Wednesday, February 23, 2000
'Come Home' lures inactive Catholics back to church
BY RICHELLE THOMPSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Marge Ott left the Catholic church bitter and angry. It was 1960. She was pregnant and trying to escape an abusive husband. A priest told her that if she divorced, the church would excommunicate her.
“I felt rejected by my own faith,” Ms. Ott said. “I was angry at the church, that they would take that stand.”
Thirty-five years later, Ms. Ott returned. She attended a “Come Home” session designed to answer questions, clear up misperceptions and help inactive Catholics heal.
She found what was missing.
Throughout the Cincinnati and Covington dioceses, parishes are hoping to lure back others like Ms. Ott through a special Come Home ministry.
Interest in evangelism
Although the Roman Catholic Church is the single largest in the United States, with 62 million members, an estimated 18 million people nationwide are considered inactive Catholics, attending Mass a handful of times each year. More than half of the 550,000 Catholics within the Archdiocese of Cincinnati are considered inactive.
The $15,000 local campaign has some Catholics putting up Come Home signs on their lawns. There are billboards around the city and ads on the radio. Parishes are hosting the sessions this month and the first week of March.
The program signals a relatively new interest in evangelism by the church. Historically, evangelism was acted upon through mission work in other countries, not in local neighborhoods.
“Evangelism was seen more as a Protestant word almost,” said Anna Geoppinger, coordinator of the ministry for the Cincinnati area. “As we became closer to other Christian faiths and realized we are all striving to love the same God, there came the realization that evangelism is an aspect that we need to look at as well.”
The church also realizes it sometimes has failed to meet the people's needs, said Sister Elaine Becker, an assistant director of religious education at the Archdiocese.
A forgiving God
Guilt about sins committed may weigh heavily on older inactive Catholics, Sister Becker said.
Susan Cummings didn't leave the Catholic church because of concern about its teachings. She wasn't hurt or mad.
After high school, “I didn't have to go anymore, so I didn't,” Ms. Cummings said.
Fifteen years later, she came back to the fold and wanted her son to have a religious upbringing like her own.
Ms. Cummings re-entered the church without the benefit of the Come Home sessions. Instead she followed the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, typically a path taken by people converting to Catholicism.
“I wish there had been a (Come Home) program,” she said. The rite “didn't offer an opportunity to talk about the feelings of having been away and how it feels to come back.”
She now works with the Come Home ministry at Our Lady of the Rosary in Greenhills.
Since its inception in Cincinnati eight years ago, the Come Home sessions have attracted from two to 24 participants, Mrs. Geoppinger said. Although the majority who attend the program end up in the pews, Mrs. Geoppinger said the dioceses can't measure its success in numbers.
“This is not a campaign we can take a look at and say 100 people have come back or we got 200 phone calls,” she said. “It's about getting the message out that we care.”
MORE INFO
For information on locations of the Come Home seminars, call (513) 860-3024 or check out www.archdiocese-cinti.org.
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