Sunday, February 3, 2008

Catholic conference seeks to reignite the spirit

Tom Heinen reported in the January 26, 2008 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Awakening the Spirit, "A Catholic Evangelization Conference", February 8-9, 2008 in Kohler.
About two years ago, Lacke [John Lacke, the layman who sparked the project'] was sitting in a parish council meeting in Sheboygan as the pastor detailed how membership was down, giving was down, expenses were up and people were becoming disenchanted.

...

..."And I knew that people had this big hunger inside of them to ask the big questions of life: 'Is there a God? Does he love me? What does he want me to be doing?' Those kinds of questions can be answered in a Catholic community."

This goes against the conventional wisdom that the big hunger is for a fund drive. If your parish has had a major building project, compare the effort put into that compared to the effort put into evangelization.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:43 AM

    If your parish has had a major building project, compare the effort put into that compared to the effort put into evangelization.

    BINGO! You've absolutely nailed it. One gets the feeling that more than a few pastors believe in building projects far more than they believe in evangelization. Or, perhaps, when it comes to evangelization, a deficit of, um, shall we say personal resources, makes an evangelization project unlikely. It's hard to be enthusiastic about things one isn't passionate about, and a building project is an ego stroker. One that will result in a personal "legacy." It's harder to have one's name attached to evangelization.

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  2. Anonymous10:04 PM

    As a convert to the Catholic Church I can tell you that the best kept secret in this culture is what the Church REALLY teaches and believes. It is such a great secret that many cradle Catholics do not even know it. Of course, it would be helpful if the diocesan priests actually believed and taught people what the Church teaches.....perhaps one day this will happen.

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  3. Anonymous7:33 AM

    Mr.Lacke is a member of Fr.Connell's very own Holy Name Parish, this is, when is hasn't ditched the place to be the VICAR of "Thoughts and Ponderings". Vibrancy, anyone ?

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  4. Sounds like you have doubts about his ideas for planning. Even so,
    if the conference sounds good to you, it's not a mark against Father, is it? Maybe the conference indicates his parish is in a better-than-average position to do without a full-time pastor for a while.

    What seems odd, from this distance, is that what might be signs of new vibrancy are right there in his parish and district, but he writes as if he doesn't recognize it.

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