At Christmastime, Luring Back the Lost

This is the season when churchgoers joyfully reaffirm their faith and, church leaders say, a time when lost members find their way back into the religious fold.

A 72-year-old woman recently returned to the Roman Catholic Church after being away more than 30 years.

The Christmas season tugged at her and gave her courage to call a priest, said Sister Joyanne Sullivan of Sacred Heart Church in Ventura.

“The priest asked her why she’d waited so long, and she said she’d had an abortion and felt the church would not want her back. He told her, ‘Come home. Come home,’ ” Sullivan recalled.

Sullivan and other church leaders from a variety of faiths are finding ways to bring inactive members home to their churches during the Christmas season.

Father John Higgins knows firsthand the joy of returning to the church he was raised in.

In his early 20s, Higgins stopped going to church. It was during the 1970s, and for about four years he just didn’t go out of laziness, he said. Then, one day, a friend invited him to Easter Mass. His coming back to the church was followed by a spiritual awakening, and he became a priest in 1981.

Higgins joins Sullivan in her office every Monday at Sacred Heart for a meeting to welcome some lost members and to answer attending members’ church-related questions.

His story provides him with insight to help others feel comfortable, he said.

“I remember when I came back, I stood in the back of the chapel and a priest yelled at us for not coming every week,” Higgins said.

It made him feel very uncomfortable, he said, so now when the church fills its pews with people who come only for Mass on Christmas or Easter, Higgins makes a special effort to make them feel welcome, he said.

Sullivan said it was an early experience that compelled her to gather lost souls and help them feel comfortable with their return to the church.

“I had an uncle who was unfairly accused of cheating on a test in [a Catholic] high school, and he said he would never come back to church after that and never did. He died at age 74,” Sullivan said.

When nuns and priests chastise parishioners, or say or do things to make them feel alienated from their church, it can be devastating, Sullivan said. That is why she makes it a policy to listen to people’s stories, apologize for any injury and welcome them back to the church, she said.

“If someone had done this for my uncle, I think he would’ve come back. He was looking for an excuse to come back but didn’t know how,” Sullivan said.

There are hundreds of stories and myriad reasons that people leave the Catholic Church, she said. Generally, people quit coming out of habit. Some labor under misconceptions, such as believing that when they divorce the church won’t have them back.

“The Catholic Church does not approve of divorce, but divorces happen. There are annulments. There is forgiveness. We need to clear up misunderstandings,” Sullivan said.

There is nothing more satisfying than bringing lost sheep back to the flock, said Bishop Scott Barrick of Thousand Oaks First Ward, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“It is the most fulfilling and Christlike work we can be engaged in--to be a shepherd like he was,” Barrick said.

During the holiday season it is the tradition at Thousand Oaks First Ward for member families to gather at the church to enjoy a Christmas feast and festivities. But this year members gave up the annual rite to make home visits to those unable or unwilling to attend church for various reasons. They divided into groups and went to different homes and institutions, sang carols and dropped off plaques made by Barrick’s 17-year-old daughter, Summer, which read: “Wise men still seek him.”

Many of those visited, Barrick said, were deeply touched.

The families included one struggling financially and another struck by illness. One group visited a widow who was in a nursing home.

“The widow, a stroke victim, said this was the best thing that had happened to her since the stroke,” Barrick said.

At Simi Covenant Church in Simi Valley there will be an additional service, designed to bring back those ages 18 to 35, Rev. Bruce Bruns said.

“Maybe they became frustrated or grew up and wandered off,” he said.

Simi Covenant will hold a special service Sunday. It will include musical accompaniment and a video, and is intended to appeal to Gen-Xers, he said.

“Christmas is the time people begin to think in the direction of church,” Bruns said.