RECONCILIATION MINISTRY

The Paulists have been in the business of Reconciliation virtually from their beginning. The five Redemptorists who eventually became the Paulist founders spent years honing their appeal to what was then termed "hickory Catholics" through the Redemptorist parish mission. The term "hickory Catholics" referred to those Catholics who were as "hard as hickory" when it came to their faith. They had not been to confession in years, often were in patterns of alcoholic addiction, and just as often had what we might today term "dysfunctional marriages."

Rev. John Hurley, Director of the Office of Reconciliation

Every mission given by those early Paulists, and missions given right up through the 1950s, preserved a record of how many confessions were heard. In fact, one might say that the purpose of those preaching engagements was precisely to get Catholics to return to their God through the process of reconciliation. Unlike today's experience of the parish mission, where a few hundred people might come out on a good night for a great preacher, missions in those days crowded thousands of people into jammed pews. The missionary was like a superstar, with sermons skillfully honed to bring about a powerful, even emotional, reaction in the hearts of Catholics.

Paulist missionaries spent hours in the confessional box, in the afternoons and in the evenings, helping people deal with their sin and their sense of being alienated from God. Pastoral situations they could not address (such as marriage difficulties) were relayed to the parish priests for follow-up care. So effective was this technique (before the advent of television!) that the Paulists varied the basic mission format to attempt to appeal to non-Catholics as well. "Trailer Missions" was a whole other extension, in the 1920s and 30s, bringing the mission experience to isolated pockets of people deep in rural Tennessee.

Beyond these efforts through parish missions, Paulists reached out to Catholics with difficulties through the written word (both magazines and little pamphlets) and through their interest in renewed liturgy, establishing a tradition of excellent music, preaching and worship to draw people back to church. One of the founding notions of our first parish, at 59th Street in New York, was that of the "ongoing mission," a continual call to repentance, renewal and conversion.

Today we define "reconciliation" in categories much broader than "going to confession" or even "returning to the Church." Reconciliation ministry also entails addressing some system issues--one of our famed Paulists, the late Fr. Jim Young, for example, brought about significant change in the pastoral attitude toward divorced people in the 1970s.
Under "reconciliation," we also deal with large issues that cause alienation from the practice of the faith--questions about gender equality, sexuality, life-styles, scandals, styles of worship, even church teachings. How do we get people to discuss these issues productively? How do we further the dialogue between the Church and those who have mixed feelings about the Church? What kind of change has to happen, both on the part of people and on the part of the Church itself?

Our newly opened Paulist Office of Reconciliation, led by the able Paulist, John Hurley, will explore various ways to reach this amorphous category of "Catholics who are not connected to their Church." If we can lead some to become connected again, imagine the peace and unity we can bring to their lives.
 

FORMAT FOR THE MEETING


1. Welcome and check in
2. Prayer from the Paulist Prayer Book
3. Reading from "The American Catholic Experience" by Jay Dolan, p. 227 (see excerpt)
4. General reflections on the passage from Jay Dolan and the article on Reconciliation
5. Discussion on the Suggested Questions for Discussion.
6. New Business
7. Individual Reports: Apostolic opportunities that have come my way. (Encourage members to share situations in which some of the Paulist vision and Fr. Hecker's charisms were exercised.)
8. Plans for the next meeting.
9. Closing Prayer (For vocations, p. 411 in Paulist Prayer book.)
 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Since the word "reconciliation" covers a lot of territory, how do you usually think of it?

2. What do you think could be the most important pastoral direction of the Church in the area of reconciliation at this time.

3. Of the Catholics you know who are not involved much in Church, what do you think their key issues and needs are?
 

CHRONOLOGY

Dec. 21, 2006: death of Fr. Joseph O'Looney, with burial in the Paulist section of Holy Cross Cemetery (San Francisco)

Jan 19: Associates Retreat in Columbus on the Paulist Charism in the life of the Associate, and on Regionalization.

January Update for the Paulist 150th Campaign: $1,152,000 (so far from Boston, Minneapolis and Grand Rapids)

Check out articles, blogs and updates at the Paulist Website, www.paulist.org. Note the various 150th Anniversary Activities which you are encouraged to join in.

Contact:
Frank DeSiano, CSP
Associate Coordinator
8611 Midland Parkway
Jamaica Estates, NY 11432
(718) 291-5995

 

JAY DOLAN, "The American Catholic Experience," (Image, Doubleday, 1985), p. 227

Sermons on hell, portraying the torment of condemned sinners, sought to move people to convert from their sinful ways. Hearing such strong denunciations of sin, people flocked to the confessionals; revival preachers [=mission preachers] prided themselves on such large numbers of confessions and kept a running count of them so they could proudly note this in their mission reports.

This emphasis on sin and the corresponding need for conversion pointed out the evangelical nature of devotional Catholicism. The revival clearly illustrated this. An immediate, heartfelt conversion, the essence of evangelicalism, was the goal of every parish mission. Emotionalism was also part of this evangelical thrust, and it fed on the sentimental, full of unction sermons given during the course of the mission.
 

January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
September 2006