CATHOLICS alienated from the Church by past hurts have been the subject of an outreach campaign launched in the lead-up to the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI in Australia next month.
The campaign, launched by the Australian Catholic Bishops’ National Office for Evangelisation earlier this month, has been conducted through a series of national newspaper advertisements inviting enquirers to contact a phone line or visit a website.
A pastoral letter was also sent out to all Catholic parishes last weekend calling on them to be places of welcome.
Office director Marita Winters said calls in response to the newspaper campaign had been more to do with “quality than quantity”.
“The fifteen or so people who responded had suffered major hurts from some aspect of their contact with the Church,” Ms Winters said.
Mrs Winters said the campaign, in planning for about a year, had been designed to give people struggling with their relationship with the Church the opportunity to talk.
“The campaign was timed to form part of the lead-up to Pope Benedict’s arrival in Australia next month,” she said.
“A lot of young people are going to receive a new experience of Church as a result of World Youth Day – the newspaper campaign is one way of making sure that parents and grandparents don’t get left behind.
Mrs Winters said the section of the National Office for Evangelisation website www.evangeliseaustralia.com carrying the campaign advertisement had attracted 257 viewings up to last Tuesday.
The enquiry number is 1300 4 FAITH – 1300 432 484.
Parishes around Australia are expected to start sending in details on the response to the campaign over the next week or so, Ms Winters said.
An overall report will then be sent to the national Commission for Mission and Faith Formation, chaired by Archbishop John Bathersby of Brisbane.
Australia’s bishops will meet to discuss the report in September.
