By DEXTER DUGGAN
Eucharistic adoration is a simple but powerful instrument to invigorate a parish, Catholic philanthropist, businessman, and educator William E. Simon Jr. told an audience at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, D.C.
“When the pastor introduced Perpetual Adoration . . . attendance skyrockets and spirituality grows,” Simon said on September 30 as he discussed findings in his recently released book, Great Catholic Parishes: How Four Essential Practices Make Them Thrive (Ave Maria Press, $17.95, paperback).
This finding “really warmed my heart,” said Simon, explaining that a parish doesn’t “need a big budget to do it, you don’t need a lot of people to do it. There’s no reason you can’t do it….You can just announce this is what we’re doing, and just watch the impact.”
A parish just needs to have its church or chapel open with the Eucharist publicly visible for adoration, he said.
Simon also is founder and chairman of “Parish Catalyst” (parishcatalyst.org), which describes itself as “a platform for pastoral excellence,” as well as co-chairman of the investment firm William E. Simon & Sons and the unsuccessful 2002 Republican nominee for governor of California.
Heritage Foundation background information said: “In Great Catholic Parishes, Simon shares his own personal stories, helpful ideas, strategic advice, and practical strategies from pastors of exceptional parishes. He also offers anecdotes about lay ministry development initiatives and reworking religious education so that it is family focused and web-based.
“You will also learn creative solutions to familiar challenges such as spiritual stagnation among parishioners, reconciling diverse needs in the parish, allowing the pastor to focus on pastoring and preaching, and reaching youth and young adults who leave the Church in disproportionate numbers,” Heritage said.
Introducing Simon to the think-tank audience on September 30, Ryan T. Anderson, Ph.D., a senior research fellow at the foundation, noted that Heritage is nonpartisan and nonsectarian, but public-policy institutions have an interest in what helps people and communities flourish.
Anderson recalled 19th-century French author Alexis de Tocqueville’s acute observations in his two-volume Democracy in America on the importance of religious institutions and their good works.
Simon went on to observe that faith is part of civil society, and that the U.S. Founders “often spoke of what they called the eternal triangle of first principles,” liberty, virtue, and religion.
Sixteen years ago, Simon said, he gave a speech at Heritage, “Why America Needs Religion.” He spoke then of the role of religion “embraced by the Framers of our Constitution, namely that faith and freedom are indissolubly linked in a way that is critical to the welfare and endurance of our country.”
The First Amendment to the Constitution ensures a place for religion in U.S. society, he said in his recent talk. “Religion has been important since the very beginning of our country.”
He decided to undertake an investigation that resulted in what he believes is the most academically rigorous study of parish life ever made in Catholic history. Interviews with pastors produced 3,600 pages of transcripts, he said.
A description of the new book by the Ave Maria Press publisher says: “In 2012 and 2013, Simon and his team studied 244 Catholic parishes to determine what made them exceptional. The study found that all of the parishes shared four foundational practices that led to a profound sense of belonging within their parish communities and a deepening commitment to discipleship.”
Simon told the Heritage audience the four were leadership, spiritual formation, Sunday experience, and evangelization.
Leadership: When he was growing up, the 65-year-old Simon said, the “mantra” was “pray, pay, and obey,” but now there’s recognition that lay people have a lot to offer. Shared responsibilities at the parish call for consulting, delegating, and collaborating, he said.
Spiritual formation: Many people aren’t really engaged at their churches, he said, with the average level of engagement across denominations being 5 percent to 15 percent. The average engagement level at the “vibrant” parishes studied was about 30 percent, “roughly three to five times the normal. . . ..
“The fact is we can improve engagement, we can improve spiritual formation, without too much headache,” he said.
Sunday experience: This element “doesn’t begin on Sunday. It starts on Monday, right?. . . And it goes right through the week,” he said.
Contact through the week can be maintained by such means as social media — “important to millennials” — and small-group meetings. Simon quoted Southern California evangelical megachurch pastor Rick Warren, “The larger you are, the smaller you must become.”
Warren has 40,000 people attending various small-group meetings during the week, Simon said.
Later, during a question period, Simon said, “One of the things that clearly moves engagement is Bible study,” one type of small-group meeting.
As for Sunday itself, when people arrive for Mass at great parishes, Simon said, “You’re met by people. It’s a welcoming,” perhaps including an offer to take young children to the parish Sunday school instead of the parents having to cope with them.
This is different from his own youngster days, he said, when the drive to church meant tense moments, and the ride home hopefully didn’t conclude with being sent to one’s room.
It’s true the Eucharist is “the source and the summit” of Catholic worship, Simon said, but the preaching and music also are important.
During the question period, Simon said, “There’s no one size that fits all” for music. Contemporary music “can be every bit as sacred…but you’ve got to be more careful. I think the older music is easier to be very true to our tradition.”
Evangelization: In the past, U.S. Catholics had “clustered” in “insular” parishes because of the larger environment’s hostility to Catholics, but, Simon said, there’s no longer any excuse not to evangelize.
Although bad things have happened in the U.S. Church, “the New Testament is full of hope,” he said.
Even though there was no query about the Pope in the 33-question protocol that the 244 pastors answered, one-third of these priests “spontaneously” brought up Pope Francis, Simon said. They “said he’s very encouraging of what we’re trying to do as pastors.”
Francis has “said some things economically that are not my cup of tea,” but his official role isn’t an economic one like the secretary of the Treasury, Simon said.
Evangelical pastor Warren said “the local Church is the greatest engine for good in human history…unencumbered for the most part by government and bureaucracy,” Simon said.
At Odds With The Founders
Simon didn’t get into discussing how much U.S. social forces have changed between his talk 16 years ago about why America needs religion and the present day.
However, the national Democratic Party of 2000 never would have dared demonize traditional religion the way it does today as being widely bigoted and discriminatory because it stands in the way of the behemoth leftist sexual ideology of gender, identity disorientation, and abortion.
Only very strong religious witness today seems likely to defeat the leftist push, epitomized in Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, to overwhelm, subjugate, and punish traditional morality.
Clinton and Obama pugnaciously are at odds with the nation’s Founders and history, but these Democrats don’t worry about their faction lacking facts or justification.
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