Fr Francis Wahle was appointed as the Diocese of Westminster’s representative for Catholics who feel alienated from the Church at the end of 2005. His aim is to reach out to those who, for whatever reason, do not feel that they are part of the Church any longer, to listen to them and to offer them pastoral care.
“Looking back over the past twelve months, I have no doubt that this is a necessary ministry and that God has blessed it,” says Fr Wahle, a retired Priest of the diocese.
Since January 2006, Fr Wahle has put posters with his contact details up in the porches of churches he has visited, and has distributed them around four deaneries, with support from the clergy. As a result a number of Catholics have contacted him, not all, however, were alienated from the Church.
Posters in libraries
More recently, he has persuaded a number of libraries within the Diocese to display posters with Fr Wahle’s photograph and contact details. This means that his ministry is now being advertised in over one hundred libraries. He is optimistic that this will allow him to reach people who no longer visit a church.
“The practical question has been from the very start how to make contact with those who, almost by definition, are not in contact with the Church” says Fr Wahle. “Personal contact and posters in churches are not always the best ways of reaching them.”
Recalling a series of coincidences which led one man to contact him having not been to Church for many years, Fr Wahle says “Experiences like this make me believe that God will continue to make use of me in this apostolate. In any case, we have a duty to reach out and search for those who feel offended by the Church, its teachings, its practices or its representatives.”
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