| Gordon: |
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What is your parish? |
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| Anne: |
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I belong to
St Gilbert’s in
Grayslake, IL. |
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| Gordon: |
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What are your primary responsibilities as
Lifelong Formation Coordinator for Vicariate II of the
Archdiocese of Chicago? |
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Anne:
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The primary
responsibilities for Lifelong formation coordinator is to
provide support and resources to persons who minister to
people from womb to tomb. The programs are baptism
preparation, marriage preparation, K-12 religious education
in the school and parishes, youth ministry and adult
education. |
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| Gordon: |
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What responsibilities do all of us have as
evangelists? |
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Anne:
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We are all responsible to bring people to
Jesus. I was baptized at birth and from that moment on, I
was commissioned by God through the grace of my baptism to
bring the message of Christ to the world. Obviously as an
infant, it was my parents and god parents
responsibility to
show me how to bring this message and what to bring but as I
grew older and received the other sacraments of initiation,
I took on a greater role. It starts with my words and
actions and then it gets developed into ministry.
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| Gordon: |
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Some of us may consider evangelization as
applicable to non-Catholics. Do we also have a
responsibility to evangelize other Catholics? |
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Anne:
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Absolutely, no one has a “card to carry” that
says whether they are Catholics or not. We are only for the
world and to bring the message of peace, hope and love to
everyone. Who knows who is the Catholic or not when we
share our message to others. There are some people who say
that a person has to give me permission to be evangelized.
That could be true for some people that I need to be given
“permission” but I feel if I have a conversation about the
Good News of our Lord and offer them a place where they can
help celebrate that Good News with others in Community
(Catholic Church), how much harm would it have done? I find
the Jesus method of Evangelization an entryway. I encounter
people every day on the train, at the bus stop, in line to
buy coffee and if by chance they see how much I believe that
I am an instrument of God’s love and peace that we will
begin to speak and share the Good News with each other. I
let God do the work for me in those situations and am open
to whatever conversation God needs me to have with strangers
on the path. |
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| Gordon: |
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At a presentation on How to Share Your Faith
that you gave at Assumption
Church. you related a story about
Bishop Francis Kane. Could you share that story
with our readers? |
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Anne:
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Yes, most times when there is a Confirmation
the young people are asked to write a letter to the Bishop
about why he or she would like to be confirmed. Most times
the letters are polite and straight forward and the bishop
keeps them to himself or includes some of the letters in his
homily. However, Bishop Kane received one recently and he
shared it with me. In this letter, it was from a young
woman who had parents who had her baptized and made her
First Communion but for whatever reason, the family pulled
away from the church. The parents claimed to be agnostic
(not practicing any religion). This young woman started
being friends with a Catholic girl who attends mass each
with her family. She invited the young woman and invited
her to the youth group. This young woman loved listening to
the stories during mass and loved receiving the Eucharist.,
She enjoy hanging out in the youth group as well. Each time
she went home, she told her parents.. “come and see’ and her
parents refused. Time came and the young woman was asked to
join the Confirmation classes. She said yes and her parents
agreed but still did not attend mass. In the letter to
Bishop Kane, this young woman wrote that she believes that
the grace she will receive from the Sacrament of
Confirmation that it will help change her and through prayer
and her love of her parents, she believes the sacrament will
help bring her parents to church again. Here this young
woman was an evangelizer for her parents and probably her
parents’ friends and family. |
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| Gordon: |
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Based on your experience, how helpful is
social media as an evangelization resource? |
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Anne:
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I believe social media is an amazing and
powerful tool. In a positive way, social media can help
bring the message of Christ to others. We should not be
afraid to post how what we heard at Mass in the homily or
what we love about the Church. There are plenty of avenue
to set up blogs or online chats for people who can share
their understanding of scripture. The generation of today’s
teens are known as the “digital age”, they do not know
anything other than computers or the internet. This is a
tool which church leaders can use to their benefit to reach
unchurched people. |
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| Gordon: |
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Thank y0u for your
service to the members of the Archdiocese of Chicago and
your insights into our responsibly as evangelists. |
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