Evangelization Update

When I started as coordinator of peace and justice for the Diocese of Lexington, Ky., I suggested to a small group of advisors that we begin pilgrimages to the 'holy land' of Appalachia. In every Catholic newspaper I had noticed ads publicizing tours to the Holy Land by priests. So we started a pilgrimage to a much closer 'Holy Land'-the mountains of Eastern Kentucky! All the stops on the pilgrimage are sites where people are doing things-in health care, in factories, on environmental issues-not church buildings and museums. Through these tours, I've seen people changed by the stories of this "Holy Land."

A Republican candidate for my state legislature came on the tour to learn about a region of the state with which he was unfamiliar. He not only gained a deeper understanding of health care in Eastern Kentucky but, by the end of the tour, was beginning to devise ways that the government could assist in dealing with the inequities of health care.

Two years later I was celebrating Mass in Frankfort, Ky., when this same man came to Communion. I was surprised because, at the time of the pilgrimage, he was not Catholic. When Mass was over, he explained to me that, while his wife had been Catholic, it was the experiences on the "Pilgrimage" that fired up his desire to become a member of the Catholic Church.

For more on Pilgrimages to the Holy Land of Appalachia

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