Mark Dawes, Staff Reporter
The Most Reverend Charles Dufour, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Montego Bay, leads a memorial Mass in thanksgiving for the life and Pontificate of Pope John Paul II at the Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in Montego Bay on April 6, 2005.
With their membership statistics showing evidence of decline, the Roman Catholic Church in western Jamaica has embarked on a carefully mapped-out evangelistic drive.
This initiative is the brainchild of the Most Rev Charles Dufour, Roman Catholic bishop of Montego Bay. Because there are relatively few priests serving in the diocese, he hinted that numerical and spiritual church growth largely depends on energising and mobilising the laity to evangelise.
Not long after he was consecrated bishop of Montego Bay in 1996, Dufour sought to explore mobilising the laity. The Diocese of Montego Bay includes St James, Trelawny, St Ann, Westmoreland and Hanover. The total area of the diocese is about 1,500 square miles, with an estimated population of 723,200. Of this number, 13,200 are the number of persons who identify themselves as Roman Catholics - a total of two per cent of the population.
The Roman Catholic Church, Dufour acknowledged, has a lot of inactive members. It is those persons, and others with no faith allegiance, who are the prime targets of the church's evangelisation campaign.
Major strategy
(Left) Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Montego Bay Charles H. Dufour greets Pope John Paul II during a visit to the Vatican several years ago. - Contributed
Noting a shortage of priests in the diocese, Dufour felt that a major strategy to sustain Catholic witness was to equip the laity for the task of evangelisation. Just about three per cent of Jamaica's population of 2.7 million profess to be Roman Catholic.
Spearheading the diocese's evangelisation thrust are two United States-based priests specially recruited for this purpose. On a visit to the Diocese of San José a couple of years ago, Bishop Dufour appealed for personnel to come to help fulfil his dream of evangelisation for western Jamaica.
San José Bishop Patrick J. McGrath secured sponsorship for the programme through partnership with Maryknoll, a missionary body within the Roman Catholic Church. Maryknoll agreed to send one from their community, Fr Leo Shea, and is also paying the salary of Fr Timothy Kidney from the Diocese of San José. The two clerics will be based in Jamaica for three years carrying out the evangelisation programme.
In an interview with the Valley Catholic newspaper, which is published by the Diocese of San José, Dufour explained that Jamaica will produce enough priests to do the work of the ministry. He told the publication that of the 13 priests serving in the Diocese of Montego Bay, only one is Jamaican. Hence, he stressed, "Our laymen and women have to understand that they have a real role to play in evangelising their neighbours by virtue of their own baptism."
"They are not usurping the role of the clergy. They complement it.
"The problem is," Bishop Dufour told the newspaper, "that in Jamaica and in many parts of the world, including the United States, people have been sacramentalised but not evangelised."
Helping
Speaking with The Gleaner, Father Kidney explained that his mission in Jamaica includes helping the laity to better appreciate their responsibility to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ and equipping them with the theological foundation to do so, while ministering to people through visitation and prayer.
The first phase of the evangelisation programme was launched in April 2007 and concluded last February. Fathers Kidney and Shea would typically go to an area to train the priests in the programme. Then the priests would be better poised to 'sell' the programme to parishioners. Then congregants would come for training, which would typically last six weeks. The training would be done Thursdays to Sundays. Father Kidney estimates that so far, about 500 persons have been exposed to the programme, with 400 doing all or nearly all the courses.
The subjects covered in year one included: the meaning of evangelisation, the centrality of the Eucharist and the Bible as the word of God. The programme, Father Kidney said, involved a lot of role playing, so that persons could get optimum appreciation of ways to share their faith in conversation.
The programme was specifically tailored to meet Jamaican needs.
Year two of the programme is being finalised and will come on stream shortly. It will include subjects related to justice and peace, the family, reverence for creation, small Christian communities.
Various social classes
Because the cost of the training was underwritten by Maryknoll, the participants, who were drawn from various social classes, were not required to pay. They also received books and other materials free of cost. Furthermore, virtually all the courses were taught with the aid of PowerPoint presentation.
"We feel we were quite successful in giving good information to help them understand their faith better and that they felt better about sharing their faith. Where we have not been very successful as yet is in moving them from the talking stage to the walking stage," Father Kidney said. "This involves getting them knocking on their neighbours' doors. We are not trying to take people who are already in the Church, not seeking to take people from their church. Rather, we are trying to get lapsed Catholics to get them back in the fold and also trying to get those with no faith commitment to become Catholics."
With this huge investment in training, Dufour expects the number of worshippers in the Diocese of Montego Bay to show signs of increase before long. But he is also expecting evidence of growth among worshippers in their spiritual maturity.
Send feedback to mark.dawes@gleanerjm.com.
