The following story first appeared in the Autumn 2005 Glenmary Challenge.
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Green Bay Diocese Challenges Its Parishes to Reach Out
Catholics must 'go forth and live the Eucharist,' pastoral services director says

PARISHIONERS RESPOND: A group from Resurrection Parish in Green Bay, Wis., visited their adopted mission in Okolona. Miss., in May to renovate additional classrooms for Project EXCEL, a community education center. From left: Sheila DeLuca, Mike Grzeca and Judy L’Empereur..

Support for home missions received a great boost in the Diocese of Green Bay, Wis., following Diocesan Stewardship Day in March. The event, held annually, featured the importance of supporting home mission ministry through adopting mission parishes, or “twinning.” Three Green Bay parishes currently twin with Glenmary missions, and three others have expressed interest since the Stewardship Day.

The day was organized by Tom Donovan, Green Bay’s consultant for pastoral services. Tom and his wife, Maureen, members of St. Raphael Parish in Oshkosh, were instrumental in beginning their parish’s relationship with a Glenmary mission. They first adopted Holy Spirit in Hamburg, Ark. When that mission was returned to the Diocese of Little Rock in July 2003, St. Raphael followed Glenmary Father Neil Pezzulo to his new assignment where they established a relationship with St. Jude Thaddeus, the Glenmary mission in Waldron, Ark.

“Father Neil is really a friend, now,” says Tom. “The knowledge we’ve gained from our relationship with his missions fits well with what we wanted to share on Stewardship Day.”

Packets of information prepared for each of the 85 participants included copies of Glenmary’s Home Mission News, issues of Glenmary Challenge and Glenmary’s brochure outlining its Adopt-a-Mission Program.

Tom and the other presenters also made liberal use of the map from Glenmary’s Religious Congregations & Membership Study showing the percent Catholic in every county in the United States.

“In Wisconsin, most of our towns have a majority of Catholics, so it’s good for people to see the number of places in the U.S. where Catholics might be one percent of the population or less,” Tom says.

People from Wisconsin’s adopting parishes make periodic trips to visit their adopted Glenmary missions. And St. Raphael recently hosted young people from Waldron, Ark., all members of the Hispanic community there. The Arkansas youth gave a talk and conducted a service to give their northern friends an idea of the importance of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead)—or what we celebrate as All Souls Day on Nov. 2. Such exchanges give twinned parishes the opportunity to share prayer, culture and knowledge.

“It’s important to emphasize the message that stewardship is a way of life, not just a matter of giving financial resources,” Tom says. “As we’re sent forth from the Eucharist, the last prayer is for us to go forth and live the Eucharist. By sharing outside of ourselves, we can do just that.”