Man who attended Come and See, Come and Seek and Come and Pray unexpectedly asks whether he may now Come and Join.
NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE — A parish welcoming committee has called an extraordinary meeting after a visitor to its series of faith exploration groups announced that he wished to become a Catholic.
The man, identified only as David, had attended a number of parish activities intended to encourage people to explore faith, build relationships and discover the richness of the Christian tradition.
Having completed Come and See, Come and Seek and Come and Pray, he subsequently approached the parish office to enquire about joining the Catholic Church.
His request has prompted considerable uncertainty.
Eileen, chairwoman of the Parish Welcome and Accompaniment Committee, said that while the parish was delighted by David's interest, his decision to seek admission to the Church had not been anticipated.
“We've worked extremely hard to create a welcoming environment where people can explore questions of faith without feeling any pressure to arrive at conclusions,” she explained.
“Then David came along and arrived at one.”
According to Eileen, the parish's programme had been carefully designed to provide opportunities for listening, sharing and spiritual exploration.
“We invited him to Come and See, and he came and saw. We encouraged him to Come and Seek, and he came and sought. Then he attended Come and Pray, and apparently started praying.”
It was at this point that the difficulties began.
“He came back the following week and told us he'd read the Catechism,” Eileen continued. “Nobody had asked him to do that.”
The situation deteriorated when David expressed belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist and requested information about receiving the sacraments.
Margaret, an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, recalled the conversation.
“He asked whether he would have to go to Confession. I told him that wasn't really the sort of question we were expecting at the welcome evening.”
David then reportedly asked whether Catholicism had any particular teachings to which he would be expected to assent.
The question was referred to the Parish Inclusion and Accompaniment Subcommittee.
“We certainly don't want anybody feeling that they have to believe particular things in order to belong,” Eileen explained. “That's not the kind of Church we're trying to build.”
The committee has since expressed concern that David may have misunderstood the purpose of the parish's evangelisation programme.
“Evangelisation is about meeting people where they are,” Eileen clarified. “We weren't expecting them to move.”
A special listening session was subsequently convened to explore David's experience.
At the meeting, he explained that he had been raised without religion, had become convinced of the truth of Christianity and now wished to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church.
The committee thanked him for sharing his journey and invited those present to reflect upon what his story meant to them.
After forty-five minutes, David repeated his original question.
“Yes, but how do I become a Catholic?”
Minutes record that an uncomfortable silence followed.
Eileen eventually suggested that David might benefit from joining another discussion group.
“He was quite insistent that he had already done rather a lot of discussing,” she said.
“He seemed to think there must come a point when the discussion actually led somewhere.”
The parish priest was subsequently contacted and reportedly suggested that David should begin preparing to receive the sacraments of initiation.
This proposal was met with concern from several committee members, who warned that moving directly towards reception into the Church could undermine the importance of the journey.
“Nobody is saying he mustn't become Catholic,” Eileen insisted.
“We're simply asking whether becoming Catholic is necessarily the most appropriate outcome of Catholic evangelisation.”
The committee has now proposed a fourth programme, provisionally entitled Come and Consider Whether Coming Was Really What You Wanted.
David has declined to attend.
At the time of publication, he was understood to be receiving instruction from the parish priest, attending Sunday Mass and preparing to enter the Church.
Eileen said the committee remained committed to accompanying him on his journey, although she acknowledged that David appeared to have reached his destination without them.
A review of the parish's welcome procedures has been commissioned to ensure that a similar incident does not occur again.
The Northern Thurible is an independent Catholic satirical publication. This parody draws inspiration from genuine parish faith-exploration activities. David, Eileen, Margaret, the committee proceedings, quotations and events described are inventions and do not represent the activities or views of any particular parish.
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