Father James Mallon Presentation

The full podcast of Father James Mallon's presentation in the Diocese of Joliet on December 8 can now be found here:

 "Rooted in Christ, Trusting in the Spirit: Building for Parish Renewal in 2012 and Beyond..."

These are about an hour long each.  Be sure to look at the PDF of his proposal to his diocese, posted on the bottom of the page.

(See my previous post on the topic of renewing our methods for engaging non-involved families who seek sacraments in our parishes, HERE. )

Sacramentalizing the "Casual Catholic" Family - or Evangelizing Them?

Most parish directors of religious education are actually pretty creative people. They are continually devising new strategies to try to get barely-connected families to be serious about their involvement in their children's faith formation. (Often against their will.) Many in our diocese make use of annual pre-sacrament  parent meetings to urge parents to get involved by bringing their children to Mass on a regular basis, praying and reading Scripture at home and talking about their faith with their children. They give inspiring talks, show videos, facilitate group process, and send home family projects. Some use various formats of intergenerational gatherings to involve the entire family on site at the parish.  They spend a huge amount of time and energy trying to get parents to step up to their responsibility for their children's faith formation.

While these are certainly good practices, and certainly they have some effect, how difficult it is to reach these folks meaningfully with the good news of Jesus Christ becomes painfully apparent when most of them disappear from the parish after the last child receives that all-important Confirmation certificate. They pretty much have what they came for. Now they can move on. They will come back to church for weddings, baptisms, and funerals, and perhaps on Christmas and Easter... or not. Some even blithely tell parish leaders that they promised their teen that after Confirmation they no longer have to come to Mass.  These are the "casual Catholic" families. They really only want to know how much the sacrament will "cost" them in terms of money and time. They will mostly give as little of both as possible.  A few may have enough good will to volunteer for ministries while their children are in formation, but even many of these do not remain after the Oil of Chrism is dry on their child's forehead.

What's missing and why don't these strategies work very well.? Simple. Many parents quite often don't have much faith themselves to share with their children. They may have a conventional sense that faith is important, but they really don't have a strong relationship with Jesus Christ.  While intergenerational programs offer more opportunity for engagement, they are missing something very important: opportunities for the parents to experience real and meaningful  conversion of their own. 

Enter Father James Mallon. Father Mallon, the Canadian priest behind Catholicism 201 (the follow up to Alpha for Catholics) and Dogmatic Theology. He is a man with a plan. When he spoke in our diocese on December 8, he described his method... and proposed some models.  (The full presentation can be heard HERE .)

What Father James proposes is that we stop spending the bulk of our energy on those who are not serious about their faith. Not that we abandon those barely-connected families, but that we no longer tolerate the status quo by enabling them to get those sacraments they want from us for a minimal temporary commitment.  He is convinced that people make lots of promises in the course of sacrament preparation they never intend to keep. He spoke of it as "ritualized lying".  We set people up for this when we allow them to celebrate sacraments and make promises within that celebration, knowing full well they are not really ready and have no sense of commitment to those promises.

Father Mallon explained, as an example, how when a couple comes to him seeking a church marriage, before he sets up the preparation and the wedding date, he first asks them to start coming to Mass on a regular basis to get to know him and the community, and to go through the Alpha Course for Catholics, a small-group evangelization process.  Some will balk at this, a few will go away, but many decide to go through this.  So do many parents who bring children for baptism, or children for other sacraments. Those who do engage in this process, apparently, stay and become a part of  St. Benedict in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a very growing and lively parish, which has been described as the "Willow Creek" of Canada.  Everyone in the parish is considered to be on an active faith journey... they are truly a parish that has become a "learning community." Everyone in the parish is asked in some way to participate in the stewardship of time and talent -  and time is not just time spent in service, it is also time spent in prayer and developing one's spiritual life.

What about the families who are already engaged and active and lifelong members of the parish?  Father Mallon says you need to stop lumping them in with the inactive people and treating them all the same. That might mean you offer something deeper for those who are ready - a separate track, as it were... small groups, perhaps, but using resources that acknowledge they are further along on their journey of faith.

So, what difference would it make in your parish if everyone were asked to become part of a small-group evangelizing process before they or their children receive sacraments? If they were helped to see why God and faith and the Church really matter (in a program such as Alpha for Catholics) If they were all expected to be and assisted to be on a faith journey? If they were all tapped for time and talent? 

