WARWICK—Door-to-door evangelization was more the purview of other Christian denominations, they thought at first.
It was something that Catholics just didn’t seem to do, or do enough of, to promote their faith.
But to celebrate the Year of Evangelization in the Diocese of Providence, members of St. Timothy Parish’s Legion of Mary decided to literally reach out to Catholics who may have fallen away from the church, and also to welcome others to share the good news of God’s grace for the first time.
“I had a woman almost faint,” said Jan Archer, a St. Timothy parishioner who helped in the effort.
The woman, who said she hadn’t been to church in 10 years, had been mourning the loss of a close relative and was searching for something she believed was missing in her life.
Archer said the woman expressed joy and gratitude during their visit and said she would indeed be reconnecting with the church, as she saw it as a sign she had been looking for.
“I just thought, ‘The Holy Spirit must have sent us here’,” Archer said recently, reflecting upon the encounter upon returning from the visits to local homes.
When the planning began several months ago, organizers Edward Gallagher and Kathleen Kerin worried they wouldn’t have nearly enough volunteers for such an ambitious plan, in which 50 pairs of volunteers would fan out through more than 1,000 households around St. Timothy Parish and make personal contact with as many people as possible over the course of a Saturday morning.
They put the word out that something special was happening through this effort, and people responded from parishes across Rhode Island. On June 5, 132 participants took up the call, even in the face of a morning thunderstorm that poured down hail at the start of the event. By the afternoon, organizers declared the initiative a resounding success after hearing some of the stories volunteers were telling of their interactions with people.
“We’re blessed here at St. Timothy’s. We hit about 1,200 homes on 175 streets in our parish,” said Gallagher, who has spent the last two weeks compiling statistics from the reporting done by those visiting the homes.
Volunteers, who went about their work in pairs, visited on average 30-40 homes during a two-hour span. Many people were not home at the time, but the teams were able to make contact with at least one individual in approximately 750 of the 1,200 homes visited.
“We have identified more than 250 in need of immediate attention,” said Gallagher, who noted many of those contacted indicated a desire to receive sacraments they did not receive years ago. Others expressed a wish to talk with a priest, while some others said they had been on the verge of converting to other religious denominations, but were now reconsidering.
The volunteers were each armed with a packet of literature welcoming them to explore or reconnect with the Catholic faith.
“We approached it from a very spiritual point of view,” said Gallagher, who instructed all volunteers to guarantee those they spoke with that any information exchanged during the visits would be kept confidential.
“The Legion of Mary will be taking the lead in the confidentiality of the follow-up.”
Hannah Wilder, 20, a consecrated woman of Regnum Cristi, said that she and her colleague were about to break for lunch when they decided to visit one last house on the street.
Opening the door was an 18-year-old girl who had dropped out of high school, and was without direction at this crucial point in her life.
“She said ‘I was thinking about coming back to church, but no one ever invited me to until today’,” Wilder said of her interaction with the young woman.
“I’m so glad that we decided to visit that house,” she added.
Bill Patenaude, chairman of the diocesan Evangelization Committee, encouraged the participants to go back to their parishes and share their excitement about what they have accomplished.
“You’ve made history in the diocese, and I dare say, in the United States of America today,” by putting your faith into practice in such a way,” Patenaude told the group.
Fr. Barry Meehan, pastor of St. Timothy Parish, applauded the effort, which was driven entirely by the Legion of Mary chapter at the parish, and the volunteers who stepped forward in support.
“As Catholics, this is not something we have done. It’s a tremendous step forward in responding to Jesus’ invitation,” Fr. Meehan said. “The Legion of Mary at St. Timothy has been miraculous.”
Parishes who wish to host a door-to-door Evangelization Day are invited to contact Edward Gallagher or Kathleen Kerin at St. Timothy Church, 1799 Warwick Ave., Warwick, R.I. 02889, or by phone at 401-739-9552, or by e-mail at merugall@gmail.com for help in planning the event.
Photo: Rick Snizek
BRINGING IN THE RESULTS: Event co-organizer Edward Gallagher reviews some of the results of the door-to-door visitations with Sister Mary Clement, of the Franciscan Sisters Minor of West Warren, Mass., and Jeanne Gallant of St. Timothy Parish.
