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Where ministerial rubber meets the
road
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Catholics speak of youth ministry, music
ministry, prison ministry -- we have so many ministries
its hard to know exactly what the word means. In its broadest sense,
ministry is simply the doing of the Lords work -- in which case, just
about any human act is potentially a ministry if its performed with an
eye to building the reign of God.
Whatever ministry means, Catholics seem to agree on where it finds
its preeminent expression -- in the parish. It is here that the ecclesiastical
rubber, so to speak, meets the road. It is in the parish that Catholics gather
to celebrate birth, mourn death and share their lives with one another. It is
in the parish, above all, that Catholics find the face of Christ -- or, at
least, thats the idea. Some parishes, sadly, are cold, anonymous places
where Christs presence is far from palpable.
But, happily, such is not always the case. In this special
ministries issue, NCR editor-at-large Arthur Jones introduces us to the
Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Biloxi, Miss. Here, the
people of the parish work hard at making their corner of the Little
Easy a warm, welcoming spiritual home.
NCR columnist Kris Berggren describes a parish program in
Minnesota that is boosting lay involvement in a big way.
Although Capuchin Fr. Michael Scully is a parish pastor, he also
ministers to people in some rather unusual ways. Most notably, he hosts his own
top-40 radio program, drawing life lessons from such disparate sources as
Nirvana and BoyzIIMen. A profile of Jesuit Fr. Bob Fabing also illustrates the
varied dimensions of ministry today.
Ministry indeed takes many shapes. In these pages, may you find
nourishment in the peculiar form practiced at NCR.
National Catholic Reporter, October 17,
1997
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