Overcoming 7 obstacles to reaching inactive Catholics

By John J. Boucher
Special to The CFP

Many Catholics have a passion for sharing the presence of Jesus with others, especially those who have drifted away from the Church. However, we face some major personal obstacles to reaching out. Let’s look at seven of these and ways to overcome them:

1. Fear. We fear rejection, ridicule, hostility, and failure. We fear that we don’t have the knowledge, skills, or resources to answer their questions and concerns, and don’t push them farther away from the Church. To overcome these fears, we need to trust in God’s grace and guidance. God loves us and each person infinitely and wants them to be with him in the Body of Christ. Pray for the Holy Spirit to inspire us and embolden us to be his witnesses. We have the support of the Church, the saints, and our fellow Catholics who can help us to find out the answers to people’s questions.

2. Lack of opportunity. We may not know how or when to approach inactive Catholics. We will need to be creative and proactive. Be friendly and respectful, showing genuine interest and care. We need to walk with them, keep in touch, and follow up about their lives and how they are doing. We can seek training on how to reach them. Look for ways to connect, through social media, phone calls, emails, letters, family, or personal visits. We might invite them to events or activities that are welcoming and suitable for them, such as social gatherings or small groups based on their needs, whether in our homes or parishes. Over time some may show openness to being invited to prayer groups, retreats, classes, or to the sacrament of reconciliation and the Mass.

3. Resistance. We may encounter indifference, apathy, anger, bitterness, or hostility from those who have stopped practicing their faith. They may have been hurt by the Church, by other Catholics, or by us. They may have adopted a worldview or lifestyle that is incompatible with the Catholic faith. We need to be compassionate and patient, listening attentively and respectfully to their stories, feelings, and opinions. Acknowledge their pain and struggles and look for opportunities to share how God has worked in our lives and how the Church has helped us receive healing and hope.

4. Fear of the stranger (xenophobia). Though many of us are descendants of immigrants – poor, unkempt, and unwanted here in the past – we may fear new immigrants and poor people who do not look, talk, smell, or dress like us. Catholics are called to stretch ourselves to become a most welcoming community of faith. Turn to God in intercessory prayer for the stranger(s) in our lives. Look at them from God’s point of view. Identify what we hold in common and empathize with each person’s situation. Watch, look, and listen for what is God already doing in each person’s life. When the opportunity arises, share with them what you see happening and offer to pray with them for their needs.

5. Ambivalence. We all struggle with conflicting motives about reaching out to some inactive Catholics. We need to caution ourselves about labeling and blaming them for becoming inactive. Listen to their stories about what happened. We may find that we need to repent: to turn away from resentment and anger toward our inactive brothers and sisters. If we realize that we have hurt some of them, we need to go to them, admit our fault, and ask forgiveness.

6. Relativism. Relativism implies that there is no objective truth, that one religion is just as good as another, and everyone will go to heaven no matter what they believe or how they live. It denies the revealed truth of God in Scripture, Tradition, and the teaching office of the Church. The “big” story of Christian tradition shows us who we are (God’s beloved children) and that we are to love others (as brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ) and gives us a life of meaning and purpose. We may need to identify our own relativistic beliefs and discard them. We also need to be signs of Christ’s love who never give up on relatives, friends, and acquaintances who wander away spiritually. Jesus never gives up on us!

7. Lack of supportive evangelizers. We will need to gather with other brothers and sisters in Jesus as part of diocesan or parish small communities and/or ministry teams to learn how to reach inactive Catholics and to support one another. We need help to recover from failures, to receive feedback about how we are doing, to pray with and for each other, and to rejoice over our successes. To start, seek out two to three other active Catholics in your area who are concerned about inactive Catholics in their lives, pray together, and seek what God wants you to do next.
Reaching out to inactive Catholics is not an easy task, but it is a rewarding one. It is a way of fulfilling our baptismal call to be disciples of Christ and missionaries of his Gospel. It is a way of expressing our love for God and for our brothers and sisters.
“Jesus was led by the Spirit of God to a life of preaching and service, to the giving of himself in sacrifice. Jesus Christ sends that same Spirit upon everyone who is baptized in his name. For we have all gone down into the water of Christ and have all been anointed to bring Good News and be true disciples. We have all received his Spirit. This is not a Spirit of timidity or fear, but a bold Spirit of life, truth, joy and grace.” (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Go and Make Disciples: A National Plan and Strategy for Catholic Evangelization in the United States, 1990)

– John J. Boucher, frequent contributor to The Catholic Free Press, is a Catholic evangelization consultant, co-author of, “Praying for Our Adult Sons and Daughters,” and “Sharing the Faith That You Love,” and a member of the Parish Renewal and Evangelization Committee of the Diocese of Worcester.