Liberal Catholic Priests campaign to win back flock through Boston's Paulist Center

[Ian David]

Priests campaign to win back flock
Paulists aim for alienated Catholics

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff | December 23, 2006

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This week, the Paulist Center launched a three-year, $800,000 advertising and outreach campaign to attract Catholics who feel disenchanted with church teachings on gay marriage and other social issues, stressing that "everyone is truly welcome" at the center and that "questioning is encouraged."

The center's priests say the pain of the clergy sexual abuse crisis and the closing of parishes in the region has also alienated many Catholics, and they say they want to seize on Christmastime as a moment to bring them back.

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The campaign represents a bold effort by the center to raise its profile in the region. Founded 61 years ago as an unassuming outpost for downtown office workers to attend Mass, the center has evolved into one of the church's most liberal worship places. In addition to running a food pantry, weekly sit-down supper for the homeless, and religious education classes for children, the center runs special ministries for gays and lesbians and for divorced and separated Catholics.
It sounds like they're actually doing the kinds of things that Jesus-guy talked about. How radical!

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Over the past several months, Hattaway convened focus groups of new members, longtime members, and staff, asking them what made the center appealing. He surveyed 700 members, asking them to rate on a scale of 1 to 7 how willing they would be to reach out to new members. He hired a theologian, Alex Hivoltze-Jimenez, to conduct one-on-one interviews to probe members' church attendance and to learn what qualities drew them to the center.

Hattaway, who was Al Gore's spokesman in 2000 and an adviser to Governor-elect Deval Patrick this year, compiled the results into PowerPoint slides with bullet points.
Wow... it's like "An Inconvenient Truth" for Catholics!

More:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/12/23/priests_campaign_to_win_back_flock/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+City%2FRegion+News