Rich Curran, Executive Director of the Parish Success Group, joins Chris and John for a conversation around the future of the Catholic Church in a Covid and post-Covid world.
Rich argues that parishes will need to reassess their models and ministries to adapt to the new culture we are in, including looking at how we offer Mass, rethinking programmatic offerings, and shaking up old models that will not work moving forward.
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Thanks for the podcast!
I am the director of Middle school faith formation at a church in Massachusetts. We have had great success at our parish by opening up with social distancing measures in place. We did not require registration which I think people really appreciated. We had so many people we had to have overflow masses downstairs, we are lucky to have two Priests so we can do this. Knowing that this was not sustainable in the long term we have added an additional Mass and now we are offering Mass inside plus broadcasting it over the radio so people can listen in the parking lot and then wait outside for communion. We are also streaming Mass on FB. This seems to be meeting a lot of different people’s needs.
I feel like we should be worrying less about how many people are coming back and who is not coming back. We should be worried more about how are we continuing to minister to those who are not coming back regardless of their reasons (and this is true regardless of COVID.) We live in a time where we can reach people even if they don’t come to Mass. We need to capitalize on that. I love the idea of investing in relationships by either hiring someone to be in charge of keeping in touch with people or by organizing volunteers to do this important work.
Thank you for being bold and brave. We have a lot of work to do as the Church, but I know so many people who are on board and ready for change and new fire and life in the Church. Keep encouraging people to open their hearts to change and new ways of evangelization. God Bless!
Colleen, thanks for your feedback and words of encouragement. We love hearing what you are doing up in Massachusettes. Keep broadcasting and reaching out to those in need of God’s love. Let us know if there is anything more we can do for you.