Archbishop speaks about pain of losing faith

Archbishop Nichols

Archbishop Vincent Nichols spoke of the pain and sense of loss, experienced by friends, family, and the person themselves, when they lose their faith, in his address to around 200 people at a conference in London on Saturday.
 
Speaking at the ‘Crossing the Threshold Resource Day: Ministry and Outreach to Non Churchgoing Catholics,’ at Holy Apostles Church in Pimlico, he said: “This theme that you’re addressing today is also important for very personal reasons, because the loss of faith or the absence from the practice of faith, is something which touches many families and many friendships. Faith is of great value to those who, as it were, have put their lives into the community of faith, so when it is lost or even scorned by somebody close to them, then this is a theme that is very important and often quite painful in the lives that they share.”
 
The Archbishop added: “...people drift away or leave the church because of hurt or simply because of neglect, that much is pretty straightforward. What is interesting is that those who are asked, who have left, who have gone, comment quite often that: ‘Nobody seemed to notice whether I was there or not.’ Also at the same time, people who have been asked say that they are open to a request, they are open to the suggestion that they might want to talk about how this happened. 95% of people say they would welcome an approach which addressed this issue in their lives.”
 
The day in Pimlico was the fourth of five that are being offered across England and Wales as an initiative of the Department for Evangelisation and Catechesis, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, coordinated by the Home Mission Desk.
 
Rt Rev Richard Moth, Bishop of the Forces, offered the keynote and emphasised the importance of dialogue: “For the people of the Old Testament, the Courtyard of the Gentiles was the place in the Temple where people who were not Jews could meet to discuss the questions of life and to talk about God. Pope Benedict XVI has spoken recently of the need for the Church to create such places of encounter and dialogue. Dialogue must be a key theme in our outreach to those who are ‘resting Catholics’ as much as it is to those who have never heard the Gospel message – for it is in that Court of the Gentiles that our ‘resting’ brothers and sisters dwell.”
 
The day programme included prayer, discussion time, Mass and workshops covering: ‘How to reach out to non churchgoing Catholics?’; ‘How to make small effective gestures in parishes?’; ‘How to build bridges through involvement with social action?’; ‘Using RCIA as a tool to support non churchgoers to return to parish life’. The day in London is part of a three-year project to raise awareness and develop resources to help massgoing Catholics reach out to the estimated 4 – 5 million non churchgoing Catholics in England and Wales.
 
Joan How from St Edward the Confessor Parish in Golders Green attended the day and said: “It was a great meeting and I really enjoyed meeting and speaking to people from across the dioceses. The Archbishop and Bishop offered some very valuable insights and I’ve come away with lots of practical ideas about what the parish can do in the future and how to take things forward. The liturgy and all the organisation was excellent. It was great day.”
 
The Archbishop and Bishop encouraged those gathered from across the region to take away with them two or three things - practical things – that they would try to do to reach out to people.
 
The next Crossing the Threshold event is on 23 June in Cardiff hosted by Most Rev George Stack (Cardiff). Rt Rev Terence Drainey (Middlesbrough) will be giving the keynote address. To book please ring 0207 901 4818; email: mission.volunteer@cbcew.org.uk

The full text of Archbishop Nichols' address follows:

Evangelisation is an important theme which is recognised by the whole Church, so we have major initiatives in the Holy See with the establishment of a new department of the Holy See for the New Evangelisation.
 
Evangelisation is important in the work of the Bishops Conference which comes under the title of Home Mission and it is also recognised in the initiative of the Holy Father for us to hold a Year of Faith from next October through to the following November. If our discussions in the Bishops Conference earlier this week are anything to go by, most dioceses are beginning to fashion their plans for that Year of Faith, particularly as a year in which we will try to deepen our shared understanding of the Faith. I think its important today too because it helps us to recall and be motivated by the remarkable visit of Pope Benedict to this country which gave us, as the Catholic community, a new spur of hope and of determination.
 
This theme that you're addressing today is also important for very personal reasons, because the loss of faith or the absence from the practice of faith, is something which touches many families and many friendships. Faith is of great value to those who, as it were, have put their lives into the community of faith, so when it is lost or even scorned by somebody close to them, then this is a theme that is very important and often quite painful in the lives that they share.
 
I would like to suggest that your work today is essentially about relationships, it is essentially about how people relate together and how those relationships are the vehicle by which faith is shared or indeed lost.
 
Just a few headline comments from me on different aspects of this theme, and Im going to do no more than headlines, just to give you some prompts for the day.
 
The little bits of sociological research that Ive heard suggest these things, that people drift away or leave the church because of hurt or simply because of neglect, that much is pretty straightforward. What is interesting is that those who are asked, who have left, who have gone, comment quite often that: Nobody seemed to notice whether I was there or not. Also at the same time, people who have been asked say that they are open to a request, they are open to the suggestion that they might want to talk about how this happened. 95% of people say they would welcome an approach which addressed this issue in their lives. The third thing from this little bit that Ive read, tells us that returning to the practice of their faith within the community is not that easy.

Crossing the Threshold the title today - is not a single and a simple step.
 
Some more headlines:
 
If this work that youre addressing today is essentially about relationships, then it is about relationships within the family, within the community of the Church, but most essentially a relationship with the Lord. In all of these
relationships life and faith are inter-twinned because they are the two great gifts that we receive from God. In the family, life and faith go together, parents are the givers of life and the first teachers of the faith. They often figure in the story of the breakdown of faith and often in the repairing of faith. In my experience it is often husbands and wives and children who bring each other back to the practice of the faith. Families dont do all this work on their own but within a wider community, especially the community of the Church. It is true to say that within the community of the Church, the role of the priest is crucial because he is the one who stands at the altar and therefore the potential in the priest is key. That can be good and it can be for harm, that we know.
 
Thirdly, this is about a relationship with the Lord and it is in Him and with Him and through Him how we enter into the mystery of God. That relationship, the way we live in the context of the mystery of God is constantly changing and growing and it needs space, it needs recognition and may be more than anything else it needs to find a voice, an expression, in words and in practice.
 
I hope that during the day you look at some of the ways in which faith finds a voice, finds an expression which is very sensitive to those who are on the edge or to those who have stepped away from its practice. Some of you may have watched the BBC film called Catholics Women which was the voice of women who spend time and pray in Westminster Cathedral. I thought it was a remarkable piece of filming because it showed how central the relationship with the Lord of those women was, to the account of their lives that they gave.

And it showed (and I know from people who have spoken to me after watching it) it showed in a phrase that a relative of mine used, it showed that theres room in the Church even for me a person whose life is not
particularly conforming to the patterns for which we might strive. But she said, listening to the women speak on the film, sensing that essentially it was about their relationship with the Lord, gave her a clear understanding that there is room in the church for her too.
 
So faith finding an expression, finding a voice in prayer and in silence, in conversation, in debate and in simple action, I would like to suggest might be at the heart of the things that you explore today.
 
Thank you very much for coming together. Im sure this will be a productive and stimulating day and I hope that every single one of you goes away with two or three things - practical things that youre going to try, treasures that youll take from this day that Im very grateful indeed is taking place.
 
Thank you very much.
 
Most Rev Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster