Expert: Tom Schott - 4/3/2004

Question
Why doesn't the church have a missionary program like those of the mormons and jehovahs witnesses?  Wouldn't we be able to reach out to people who aren't catholic better and also those who have fallen away from the church?  The Mormons also have a home teaching program where they go around to people who haven't been to church for awhile and find out whats going on with them, and try to tell them it would be in their best interest to come to church.  As Easter is approaching i think about going to mass and seeing all those twice a year Catholics and how it would be wonderful to reach out to these people.  Why isn't this an important mission of the Church?

Answer
Nicole,

 Outreach to such people as you describe is an important ministry of the Church. The pope has requested that major emphasis be put on evangelization, and this includes to the people you describe. But the Church has many, many ministries, so sometimes what it is doing in the evagelization area isn't as visible as some of the other good works being done. Then again, individual parishes and dioceses put their emphasis on different things. Another reason that something else the Church is doing might be more visible. But note that the RCIA process, the rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, is the primary evangelization tool for adults who are not in the Church, and every church in every diocese has an RCIA program. So as you see, the Church does place priority on reaching out to other faiths.

Deacon Tom