Glenmary: The society that works toward extinction

NATIONAL CATHOLIC

REPORTER

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FEBRUARY 4, 2011

47, No. 89, | $2.95 September Vol. 26-October 2014

The society that works toward extinction

—Courtesy of Glenmary Home Missioners

Fr. William Howard Bishop, right, and Fr. Raphael Sourd (the first priest to join Glenmary) traveled to mission areas in the society’s early years and celebrated Mass in a mobile chapel.

By NICHOLAS SCIARAPPA

After 75 years as a religious society, Glenmary priests and brothers have a dream for their future: to work themselves out of a job.

Glenmary Home Missioners have been operating out of the Appalachian and Southern regions of the U.S. since 1939, with the goal of establishing a Catholic presence in every county. Their mission has led them to institute more than 100 Catholic churches in communities where there had been none.

“Wouldn’t it be neat if we had to go out of business because every place

had a church?” Glenmary first vice president Fr. Neil Pezzulo told NCR. “That would be a great day for the church and the kingdom, wouldn’t it? But I don’t see that happening in my lifetime.”

Glenmary was founded by Fr. William Howard Bishop, a priest who after 20 years of living a diocesan life, found a need to spread the Gospel and the Catholic faith to the poor in rural regions of America.

“For me, the sacraments empower me to go out,” Pezzulo said. “I very much see the mission parishes as a launching pad into the community. I think by and large, and I don’t want to speak too broadly here, the diocesan priests view the parish as a

destination, and I personally don’t.”

In the Southern U.S., there are 173 counties without a Catholic congregation. Another 196 have a Catholic congregation, but no pastoral minister in residence to gather and facilitate the community. In many of the counties that Glenmary Home Missioners move into, they encounter people who have never met a Catholic.

“People are curious, and they will ask questions,” Pezzulo said. “Sometimes they will ask the wrong questions. I’ve had people say to me, ‘You seem like a Christian, but you’re a Catholic.’ I would hope I’m both.”

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Glenmarians seek environments where Catholics are heavily outnumbered. Many of the counties, found within the evangelical Bible Belt, have a Catholic population of less than 3 percent. For Glenmary president Fr. Chet Artysiewicz, the emphasis on ecumenism stemming out of the Second Vatican Council has helped the climate between the Catholic church and other Christians.

Evangelization comes with a unique approach in order to meet the needs of the community.

“Evangelization, oftentimes, people view negatively,” Glenmary communications director Jean Bach told NCR. “It’s that hard-sell ‘convert or else’ kind of attitude. Glenmarians don’t approach it in that way. Glenmary and the Glenmarians’ first goal is to familiarize people with the Catholic church.”

Glenmary Br. Jack Henn has worn many hats in his efforts to create a Catholic presence in various communities. He has coached high

school baseball and softball, visited the elderly in nursing homes, led a Boy Scout program, worked at food pantries and assisted the poor to find jobs.

While establishing a community presence, Henn told NCR, he tries to find Catholics, and people who may be interested in the Catholic faith, to start building a stable community.

“A small group of Catholics might meet in someone’s home for six months or so for Sunday Mass. Eventually, you might find a storefront property. In Tennessee, there were meetings in an Elks Club,” Henn said. “You gradually grow the community until you buy the land and build the church. After that, you grow the community to where it’s financially stable, and they have local lay leadership.”

When a church community becomes stable and thriving, Glenmary offers the community to the bishop of the diocese. If the bishop sees that the community is stable, he will appoint a diocesan priest to

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the parish, and the Glenmary priest will be appointed a new job, starting from scratch.

Glenmary Home Missionaries may not travel outside of the U.S., but they are still in high demand.

“At this point, we have standing invitations from bishops,” Artysiewicz said. “We know there are many, many areas that need us, but we just don’t have the manpower right now.

“But here is my bottom line: Even though we are not big, we can still make a contribution. If this is a faith worth having, it’s a faith worth sharing.”

An Oct. 18 dinner with various speakers at Cincinnati’s Xavier University will initiate the 75th anniversary celebrations, followed by a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Dennis Schnurr hallmarking the celebration of Glenmary’s founder’s day at Saint Peter in Chains Cathedral Oct. 19.

[Nicholas Sciarappa is an NCR Bertelsen intern. His email address is nsciarappa@ ncronline.org.]