Welcome to the full-circulation issue of The Observer Catholic newspaper. Each year, the Office of Charitable Giving uses this medium to share the message of the good you do through your contributions to the diocesan Catholic Church through the annual appeal. Read more about that in section A. 

 

This particular issue is sent to every registered Catholic household in the diocese, which is roughly 90,000 households, and easily represents several hundreds of thousands of people who call the 11-county Rockford Diocese their home. Whew!

 

And that’s what this issue contains. Stories about your home and why your place and your participation in that home matter. And if you haven’t been to church in a while, please keep reading and welcome.

 

Just before Lent this year, the Diocese of Rockford issued a public invitation on television, radio and social media for Catholics to come to Mass, to come home to their local churches where their fellow parishioners look forward to seeing them.

 

Then as Lent wound down, the diocese again issued its annual public invitation in various forms of media for Catholics to come home to church for confession during Be Reconciled Day.

 

In addition to these initiatives, individual parishes in the diocese are also making special efforts to welcome Catholics back to church and back to the practice of their faith. 

 

The Church is asking folks to come home—home to the faith.

 

Why?

 

Our numbers are shrinking. There are more funerals than weddings and baptisms. Less people identify as religious. Catholics, as another residual effect of the COVID pandemic, even though they still identify themselves as Catholic, have become periodic in their Mass attendance. Inside this issue you’ll find a story about the annual Mass counts and the 2022 attendance numbers. There are also some stories in this issue about the impact of less Catholics on things like schools and sports programs. Even though attending church and participating in parish life is not specifically a Catholic problem, it is especially troublesome when you consider what we Catholics believe and why, and I am talking specifically about the Eucharist. Our belief in the true presence of Christ gives us the unique obligation to be present to Christ as He is present to us at each and every Mass celebration, especially in this year of revival, which you can also read about in this issue.

 

Some folks think our effort to bring people back to the pews is about money. I can honestly say it is not. It is about souls. It is about your spiritual home on earth and preparing yourself for your eternal home. And God compels His bishops, priests, deacons, religious, parish staffs all to care about each other and the state of our souls — like a family cares about its children.

 

Some folks like to cite lots of reasons for not coming home to a parish. They are quick to point out all the imperfections in a parish. And they are not wrong. 

 

A parish is very much like a family home. It comes with all the warmth and comfort, conflict and sorrow and messiness that a family contains. Perfection is definitely not found in a family home and it is not found in a parish. But absence improves nothing.

 

Families and parishes are places where people, tied together by love, belief and even biology, work collectively to serve each other, serve Christ and serve the world through Him. We can’t hope to grow in faith or learn to love and serve others if we are not taught and if we don’t get to work on our flaws or practice our charity — together. That’s what our faith and our parishes are for … not to corral the perfect but to offer a refuge and environment for the broken, the seekers and all those on the journey. So that together we may know Him and see Him.

 

This Sunday we hear the Gospel story of the Good Shepherd. And of course, there are some inspiring columns in this issue which address that idea of having a shepherd and being taken care of and welcomed and tended by one who knows His sheep and whose sheep know Him. 

 

I hope you enjoy this issue of The Observer.  I hope you feel at home in its content and are compelled to join our family of subscribers. More importantly, I pray you continue to practice your faith so you will gain a place in the heavenly home that awaits us all.