A Plan
It all started when…
I asked a member of the clergy (who is a friend and will remain nameless. This isn’t about pointing fingers, after all), “What is the plan for evangelizing the diocese?”
He replied, “Well, I’m not really sure that we have one. What do you think we should do?”
I thought out loud, “Really? There isn’t a plan? I mean, if I’m being honest, it feels like this whole area of central Minnesota was raised Catholic, but our numbers seem to reflect us losing the spiritual battle to agnosticism or non-denominational Christianity. I mean, the parish I attend did not even have anyone enter at Easter last year — shouldn’t we have a plan to do something about that?”
“Well, we are launching a parish app in a few weeks…” He said.
“Great. That will draw in the masses.” I thought sarcastically, this time to myself.
And at that moment it hit me: There is no plan.
I mean, nothing concrete.
Nothing solid.
Nothing that will stop the exodus of people leaving the pews.
For every 1 Catholic that enters the Church, 6 leave.
50% of Catholics are no longer practicing Catholics by age 30.
According to the diocesan publication Central Minnesota Catholic, in the St. Cloud Diocese, there were 1,489 Catholic marriages celebrated in 1980. There were only 488 in 2016.
In 1960, there were 4,245 infant baptisms.
In 2016, there were just 1,660.
And from 1960 to 2016, the population of the Diocese had grown by 243,680. But the amount of Catholics has grown by only 13,385. That means that if the number of Catholics were to grow proportionally to the population of the area, there ought to be at least 73,302 more Catholics in the area.
73,302.
And that is just if we wanted to keep pace with the population growth.
So let’s call it 73k Catholics.
That’s 73k souls who are not experiencing the fullness of Jesus Christ, His Church, His Purpose, His mission, His Fullness, His Grace! 73k!
And there is no plan to get them back?
Shutting down churches, consolidating resources, upping the ask for donation dollars, funding programs that bear no spiritual fruit — all this is just merely resource management, not evangelization. What.Is.The.Plan?!
But there really is no plan.
Until now.
That’s where St. Cloud Catholic comes in.
We are a community that exists to intentionally evangelize the St. Cloud Diocese community.
And what that looks like is starting small. Really small. Like, with yourself and your family small. And then from there branching out into some of our small groups where you will meet like-minded people who think and feel the same way as you do about the Church and who want to help, who want to do something.
From there, you have the opportunity to educate yourself. To grow spiritually. To grow in virtue. All the while, being supported.
I call it “Me-We-Them.”
First we take care of our individual spiritual lives.
Then we invite others in. We do life with them. We walk with them and share hospitality with them. We make friends who we can share our faith with, pray with, go to Mass with.
And then we pray for them. We let the Holy Spirit move in their life. We can’t force them, so we pray the Holy Spirit works on their hearts and minds and souls.
And, by the Grace of Jesus Christ, we will chip away, day-by-day, year-by-year, at winning back the eternal souls who have been lost by the last 60 year.
The 73k that are missing from our community of believers.
It doesn’t start with an app.
It doesn’t start with someone else.
It starts with Grace. And, if you’re willing to cooperate with that Grace, to open yourself to that Grace, then we’d love to connect with you about how God has a wonderful plan to help you become fully alive and renew His Church.
That’s the plan.
By God’s Grace. For God’s Glory.
[Looking for a way to get started? Click here to go to our “Start Here” page.]
““I sense that the moment has come to commit all of the Church’s energies
to a new evangelization
and to the mission to all people.
No believer in Christ, no institution of the church can avoid the
supreme duty to proclaim Christ to all peoples.””