On Wednesday, November 11 Monsignor Thomas Sullivan from the Diocese of Worcester came to speak to us at Theology by the Slice. Monsignor Sullivan, an alumnus of Holy Cross who graduated two years before the school became co-ed, spoke of his experience of a packed Mass on Saturdays at midnight and lines at the confessionals throughout. In his words, a practice “not necessarily theologically sound, but which says a lot about the spirituality at the time” The majority of his talk focused on an attempt to bring back that spirituality as a central part of life to communities across the country and the world which badly need a refresher. Monsignor Sullivan reported that on average less than 25% of a parish goes to church regularly. At Holy cross as well, only 40% of incoming first years have ever attended Mass on a regular basis. In the face of such disheartening statistics, Monsignor Sullivan suggests a concrete step that can be taken to help strengthen communities.
The alpha program that Monsignor
Sullivan has recommends began as a teaching tool in
Europe developed for those with no exposure to the Christian faith of any kind.
In a series of videos based around questions such as “Why did Christ die” and “How
can I pray” Nicky Gumbel gives talks on the issues which can be useful at any
level of a faith life. Monsignor Sullivan described his skepticism at first and
his total astonishment with the quality of the videos. The program consists, in addition to the videos, in community dinners beforehand and
discussion after lead by trained leaders drawn from the community. Throughout
the talk Monsignor Sullivan emphasized both the deep effect of the videos and
their insightful nature as well as the necessity to act to reverse the decline
of church participation. Below is a link to the Alpha youtube channel. Watch some of these shorter stories or try the full introductory video!
Felicitas's Story
Felicitas's Story
