Keeping in touch” “

Taking an interest in those who no longer go to church, trying to understand why they no longer participate in Mass, to see if something has changed in their life or if they don’t share some decisions of the parish: in the past, this role was played by priests in the UK. When someone was not seen in church for two or three successive Sundays, the priest usually went to visit him/her to see what was amiss. It was an important meeting that enabled the faithful to examine his/her own spiritual situation and the priest to check whether the parish community was moving in the right direction. Today, with the decline in vocations and the shortage of priests, this visit, indispensable for the life of many faithful and of the parish, no longer takes place. It has left a great gap that the diocese of Brentwood, which comprises some outlying areas of London, has decided to fill with a team of laypeople. “ROOTS”. The group has adopted the name “Roots”. It has so far visited 1200 families. Visits are anticipated by a letter from the parish priest giving former parishioners the chance to say no, if they don’t wish to be contacted. Uncertain of the welcome they would receive, the members of “Roots” discovered that the majority of Catholics who had chosen no longer to go to church were anxious to share their experiences and find a person willing to listen to them. Many really wanted someone to get into touch with them to ask why they had decided no longer to go to Mass and were happy to discover that they still formed part of a community that had not forgotten them. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. The needs of families revealed by the visits were various and so were the reasons that had prompted them to abandon the Church. There were those who preferred the old liturgy and did not like the changes in the rite of the Mass. There were those who were disappointed because they had not been able to send their children to the Catholic school in the parish. And there were those who had been forced to come to terms with a dramatic change to their own life, the death of a spouse, the serious illness of a member of the family, or the growing up of adolescent children. The main task of “Roots” is to bring into each family a smile, a warm gesture and also practical information on how former parishioners could find help. Those unable to leave their home because of an illness or disability were put into contact with the St. Vincent Society and connected by telephone with Sunday Mass. Those who love singing were encouraged to join the church choir. Those who suffered from loneliness were invited to lunches in the parish centre. Youth interested in sport or issues of peace and justice or ecumenism were told about the various parish groups dedicated to these themes. The members of the team were surprised by the warm reception they were given by the families they visited and by their desire to communicate their experiences to someone, and share their difficulties with the parish community. “ KEEPING IN TOUCH“. The experience of the team in the diocese of Brentwood was so positive that the diocese of Portsmouth has also decided to adopt it. It has thus produced an information kit to be distributed to the parishes interested in going down the same road. “Keeping in Touch”: that’s the name of the booklet, born from the joint initiative of the dioceses of Brentwood and Portsmouth. It contains a series of recommendations about how to select a team willing to visit families and how to prepare it for its task, bearing in mind the possible difficulties it might have to tackle. As in the experience of Brentwood, the parish priest is advised to contact families in advance with a letter to allow them to choose whether they prefer not to receive a visit from the team. “We need to come to terms with the fact that two-thirds of Catholics no longer go to Mass”, declared Bishop CRISPIAN HOLLIS of the diocese of Portsmouth, commenting on the launch of the booklet “Keeping in Touch”. “This kit is a programme prepared by our diocese to reach out to all Catholics and especially those who have dropped out of the church. The teams in the parishes will be led by laypeople. ‘Keeping in Touch’ is a programme that reaches out to people and gives them the chance to share the problems that have led them to drop out of the Church. I welcome this initiative as an important part of our mission of evangelization. The kit tries to build a new communion between Catholics and there can be no communion unless there is mission”.