The following story first appeared in the Autumn 2006 Glenmary Challenge.
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Tackling Mission Land, USA One County At a Time
By Father John S. Rausch

MISSION COUNTIES PAST AND PRESENT: This new map tracks for the first time where Glenmary has established churches before turnign coutnies back to local dioceses and moving on to new mission territory.

Father William Howard Bishop, the founder of Glenmary, saw the home missions in black and white. Before he started the society in 1939, he sat at a kitchen table with a Catholic University professor and his wife and, together, they blackened one-third of the 3,000 U.S. counties that had no resident Catholic priest. His famous “No Priest Land map” graphically demonstrated the need for a group of missioners who could brighten the counties darkened by a lack of Catholic presence.

Throughout the history of Glenmary, as with no other religious society, maps have plotted the progress of—and projected a vision for—addressing the needs of the home missions. With the need jumping from the regularly updated “No Priest Land map,” some bishops on their own would heed the challenge of establishing new missions in counties with no priest. The Diocese of Knoxville, for example, established parishes in part from that awareness in Johnson County (1995) and Sequatchie County (1997).

Thus Glenmary indirectly nudged church leaders to forgotten corners of their dioceses to make the Church more available for those hungering for the faith.

Today, a new map shows the direct influence of Glenmary in turning blackened counties to white—or, in this case, red and green! It highlights in green the counties where Glenmary has established a Catholic parish in the past; in red are the counties where Glenmary is working today. This map, accurate as of June 2006, records Glenmary’s past contributions and reflects its future hopes.

In 1992 when Father Chet Artysiewicz and Brother Dennis Craig drove their van into Greene County, Ga., the county seat of Greensboro was just awakening to the potential development that Lake Oconee promised. Like Jack’s “magic beans,” the Glenmary mission church sprouted quickly to unprecedented heights as “outsiders” (many of whom were Catholic) courted country living and flocked to the sparsely populated area. In just four years, Glenmary had turned another county green—returning this county to the Archdiocese of Atlanta and moving on to tackle another “black” county.

“We gathered the Catholic community,” Father Chet says about establishing the Greensboro church from scratch. Reflecting on the quick turnaround, not typical of the Glenmary experience, he says, “It was a service to the diocese to start the mission.”

Later, and more typically, Father Chet hitchhiked on the 30-year presence of Glenmary in Drew County. Ark. This summer, after serving as pastor for six years, he handed over the church keys to the new diocesan pastor as the county was returned to the Diocese of Little Rock for continued care.

“It’s a great satisfaction to see the church go from a hall to a full church,” Father Chet reflects. “When you see the growth, the lay leadership, the religious education, the outreach to the community, you know Glenmary accomplished its mission.”

There is a story behind each of the red and green counties on this new map. And new stories are just beginning in counties not yet colored in. Take Logan County, Ark., Glenmary’s newest mission county.

Father Don Tranel moved to Booneville, Ark., July 1, 2006, where no resident priest had lived for the past 25 years, although there is a Catholic church there.

“I affirmed the people on my first Sunday, saying even without a priest they had a strong community,” reports Father Don. “I want to make evangelization a priority, and increase numbers, but I don’t want to take anything away. I want to affirm the vibrancy that already exists.”

In thinking about his new ministry, Father Don says, “I want to be available and accessible to the folks. Our job: Let people know they’re loved.”

No set of multicolored maps can say it better. Maybe Father Bishop was on to something: The need for a loving, evangelizing Catholic presence in the home missions is simply black and white.

For more about Glenmary's maps