Join in the Paulist mission!
by Father John J. Geaney, CSP
June 16, 2014

It’s been almost three weeks since the Paulist General Assembly. The Paulist Fathers get together every four years to decide the direction of the community for the next four years.

Thirty Paulists are elected from among our peers for this task. We met in Washington, D.C., and had a successful meeting. Part of the meeting was to install our new president, Father Eric Andrews, CSP. But the work of the assembly was much broader than that. We dealt with issues such as Paulist formation and the continuing education for our priests. We were deeply aware of the need to listen to the Latino population in the United States. And we worked with several other more internal issues such as finances, election laws and retirement for our priests.

I served on the committee dealing with the Paulist mission. A document was produced by that committee which noted that since our last meeting, two things in particular about our culture called to us to continue our original calling as missionaries. “We are particularly conscious of the deepening phenomenon in the United States in which people declare they have no religion and need none (known as “the nones”). Materialism seems to satisfy the longings of many hearts, which St. Augustine declared only God can satisfy.

The call in America for evangelization could hardly be stronger. Our patron, St. Paul, reminds us: “Woe to me if I do not proclaim the Gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:16).

As Paulists we are aware of the two issues mentioned above and we work ceaselessly at St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Grand Rapids, Mich., where I serve as rector, to try to determine how we can address the two issues mentioned. We know that being a parish that invites people to become a part of our community and welcoming them when they come is essential to a Christian community today. As Paulists, we hope that you feel that welcome when you come to the cathedral and are aware for your friends and family of our continuing call to come and get to know Jesus better.

I wish I could say that we came up with a solution to materialism and the “nones.” We did not.

But we did continue to speak forcefully about mission and the needs of our culture in America.

And we defined our mission this way:

“Led by the Holy Spirit, the Paulists are a missionary community that forms Catholics for mission,

giving particular attention to those beyond the Catholic community.

· The qualities with which we embody this mission are freedom and joy, respect and  understanding, invitation and welcome, so we may display the love of Christ and his Church  to the people we encounter.

· The avenues through which we actualize the mission are evangelization, reconciliation, ecumenism and interfaith dialogue.”

And we hope that you will join us in our Paulist mission.