The
Catholic Weekly
Online
Sydney
19 October 2003
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Peace
in our hands
Jubilee
week for Pope
Special
guests at Mother Teresa’s beatification
School
insurance hike
Honoured
by university
It’s
truly feminine and truly beautiful
Spiritually
renewed by Lourdes
$1.75m
for Caritas
Catholic
Women’s Network
Board
short bonanza for Vinnies
Advice
to lectors, acolytes
Much
deeper reality
Editorial:
Time for tribute
Letters:
Barrel of a gun
Conversation:
Terry Hanley, lay missionary who has spent nearly 15 years in the field - Happy
to ‘spend rest of my life in Africa’
What
is peace like?
Religion
test upsurge
Malouf
on campus
Ministry
of Jesus to the sick and dying
‘Father,
this is your life’
‘Priest
in residence’ honoured
Bushland
setting for Thurgoona church
Full-on
disciple of Jesus
Active
practice of faith
Requiem
Mass for ‘Bacon Priest’
Active practice of faith
The Catholics Returning Home program was written and developed more than 10 years ago by an American, Sally Mews.
It’s a six-week support program assisting Catholics to return to the active practice of their faith.
Designed as an entry point for returning Catholics, the emphasis in the sessions is about making them feel welcome, accepted and comfortable in rejoining the faith community and participating in its sacramental life.
Jan say it’s a welcoming space for Catholics who have not been connected to a faith community where their stories of pain and hurt can be told; they can be helped to feel comfortable participating in the worshipping community; their concerns and questions can be met or directed to the appropriate people; and they feel accepted.
This program is a key tool for parishes in their planning for evangelisation.
Its simplicity, attractiveness and solid content have enabled parishes to be effective in attracting inactive Catholics back to the Church.
During the six-week program, a team of two or three lay activisits take people through the following topics:
Week 1: Welcome, overview, sharing of stories.
Week 2: Returning Catholics - Why they leave and why they return?
Week 3: The Church today - Changes since Vatican II.
Week 4: Walking through the Mass.
Week 5: Tips on sinning - Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Week 6: Not the End, but the Beginning - The Creed: What Catholics Believe.