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Certainly one of the most common obstacles and complaints of any parish-based social ministry effort is the relative lack of interest and participation. To be fair, the working vocabulary of what it means to be a parishioner over the last 100 years and longer has not typically included the terms of social justice. Most people in most parishes are not prepared--spiritually, practically, or even catechetically--to do parish social ministry. We are still uncovering the meanings of applied Catholic social teaching in the parish.
In 1988, I was hired as Parish Social Minister at a 1200 household parish in Louisville, Kentucky. For the first year of my work there, it seemed we spent an inordinate amount of time just trying to recruit a minimum number of people to come to social ministry meetings or events. I found myself dissatisfied not only because our numbers were small and the needs great but also because of what such a situation revealed about the formation of the community. As harsh as this may sound, it seemed to me that as a Church we had not been called, challenged, nurtured or empowered to be a people who cared significantly about the poor and vulnerable. I think the general observation that most adult Catholics feel ill-prepared and uneasy about engaging in the discussion and/or effort to address social need is an accurate one. My experience is that even the most socially active parishes can claim at best 10% participation among its members.
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