Parishes are Like Fingerprints – Greg Petrucci, Diocese of Greensburg

When it comes to evangelizing it isn’t always easy thing try to discern answers to questions like: Where should our parish focus our efforts? What is going to actually work here?

The Church is rooting for parishes to be the hubs from which evangelization occurs. Read the USCCB’s Disciples Called To Witness: Section IV, The National Directory for Catechesis, no. 29 C, or Evangelii Gaudium, no. 28 and you get a taste of the Church’s vision for evangelizing parishes. So, what needs to be taken into account about parishes to assist them to fulfill their role in spreading the Good News of Jesus? 

A good place to start: realizing that parishes are like fingerprints. No two are exactly alike even if they appear similar. If we can accept this as true then investigating the makeup of our parish should provide answers for growing a parish into evangelizing center. This may not be where we would like to start as it doesn’t satisfy our urge “to do”; however, it is a means to uncovering the path for a parish to follow.

Here a few guidelines (far from a comprehensive list) to help get you moving.

1. Above all else, pray. Find people in your parish who pray. Ask them to pray each day, in a very specific way, for God to guide your parish to be a place of encounter with Jesus Christ. Then, make sure everyone in the parish is aware of and invited to join in this prayer effort.

2. Don’t assume that the history of your parish is just something from the past. Look at all the things which over time (both good and bad) have brought you to the present day. Consider what from the past contributes to your strengths, what may have weakened you, and have the courage to work on resolving unsettled issues you discover. Ask what these strengths and the weaknesses say about the direction you may need to take. 

3. Don’t assume that you know what people think and how they feel about the parish. Take a deep breath and ask. Find ways to elicit from the members what their experience of the parish has been. It will give you clarity about what is important to the people who are the parish.

4. Look for the glue that holds the parish together. Use that as the foundation from which you build your efforts to grow into a place of evangelization. No matter how “spiritual” or “secular” that glue may seem acknowledge it as the common ground from which you can grow.

Taking time to decode the swirls and twists and the maze of your parish “fingerprint” can be a valuable resource to answering the question: What will actually work here?