Do you think parents might stop telling their kids that after Confirmation they never have to go to Mass again?  Do you think they would be more engaged and active in the parish?  What would YOU do if you could, to evangelize and engage the disconnected folks who only seek us out when they want sacraments?  Can you start thinking differently about the focus of your efforts with parents - to change from making it about their children's faith to making it about their own faith?

How DO We Reach People with the News that Faith has Something to do With Life?

Something I have been struggling with for the past couple of years is a sense that the Church is not doing a very good job of reaching many of its people in ways that truly foster a living faith.  It is a great source of frustration that catechetical ministers try harder than ever, but somehow we still  seem to be losing ground with many of the families that bring children pretty much only for formation for sacraments.

When we see classrooms full of students preparing for First Eucharist and Confirmation  who seldom, if ever, attend Mass - and who have difficulty articulating just why it is important that they prepare for and receive the sacraments - that tells us that many people reach adulthood without understanding the big "why" of faith and its practice and that they pass on this cluelessness to their children.  There seems to be a pervasive belief that sacraments are like diplomas that parents should make sure their children receive - so there is evidence that they were good parents and did all the expected stuff on the "good parenting list."  There is little sense that Sacraments of Initiation have anything to do with commitment to the Church and the faith community.

Even worse, some parents seem to think they can "custom-order" sacraments to fit their expectations - like the woman who screamed at me on the phone recently because she had just found out that her daughter would not be confirmed by a bishop. (This year, in our diocese, since we are waiting for a new bishop and our auxiliary cannot possibly do all Confirmations, pastors were given permission to Confirm in their parishes.) Obviously this was not the ceremony the woman felt she had paid for with her daughter's tuition and sacrament fee.  The obligatory photos with the bishop would not be available for her daughter's album.  Her tone and anger were the same as if she were scolding the florist for her daughter's wedding because she had heard there would be no roses available for the wedding bouquets.  It was as if this experience for her was simply a commodity - something to be purchased to provide her family with an expected experience and the expected memorabilia. She is far from alone in that attitude.

So, how DO we reach the kids while we still have them in formal catechesis - and the adults who need "remedial" formation?  By the authentic proclamation of the story of faith and true welcome into the community.  We have baptized and initiated people who have not necessarily experienced the kind of life-changing formation that leads to conversion.  We have failed to pass on the story. Frankly, if the Church is to continue, we need to do better.

By the "story" I actually mean, the stories. The BIG STORY of Jesus Christ, his revelation of the Father to us through his teachings, his life, death and resurrection - plus the authentic stories of people in the community who have a living faith. We need to proclaim the kerygma again and again, until people hear it.  The community of faith also needs to tell its stories.  The RCIA process, during which an adult is drawn into the embrace of the community through story, witness and an apprenticeship of relationship to community members willing to share their own faith is a perfect model of how this works.

In my own experience as a convert 24 years ago, I most remember the stories.  There was my sponsor, Don, who was schooled by religious sisters who instilled in him a living sense that God loved him.   There was Jerry, who as a protestant spouse of a Catholic dutifully attended Mass for 11 years with his wife, until someone finally asked him why he was not a Catholic... so he was one of the first to go through the restored RCIA. There was Sarah, who had been a faithful Catholic all her life, raised a large family, and had been active in liturgical ministry for years.  There was the dedication of Sister Theresa, who led the RCIA and enabled people to share their stories of faith and relationship to the Church.  As we studied various formational topics and broke open the Sunday scriptures, I not only heard the story of Jesus Christ and his Church, but I heard many stories from the life experiences of those on the RCIA team.

These stories and others, I remember, along with the loving welcome of the community of St. James parish in Rockford, where after the Rite of Acceptance, I was given a warm personal welcome by many individuals that I still treasure to this day. The connections I developed over the next few years were part of what helped make me truly and deeply Catholic, and propelled me into ministry.  I may not remember much of the specific doctrinal items that were presented during my RCIA process, but I clearly remember the stories, the people and the relationships.

So, how do we reach the people on the margins of the Church who need this experience of the faith stories and the welcome?  Another chicken-and-egg conundrum, I am afraid.  How does the community reveal itself to people who seldom if ever come to the parish - and then only to drop their children off?  If they do come to Mass occasionally, that is only slightly better - because they at least hear the Gospel.  However, the likelihood of them experiencing the witness of the community or any connection to it is slim.

That puts a huge burden on those "captive audience" moments - the parent meetings and other experiences when they are present.  Directors of Religious Education, Youth Ministers, and those who lead these kinds of experiences need to be authentic and powerful proclaimers of the Good News in scripture and story. We don't get many chances to reach people - so we had better not waste the opportunities we have.