July 7, 2014
London, U.K. – Landings International, the Paulist ministry of reconciliation that welcomes people back to the Catholic Church is off to a successful re-launch in the United Kingdom. Approximately 100 people gathered at Heythrop College, the Jesuit-run specialty college for philosophy and theology at the University of London, for a daylong event: “Ministries of Welcoming in the Church: A Conference on Healing and Reconciliation in the U.K.”
Landings is a process of faith formation in which trained lay people reintroduce others to their Catholic faith, and a ministry of the heart through which returnees re-encounter the love of Christ through the Church. Landings International was founded almost 30 years ago in the U.S. and Canada, and “has helped many returning Catholics” in the U.K., according to Landings International Director Father Thomas A. Kane, CSP.
“Our conference focuses on welcome and invitation,” Father Kane said. “We have heard from Pope Francis the call for all of us in the Church to be more mission-focused, to be a missionary Church welcome to all, welcoming and inviting back those who may have drifted away. We hope this day will enkindle the spirit of reconciliation in the UK.”
But who has drifted away from the Church, and what does this mean? Dr. Steven Bullivant, senior lecturer in theology and ethics at St. Mary’s University in Twickenham, U.K., offered some surprising statistics.
Almost 40 percent of people raised in the Catholic faith no longer identify as such, with some 32 percent of those “disaffiliates” claiming no religion, according to recent British Social Attitudes data.
“This is one – and arguably the major – contributing factors of the need for the New Evangelization,” Dr. Bullivant said.
Conference attendee Tess Pritchard said she sees several of the issues that can separate people from the Church at her parish where she works as a pastoral assistant.
“I hear a lot from women who feel they as a group are being disenfranchised by the Church,” said Ms. Pritchard, who is working toward her master’s degree in pastoral studies.
The conference took a turn from intellectual data to reaching the heart with Father Brendan Callaghan, SJ, a clinical psychologist who taught the Psychology of Religion at Heythrop for 30 years, who spoke on, “The Art of Compassionate Listening.
“There is a human need to understand and be understood,” said Father Callaghan. And listening involves risk.
You have to lower your defenses in order to speak, and I have to lower my defenses in order to listen because I may see the truth within myself,” he said. “… When I have been listened to, I begin to realize the impact I can have by listening compassionately to others.
Joe Fitzpatrick of the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton found the talk on listening interesting simply because there are so many ways to listen.
“[Father Callaghan] offered a more optimistic and creative of approaching listening,” said Mr. Fitzpatrick. “When he said that we often are planning what we are going to say when we are listening to someone else, I found myself realizing I do that all the time.”
Attendees then attended two workshops of their choice, including, “The New Evangelization,” led by Bishop Kieran Thomas Conry of the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton; “Landings: Welcoming the Returning Catholic” with Father Kane; “Reconciling Women” with Sister Gemma Simmonds, senior lecturer in pastoral and social studies and theology at Heythrop; “An Ecumenical Model of Reconciliation,” with Craig Cameron of the Corrymeela Community; “Interfaith Reconciliation” with Father Michael McGarry, CSP; “Ministry to Prisoners,” with Monsignor Malachy Keegan; “Creating Communities of Reconciliation: Listening and Relating at Places of Trauma and Abuse,” with Alana Lawrence, a barrister and former chair of Minister and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors (MACSAS).
Bishop Conroy’s session on “The New Evangelization” echoed Pope Francis’ call for the faithful to have a more personal relationship with Jesus Christ for participant Christine Landon.
“It’s the Gospel message, isn’t it?” she said.
The day wrapped up with a panel discussion of many of the day’s presenters.
Father Dominic Robinson, SJ, the new director of Landings-U.K., will be working as part of a team based at central London’s Farm Street Church.
“As I see it, our primary aim is to listen to those on the cusp of falling away and those who have fallen away,” said Father Robertson. “This is A key dimension of what we do at Farm Street, so Landings fits right in. … As we embark on this project, we hope follow Pope Francis’ invitation to walk along side those who are not practicing their faith.”