“Living in our Modern World: How can Christians Positively Influence the World Around us?” was the topic of Bishop Nelson Perez when he addressed the First Friday Club of Greater Youngstown on April 4 at Avion on the Water Banquet Center in Canfield.
It was the first time the Cleveland bishop – or any bishop other than the Youngstown bishop – spoke to the club. About 150 people attended, including a group of students from two Youngstown-area Catholic high schools: Ursuline in Youngstown and John F. Kennedy in Warren.
Mary Ellen Branigan, First Friday Club president, said it was the eighth luncheon of the group’s 13thseason. The diocese consists of six counties -- Ashtabula, Columbiana, Mahoning, Portage, Stark and Trumbull – which were taken from the Diocese of Cleveland. It founded in 1943.
Bishop Perez told the group that he spent a dozen years as the pastor of parishes in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia before being ordained a bishop and his assignment as an auxiliary bishop in the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York and eventually Cleveland. He will celebrate the 30thanniversary of his priestly ordination next month.
As a pastor, the bishop said he gained insight into how parishes operate. He used concentric circles to describe the process with the inner circle consisting of a small, core group who plan things for the parish. Next is a larger circle with the “worker bees” who implement the events and finally is the group of people who regularly attend the events. But based on the number of registered parishioners, he estimated that only about 10 percent of the parish was involved in this process. He also explained that parishioners and even parish staff tend to plan events for themselves.
“We need to move the focus outside,” Bishop Perez said, referring to the challenge from Pope Francis to be missionary disciples, to evangelize and to have the Church face outside rather than looking inside at itself. He also mentioned a parish group that wanted to bring attention to its school so a large banner was purchased. When he asked where they planned to put it, they said in the gym.
“That’s like preaching to the choir,” he said. “The people there already know about the school and its programs.”
While serving in Philadelphia, the bishop was assigned by the cardinal archbishop to be the founding director of the Catholic Institute on Evangelization. When he asked what that meant, “The cardinal told me to figure it out,” he said. It wasn’t a topic that was part of his seminary training, so Bishop Perez did some research and found something written by Pope St. Paul VI on the topic.
Pope Paul laid it all out, he said, explaining that he wrote “Evangelization is the Church’s deepest identity. It’s the very reason it exists.”
He also talked about how his life intersected several times with Pope St. John Paul II – first as a teenager when the pope appeared at Madison Square Garden, then in Puerto Rico when he was a teacher and later at Yankee Stadium when he was on the altar as a concelebrant at a Mass the pope celebrated.
“He showed us how to live life intensely,” he said, noting that near the end of his life when the pope could barely speak, “He didn’t need to speak. He was the message. He understood that the Church needed to look outward and he showed us how to do it.”
Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis continued that mission, with Pope Francis using terms like “missionary disciple,” Bishop Perez said. The pope advocates for a culture of encounter, “not just looking, but seeing; not just hearing, but listening,” the bishop added. He said the Holy Father’s apostolic exhortation “The Joy of the Gospel” maps out a plan for the Church for the next 25-50 years.
The pope’s challenge is for us to be interactive, engaged, to accompany, be fruitful and joyful in our work as missionary disciples, Bishop Perez said.
Continuing on the theme of encounter, he asked the group to think about the 75 percent of people who don’t attend Sunday Mass regularly. “Does anyone go out and talk to them or invite them?” He said we’re often too busy planning events for ourselves. “Imagine what would happen if each of us committed to finding a person and inviting them to attend Easter Sunday Mass? That could be your Lenten sacrifice, your gift. It’s even better than giving something up,” he added.
He reminded the group that Jesus’ last words to the disciples were to go and teach all nations. The same thing happens at Mass, he said, explaining that we are sent out after Communion. “You’re supposed to share the gift you just received.”
During the question and answer session the bishop was asked about an unusual parish event that impressed him. He talked about visiting the Diocese of Cleveland’s mission in El Salvador during December and how different a parish is there. He said there are a string of about 22 small chapels spread out and people come there for prayer and Mass. During a visit to one chapel, he said about 50 people crammed into the space meant for about 30 and four babies were baptized.
“It was a profound expression of faith. Jesus was present and powerful,” he said.
