Church.