Bringing Members of the Flock Back to the Fold : Religion: Volunteers from St. Finbar Catholic Church in Burbank kick off Holy Week with a different kind of census.

Bill Waldmen and Linda Norman knocked on the front door of Henry Lauerman’s Burbank home Sunday and asked the questions on everyone’s mind in these census-conscious days. What was his age, occupation, and did he live alone?

But Waldmen and Norman were working on behalf of an authority even higher than the U.S. Census Bureau. Members of St. Finbar Catholic Church--a thriving neighborhood landmark at Olive Avenue and Keystone Street--they were canvassing the area for potential church members.

“Were you baptized and confirmed?” Norman asked Lauerman.

“By all means, yes,” the 74-year-old retiree replied from behind his screen door. “I went to Catholic school. Sister Celestine--I remember it like it was yesterday.”

To prepare for a year of evangelization and to update its files, St. Finbar’s undertook its own census this weekend. About 200 volunteers walked door to door Saturday and Sunday, spreading out over six districts within the 17-square-mile parish, documenting potential church members and passing out Holy Week schedules.

With more than 3,600 member families, 52-year-old St. Finbar’s is the largest of three Catholic churches in Burbank, according to its pastor, Msgr. Robert Howard. Still, said Howard and Bernie Dourisboure, St. Finbar’s census coordinator, there may be an additional 3,600 Catholic residents in the parish without church ties.

Such a survey is long overdue, Howard added; while the U.S. government does its population survey once every 10 years, the last church census occurred nearly 20 years ago. On Saturday alone, St. Finbar’s registered 400 additional Catholics within the parish.

Howard said he was particularly concerned about elderly Catholics who may not receive the last sacraments because they are not registered with the parish and because their children live elsewhere. Others such as Lauerman, who said he and his wife, Thelma, were “kind of laid up,” might appreciate home visits, Howard said.

Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week, was a marvelous time to conduct the survey because “everyone is thinking of the Resurrection, and where Christ is, is your life,” Howard said.

Indeed, as Waldmen and Norman prepared to leave the parish hall to begin their census rounds, a colorful procession of parents and children entered the sanctuary with palm fronds to commemorate Christ’s arrival in Jerusalem. As the worshipers lay down their palms, Waldmen and Norman took up their questionnaires and set out on their task.

Their immediate goal was not to evangelize, as Norman put it, “just find out who’s out there.”

One of Lauerman’s neighbors, for instance, told the pair she is a Presbyterian.

“Well, have a nice Easter,” Norman said.

“The same to you all,” Elise Taylor called out as they headed toward the sidewalk. “You live here in Burbank? It’s a nice little town, isn’t it?”