Ordinariate Parish’s E-Day Brings People Back to Catholic Faith

In 2018, Edel Lukens and her husband, a convert, found a new spiritual home in the Bridgeport area at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, a parish in the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. After requesting that Fr. Ousley allow their local Legion of Mary Praesidium, based in Norristown, to run a Patricians group at the parish, the priest enthusiastically agreed, serving as its spiritual director (a monthly discussion group meant to get Catholics comfortable talking about their faith).

Interested by their Evangelization Day, or “E-day” ministry, Fr. Ousley asked that the Patricians group organize one in the area surrounding St. John the Baptist, which is at the center of a historically Catholic region beset with difficult closures of parishes that served ethnic communities (St. John the Baptist itself occupies the building of the one-time Italian Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish). Many Catholics, put off by the closure of their childhood parishes, had stayed away from the consolidated parish, or simply grown more lax in attending. This ministry would help reach out to them, as well as to non-Catholics in the community.

For some time, the Philadelphia Senatus of the Legion of Mary has held “E-days”, or evangelization days, where they organize teams to go knocking on doors in the community surrounding a parish. This practice has even spread to surrounding states.

What is the schedule of an E-Day? Things begin with the daily Legion prayers, a rosary, and confession, followed by Mass and breakfast. The spiritual director then leads the recruited volunteers in training for the day, going over how to deal with different situations, and how to best reach others: spend most of the time listening, and “let Jesus do the heavy lifting.” Then divided into 2 person veteran-newbie teams, they go out on an organized route, knocking door by door, offering rosaries, miraculous medals, and prayer cards, offering to talk and pray with those they met. They filled out a card after each meeting, describing anything that had come up. A small group of volunteers remain behind at the parish to pray for the success of the ministry that day. Once the teams are done, they meet and each report on the success they found on their routes. The spiritual director takes care of any requested follow-up meetings, and the Praesidium takes care of finishing any parts of the route that the larger volunteer group was unable to do.

On June 1st, 2019, the Saturday after Ascension, 55 volunteers from both Legion of Mary members and recruited St. John the Baptist parishioners gathered at the parish. For many Legionaries, this was their first exposure to the Ordinariate. Fr. Ousley explained the role the Ordinariate parish could play in reaching out to both non-Catholics and disaffected Catholics. An Ordinariate parish offers the fullness of faith in a setting more familiar to Protestants, and can help them fill the need for what the Catholic Church can provide: authority, stability, and the sacraments. The St. John the Baptist community had also, in the process of coming into full communion with the Catholic Church, lost its own building, and could relate to the difficulties of a shattered community that many local Catholics felt.

They hiked up and down hilly streets—one volunteer joked it should be rebranded a “fitness E-day”—and met former parishioners, a devout Coptic Christian, an elderly couple requesting the sacraments, the father of a Protestant minister, interested in Catholicism, even a bartender interested in providing pamphlets with Mass times at her bar. In total, they knocked on 879 doors, talked with 336 people, gave out 46 miraculous medals and 57 rosaries, recruited 6 auxiliary members, and had 48 people request follow-up visits, which Fr. Ousley took care of with Matthew Hummel, who is now priest of the Ordinariate. The next day, a number of those they reached out to even showed up at Mass! Parishioners who had volunteered also reached out to others in the parish to volunteer at subsequent E-days.

This was repeated in the Fall, with similar success: 17 teams organized out of 37 volunteers went out (27 legionaries, 9 Ordinariate parishioners, and 1 other volunteer) knocking on 474 doors and having 181 conversations with 34 active Catholics, 33 inactive Catholics, 37 non-Catholic Christians, 9 members of other religions, and 21 unchurched individuals. They gave out 35 miraculous medals and 18 rosaries, and had 33 people request follow-up visits: some Protestants accepted miraculous medals, lapsed Catholics expressed interest in returning and having their children baptized, and many people expressed interest in St. John the Baptist’s thrift shop!

Coronavirus inevitably put a stop to E-days throughout the Spring and Fall of 2020. In September, the Praesidium was able to coordinate with St. John the Baptist’s for a nonpartisan Patriotic Rosary, prayed outside for the nation. When November came around, Fr. Ousley judged that there might be space to again have an E-day, with appropriate precautions.

Saturday, November 7th was the day chosen for E-Day, with training on the preceding Thursday held on Zoom. Teams were pre-assigned on Friday and arrived at staggered times for their assignments, so that there was no congregating. They also returned their material to Mrs. Lukens, who compiled it together, rather than this being a group exercise. Each team had at least one face-shield, so those greeted would see a friendly face, and volunteers had gloves to allow them to safely hand materials to those they met, maintaining social distance in all their interactions. They were able to provide breakfast for volunteers, with everyone eating distributed safely around the hall and outside.

Under these difficult circumstances, their optimism prevailed: 23 visitors (5 Ordinariate parishioners) divided into 10 teams and knocked on 347 doors, making 135 contacts, 33 of which were interested in a follow-up visit by Fr. Ousley—they really are keeping him busy! They met 42 active Catholics, 28 inactive Catholics, 24 non-Catholic Christians, 3 non-Christians, and 21 unchurched individuals. They gave out 26 miraculous medals, 13 rosaries, and 26 bottles of holy water. Some shut-ins requested Holy Communion be brought, some expressed strong interest in visiting St. John the Baptist, and some asked to be added to their prayer list. One person even expressed interest in pursuing a canonical marriage! Most significantly, some former parishioners of Our Lady of Mount Carmel accepted miraculous medals and holy water, and were open to revisiting their old parish under a new title.

This ministry has produced fantastic results under difficult circumstances, and like Mount Calvary’s breakfast ministry, is helping a personal parish invest also in the directly surrounding community. A few other Ordinariate communities have Legion of Mary chapters associated with them. This ministry might serve as a good model for outreach even in very different local situations.
 

Edel Lukens, parishioner of St. John the Baptist, contributed to this report.  This article originally appeared in two-parts in the ACS's newsletter the St. Peter's Rambler. Click here to learn how to subscribe and read previous issues. 

Photos: Pre-pandemic pictures of E-Day participants. Courtesy Edel Lukens.