Parishioners of St. Thomas More Church in Washington, D.C., pray the Our Father during Mass.

Tom Gibbons

The community surrounding St. Thomas More parish in southwest Washington, D.C., is an economically-struggling neighborhood with people whose church experience is often minimal. When Father Raymond Moore, a priest for the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., became pastor of St. Thomas, he knew this needed to change and reached out to the Paulists.

Enter Paulist seminarians Tom Gibbons and Tim Shannon, both second-year theology students at Washington Theological Union.

Mr. Gibbons has been working on a new logo and Web site for the parish to provide an infrastructure of evangelization.

“The idea is to develop the Web site in order to take a census in the parish,” explained Mr. Gibbons, who was a webmaster at Catholic Relief Services before entering the Paulist seminary. “We can see people who have relatives that aren’t coming to church and invite them back. We are using the tools of the modern age to strategically reach out to people.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Shannon has been working with the parish evangelization committee and the children in the parish school to spread the Gospel message.

“We took a survey to assess the students’ sacramental experience so we could find out who had been baptized but not received Communion, for example,” he said, mentioning that of the 200 students in the school, 10 are Catholic while 150 are unchurched.

“We are reaching out to the teachers, the students and their families,” Mr. Shannon said.

Using pew cards provided by the Paulist National Catholic Evangelization Association, some 52 families were interested in the parish, the parish school and learning more about the Catholic faith.

“Many people live outside the parish boundaries, but grew up in the parish,” said Mr. Shannon. “We are using Paulist programs and procedures that have worked in the past.”

Tim Shannon

Paulist students usually take on hospital ministry in their second year of studies, but the Paulist formation team worked with Washington Theological Union to offer the students an experience ministering in evangelization – one of the mainstays of the Paulist charism.

“The big principle is getting students engaged in Paulist mission,” said Paulist formation director Father Steve Bossi. “They are getting first-hand experience in doing Paulist ministry, then when they (complete this experience), they are better able to talk about evangelization and concrete ways to do it. Plus there is a great sense of enthusiasm for and commitment to Paulist work because they will have done it.”

The seminarians’ work also fits in with the Paulist aim to have regional impact in the cities which house Paulist foundations.

“This is the way to do that,” Father Bossi said. “To become engaged with the diocese and the local parishes.”

The work at St. Thomas is the first extended ministerial relationship for the two students.

“It gives is a lot of insight as to what life as a Paulist will be like,” said Mr. Gibbons. “So much of the experience is just being able to do ministry and develop a great relationship with the parish. It’s not just handing out pamphlets, but having a core group of people from the parish to work with.”

The experience has given Mr. Shannon the “greatest joy in showing people the pragmatism of faith and the value of faith. We use the Paulist charism to develop and move things beyond where they are. We are in the trenches.”