Becoming intentional disciples

Each Catholic individual must engage with their faith if it is to ‘bear fruit’ for the parish and wider community, writes Michael Kelly

One of the challenges Pope Francis is setting before the Church is the need for Catholics to be ‘fit for mission’, to be up to facing the challenges of living faith in a contemporary world.

The Pope has said he wants a Church that is first and foremost missionary. Often we tend to think of the missionary impulse as something involving far-away countries rather than traditional Catholic countries like Ireland. The Pope is challenging us to expand our vision and realise that countries like Ireland are now missionary territory and in dire need of a new evangelisation.

It is the task of all Catholics and something which has to take root in every parish and community in Ireland if it is to bear fruit that will last. If this is to take root, Catholics need to be deliberate in the decision to engage with their faith rather than relying on a wider Catholic culture. In short, we need to become intentional disciples.

Over coming months, The Irish Catholic will devote considerable space to exploring the implications of intentional discipleship for our parishes and faith communities. 

Starting from this week, we have added eight extra pages to the paper to increase space for parish focus, catechetics and faith formation.

Over the coming weeks, we will roll out exciting new resources aimed at parishes and parish pastoral councils. 

We will include liturgical resources and material that can act as a reservoir for parish communities working to make their liturgies and celebrations more meaningful.

We will invite parishes to share their experiences of faith as a lived reality and create a space where people can dialogue and debate about the future shape of the Irish parish and the resources and priorities necessary for the much-needed renewal of faith.

In tandem with the exciting new resources in the newspaper, we will be launching a revamped website in coming weeks that will act as a Catholic hub. Updated every day, the website will aim to become an indispensable resource for anyone wanting to deepen their understanding of the faith and read the latest news, features and views about our Church and Pope Francis and his stirring invitation to Faith.

We will also be adding fresh focus to our social media presence and releasing an innovative new mobile phone app aimed at helping parishes build authentic community.

The Irish Catholic has always taken our role in the new evangelisation very seriously. This is the next chapter in this journey. 

To facilitate this growth and development, it has been necessary to increase the cover price of the newspaper from this week to €1.80 and £1.50.

We greatly appreciate the continued support and encouragement of our readers and promoters. We couldn’t do it without you. I hope you will enjoy and engage with the new content and features as they continue to be rolled out over the next few weeks.