The New Parishioner Welcoming Committee: Reaching Our Fellow Catholics & Ensuring They Feel at Home

What makes a parish truly feel like home? A big piece is having a familiar and caring community to rely on for spiritual support and fellowship. For new parishioners, it can take a while before a new parish feels like home and it can be tough to find a place in a new community. At St. Francis Xavier, we’ve taken an extra step to ensure that our new parishioners know that they are welcomed and valued in our faith community. The New Parishioner Welcoming Committee, led by Mona Pratt and Jessie Trojan, brings new parishioners together quarterly to introduce them to one another and the various ministries offered at our parish.

“Fr. O’Brien had a lot to do with it,” Mona says. “He didn’t want people to get lost in the cracks. Our parish is all about evangelization.”

Written invitations are sent to newly registered parishioners, inviting them to a meal where they are introduced and have a chance to meet ministry leaders and the priests. Often, the different ministries prepare small gifts or books for the new parishioners to welcome them and give them an idea of all that they could get involved in.

“Some have said that they’ve never been part of this in a parish before,” Mona says. “It’s kind of fun to be on the cutting edge and to hear them say that they felt welcomed. It’s so refreshing to meet new people.”

Jessie particularly cares about this ministry because she has been a new parishioner many times over. Having worked as a traveling nurse for 11 years, Jessie was often seeking a Catholic church to call home. She found that the parishes that made an effort to provide welcome in turn made her feel like she had found a home and a community that she could call on should she need help in a new city.

“In a world where Catholics are falling away from the Church for a multitude of complex reasons, hospitality, and warm first impressions matter,” Jessie says. “Sometimes, all it takes to keep someone coming back is one person showing they care.”

As a parish with a mission for evangelization, this ministry is vital to reaching our fellow Catholics and ensuring that they always feel at home with us. We might think that evangelization is only for reaching nonCatholics, but it is just as important for reaching out to those who want to make the Catholic Church their home but haven’t found a strong community to support them.

“We want them to know that we know they’re there,” Mona says. “We want them to be part of our community.”

If you would like to get involved with the New Parishioner Welcoming Committee, please contact Mona Pratt at monapratt@sbcglobal.net or Jessie Trojan at jmcfester@gmail.com.