Published: January 04, 2009 08:58 am      

Program designed to get Catholics back to church

Tony Aemmer knows what it is like to return to the Catholic church after being away for 30 years. Now he wants to share his experience with others who face the same challenge.

Aemmer helps put on the Catholics Returning Home program, which lasts six weeks and is designed to assist Catholics who have been away from the church to become active members once again.

The program is usually held twice a year — after Christmas and Easter. The first session will be from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Monday in the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church Parish Center.

Aemmer has been involved in the program for the five years it has been in existence. He said after high school, he got out of the habit of attending church.

“I went into the service, moved away from home and my priorities changed,” he said.

In 2003, he came back to church. He said the program is not designed to judge people, but to welcome them back.

“When I came back, I didn’t know if I would be welcomed or what I could do or couldn’t do,” he said. “This is the first step to ease back into the church. You don’t have to go through this program to come back to the church, but I think it makes it easier. I believe in this program. We, as a church, need to be inviting.”

The program is broken into six sessions which include: welcome and overview of the series; sharing by team and participants; stories of faith from Catholics Returning Home video and sharing; the church today, changes since Vatican II; explanation/walk-through of the Mass; and explanation of reconciliation and the Creed: what Catholics believe wrap-up.

Tom Hayes is the administrator of the program. He said even though it is based at Our Lady, it is intended for all Catholics in the New Albany Deanery.

“We want people who have left their faith to come back,” Hayes said.

He said the first time the program was held, 25 people attended. He said the average is seven or eight each session.

“I’m in the choir, and when you see people who have gone through the program in church week after week, it makes you feel good,” he said. “Sometimes all it takes for them to come back to church is for someone to ask.”

He said the reason the program is held at the first of the year and right after Easter is because many non-practicing Catholics attend Mass during those two holidays.

The program is sanctioned by the National Council of Bishops.