Overcoming loneliness” “

Three programmes of intervention to promote and rationalise pastoral visits to families, focal point ever since 1850 of the strategy of the English Catholic Church, which is now having to come to terms with a sharp decline in religious practice. PAUL HYPHER , former parish priest in the diocese of East Anglia, has developed the three programmes in question in some of the rural, suburban and urban parishes entrusted to him over the years. We present them below, together with a reflection by Father Hypher published in the July number of the journal Priests&People. A PRACTICE IN DECLINE. “The dissolution of Catholic communities, the growing marginalization of faith and religion in society and changes in lifestyles” have caused “a progressive abandonment of religious practice among Catholics; since 1975, this can be estimated at around 2% per year”, notes Hypher, who also remarks that “over 20% of the population of the country now lives alone and marriage failures are among the highest in Europe”. The result is a widespread sense of loneliness that “makes people fragile and anxious”; “the fear of death, abandonment, failure and the risk of poverty” are particularly felt. In Father Hypher’s view, “never before has close contact between Church and faithful been so essential and potentially so fruitful”, yet now when they are most needed “regular visits to families are suffering from a deep crisis”, due both to the many duties that priests have to fulfil in their daily schedules and their constant numerical decline. WHAT REMEDIES? First, suggests Hypher, we need to identify what objectives to pursue. These can be essentially summed up in three schemes: one of simple contact with the parish, another of good neighbours, and a third of real pastoral care. The first scheme means “simply ensuring that each home is visited at least three/four times each year”; the second aims “to create unity among parishioners with Masses celebrated in homes and prayer groups”, and promote “good neighbourly relations that also provides transport to Mass for those in difficulty, or other services such as shopping or withdrawal of pensions”. The third scheme “is aimed at integrating the activity of priests by ensuring regular pastoral visits and administration of the sacraments at home”. These three different programmes “require different approaches to recruitment, training and supervision”. In Hypher’s view, “is it essential, first of all, that each parish identify the most suitable and viable scheme for it”. That entails, in turn, the need for “discernment of the parish’s own needs through close consultation with the parish council and with all the groups and associations that exist within it”. The information gathered in this process “must be constantly updated”; it should form a “comprehensive and highly confidential pastoral database” also comprising “the names of ‘key ‘personnel’ and the list of families with their addresses”. EXPERIENCE IN THE FIELD. “The persons (some 30) who make the first contacts with families and the ‘visitors’ have always been carefully selected” – points out Father Hypher, drawing on his own experience –; we have not sought volunteers, but people of high cultural and intellectual level, rich in humanity and, above all, reserved, whom we have hired on fixed-term contracts”. “Providing information to parishioners and if necessary restoring their links with the parish; assuming the responsibility to promote good neighbourly relations and, in the case of pastoral workers, assisting more vulnerable parishioners”: these are the tasks described by Hypher, who underlines the importance of “giving priority, in family visits, to new arrivals in the parish community”. “Training and constant updating are indispensable” for all pastoral workers. It should take the form of “moments of reflection and prayer, teaching of the guidelines of spirituality and pastoral care, and basic techniques for visits to families” (how to welcome people, how to listen to them). The monitoring of activities and results must also be continuous. The programme should be coordinated in each parish by the parish priest, the project director and the person in charge of the database. A useful role, lastly, is played by “a parish magazine or other information materials” which can represent “valid reasons for first visits to families”. All “visitors”, concludes Hypher, must be “in possession of a declaration from the Office of the criminal police attesting that they do not constitute a risk for the community” and a similar testimonial “from the parish Office for the protection of children and vulnerable adults”.