Door-to-door Catholicism?

While doing some research for our forthcoming paper in deaconate formation yesterday, I happened upon the front page of New Advent, where I happened to find a link to an article in the National Catholic Register about Catholics who have taken a cue from the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses and are taking the Truth of Holy Mother Church door-to-door:

“On our first day out, at the first house we knocked, we spoke with an 80-something-year-old Lutheran and his wife who was a former Catholic,” said Cruze.

“After introducing ourselves, he said, Catholics, huh?! We’ve had Jehovah’s, the Mormon boys and even Assemblies of God. We ain’t never had any Catholics here before. Where ya been?” recalled Rosenthal.

“We go door-to-door to plant seeds,” added Rosenthal. “To give others who may not otherwise have been given the invitation to come to Mass and to explore the richness and beauty that we enjoy in the Catholic faith. We hope that sooner or later they will choose the fullness of Christianity — in the Catholic Church.”

A similar effort took place in Colorado. Lyn Rooney helped create a pilot door-to-door effort at her parish, St. Francis of Assisi in Colorado Springs, Colo. The effort was the outgrowth of an apologetics group Rooney has been a part of for eight years.

“A Jehovah’s Witness had come to my door,” said Rooney. “We talked for about an hour, and I spoke about the Catholic faith. In the end the Jehovah’s Witness said, ‘If this is really the Church that Jesus founded, why aren’t you out doing what we’re doing?’ That was compelling.”

Certainly, going door-to-door is often ridiculed as an ineffecive way of evangelizing. After all, how many times have we been caught right in the middle of our daily routines by tha pesky Mormon or Jehovah's Witness at the door? Yet, many times when you talk to fallen away Catholics, one of the chief complaints that is heard is that they never hear from anyone that they would otherwise go to church with, or they were new to a neighborhood and no one from the nearest parish paid them a visit. The worst stories I have heard have been of those who were sick or homebound and no one paid them a visit or brought Our Lord to them in the Holy Eucharist. Those kinds of situations not only happen, but they are all too common, and were so well before HIPPA became the law of the land.

Of course there are parishes and Church orgaizations that have great outreach programs, but every parish should have those kinds of programs, and not just for those who come asking or needing our physical help, but for those who need our spiritual help. Many times people just need to know we are here and that we are praying for them. Someone may need a ride to Sunday Mass who otherwise wouldn't be able to go, or want to participate in a parish activity but they need a helping hand to do so.

And then there are the unchurched...

We tend to believe that since we live in the "Bible Belt" that most people have a place of worship or a set of firm religious beliefs, but we are potentially losing an entire young generation of potential converts because of this false assumption. Increasingly, younger people are far less likely to embrace the faith of their parents, and some in our midst were raised with no practicing religious faith at all-we as a Church need to reach out to the current generation and let them know we are here, especially in this part of the country.

I don't think that a door-to-door approach is good in every case or among all people, but it may surprise those who participate in this kind of outreach just how many people are hungry for the truth if only someone would take the time to share it.