The Catholic Church on the street in Cork

 

 

 

https://www.catholicstreetevangelisation.co.uk/

 

                                                     

 

 

All believers are called to spread the truth of the Gospel, and all who have been 

baptised in the name of  The Father and of  The Son and of  The Holy Spirit are 

prophets and priests in this regard.

Last Saturday, March 19, was the first time I participated in street evangelisation.

I was thinking that those who believe already come to Mass, it is logical that we 

need to go outside the confines of the Church walls, to render the Church visible 

to the rest of the population.

I had briefly met Mike, Tadhg and Anthony the previous Sunday in the city, and 

after finding out what they were all about, I checked out their website

https://www.catholicstreetevangelisation.co.uk/     and sent 

an email, and 6 days later, as they were coming back to Cork from Limerick, 

I was on the street with them.

The first person that came up to speak to me said she had just passed, further 

down the street, some people who wanted her to sign a petition to completely 

ban the Catholic Faith  from being taught in Irish schools.

It has already been downgraded in the school curriculum from being the only 

religion, to just one of many, but some people are desperate to eliminate it altogether.

But I was heartened to see so many young people taking the pamphlet, and a lovely 

young man told me he had been brought up in the Sacraments, he was Baptised, 

had his first Holy Communion, Confirmation, but «then all that stuff happened». 

I told him that every one of us, priests and bishops too, are sinners, that evil is 

everywhere, but that the teachings of the Catholic Church are perfect and true. 

Another man who had great memories from his childhood being brought to 

Church by his grandmother, came up to talk about his problems. 

I was prepared for negative reactions from the public; the wounds inflicted on the 

Church by some clergy,  but I didn't get any, apart from a woman who said to me 

that we don't need religion and all the rules that goes with it, she said that all that 

was needed was a good heart and kind actions. I reminded her that those precepts 

have their origin in Christianity, and that they are very important, but that the rules 

are there for good reasons, to heighten our awareness and control of ourselves, to 

enable us to overcome ourselves and to conquer all that prevents and hinders us 

from living in unity with the Living God, here and now. 

In Cork there are many Catholics, many who are sad about the way things are at 

the moment.

This is our opportunity to do something concrete about it, to pass from words to 

actions.

The catholicstreetevangelisation is a grass-root laity movement that helps the 

Church, the Faith, the priests. 

We are Catholics not just to gain our own salvation, we are mandated to go out and 

spread the Good News. 

«He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.» 

Mark 16:15