Catholic evangelisation and a Nobel adventure with Jesus

As a teenager in Leeds, Michelle Moran was waiting for some friends when a Christian street preacher approached her with a question: “Do you ever think of Spiritual things?”

The youth – who would grow up to become a globe-trotting Catholic evangelist – quickly backed away. She did not understand the question. Although raised a Catholic, her family did not practice the faith. Not long after, at a closing prayer service after summer camp, she reluctantly joined a queue for a blessing. This time she was asked: “What would you like to receive from the Lord?”

At first, Michelle was too stunned to respond. When the question was repeated, she blurted one word: “Everything!”

It was the beginning of what she now calls a “noble adventure” with Jesus.

By the age of 17, Michelle had left home to work in youth ministry in London, where she met her husband Peter, a youth leader. They were married for five years – he was working at British Telecom and she was a teacher – when they encountered a Donegal-born priest. Fr Patrick Lynch would later author the book: Awakening the Giant: Evangelisation and the Catholic Church.

The notion that there would be parishes with no priests in future seemed far-fetched”

Back in 1984, this priest (who has also served as chaplain to John Paul II) had a plan to evangelise England, involving a community of priests, religious and lay people. Intrigued, Michelle and her husband joined him in co-founding the Sion Community, a fruit of charismatic renewal. “There were eight of us in the beginning,” she recalled, “and we left our jobs, sold our house in London, and set out on the road.”

At the time, there were still two or three priests per parish and the churches were reasonably full. The notion that there would be parishes with no priests in future seemed far-fetched. “People were almost laughing at us,” said Michelle. “They just couldn’t understand that.”

Fifty years on, Sion’s prophetic vision has come to pass. And Michelle is very much in demand. She has just completed missions in Pittsburgh, Colombia and Slovakia. She spoke to The Irish Catholic in Belfast – during a Parish Jubilee mission at St Michael the Archangel – before a long trek to Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean.

Travelling the globe was not on the radar when Sion started out, nor was its sister community in Co. Westmeath, called Céili (Short for Céili De – Community of God).

Calling

After some discernment, it was formed in 2000, as the sex abuse crisis was deepening in Ireland along with hostility towards the Church. “If you were planning that as a business model, it was completely the wrong thing to do,” said Michelle. “It was really really hard. We were coming in, as a community, to encourage people to evangelise. Catholics just wanted to go into hiding, you know, we were embarrassed. We were taking shelter, we were in retreat, really. And I don’t know if we’ve fully recovered from that.”

Michelle has met all four of the last Popes and was appointed to leadership positions by Pope Benedict and Pope Francis, with whom she worked very closely. She said the Church has yet to grasp the call of John Paul II to go out into the deep – a theme she took in Belfast, urging parishioners of all ages to take risks.

“This Church is full of very gifted people,” she said. “At the end of every Mass, it says ‘Go, the Mass is ended’. We leave, we bless ourselves in the holy water to remind ourselves about our baptismal responsibilities and we go out into the world to make a difference.”

She said that putting out into the deep with the anchor of faith was actually safer in a storm than the shallow harbour, where boats can clash and be destroyed. “If we just come and seek the safety of the harbour all the time, we will become very narrow-minded,” she warned. “We lose our effectiveness. In order to grow in our faith and be strengthened, we put down that anchor of faith. It’s the anchor that will hold us firmly in every storm.”

This flame-haired evangelist had two pieces of advice: pray and make disciples. “Pray, pray, pray,” she said, “that God will send new people into our communities, to draw back those who are lost and those who have gone astray.”

Michelle is confident about the Church’s future, as Jesus promised to be with us always – but she thinks it remains “a sleeping giant”. “Catholics are the most numerous denominations,” she said. “Why are we not making more of a difference? It is because people are asleep.”

You’re waking people up, you’re raising their expectations, you’re giving them the focus”

“We cannot be a Church that looks in on itself. We cannot be a Church that feeds its own sheep because sooner or later we’re going to run out. We’ve got to move people to step out, and to do that, we need a more confident laity.”

She said that the Catholic faith can become a routine habit which forgets Christ’s divine command to spread the Gospel and make disciples. “I think, sometimes, we’ve lost the ability to do that. Sometimes it’s hidden in all sorts of different devotions.”

While she supports devotions, she said evangelisation is also necessary. “We need both.”

As well as invoking the Holy Spirit, Michelle urged priests to briefly remind everyone before the consecration at Mass that Jesus is going to be present. “You’re waking people up, you’re raising their expectations, you’re giving them the focus. And I think our people respond to that.”

Welcoming

While Pope Francis once described Europe as “the tired old lady”, Michelle points to a quiet revival – noting the vitality of Pope Leo’s pilgrimage to France. “In many countries across Europe now, the tide is turning. And we’re seeing that people are actually coming back to the Church. Now if people are coming back to the Church they need people who are ready to welcome them with joy, who are ready to walk with them, to accompany them, to share life with them.”

She also describes the Church as a “battered bride” – marred by sin but still able to speak with wisdom to every culture and society. “That’s something very powerful.”

She looks forward to renewal in Ireland after a “terrific shaking.”

Faith here in Ireland is very strong, but it’s just a case of building on that”

“Some of that shaking needed to happen. You know, some of it maybe came from the Lord. Certainly some of it is the consequence of sin. We know that. But in all that shaking, you know, what’s happened is things have found a new level. And I think from that levelling out, new things are growing and developing. The Church here in Ireland will be different to the past, but then, maybe it will also go back to some of its more ancient roots.”

“Faith here in Ireland is very strong, but it’s just a case of building on that rock, and allowing things that are not really part of that essential foundation to crumble and to decay – and not to fear that, but to know that as things are taken away, the Lord is also restoring and building even stronger.”

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On women in the Church

Michelle Moran is one of the most senior women in the Catholic Church – and recently had a private audience with Pope Leo as part of the CHARIS leadership team.

She is a former President of the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services (ICCRS) – a post she held for eleven years, working out of offices in the Vatican. Pope Benedict invited her to join the Council of the Laity in 2008 (she served for eight years) while Pope Francis personally appointed her to a select team which streamlined international charismatic services.

I asked her about the role of women in the Church. “We need to simply take our place,” she said. “Now, you might say, ‘yeah but there hasn’t been a place created for us’. My experience is that as you grow in knowing who you are, and as you grow in confidence, you can almost create a place. We do it by just waiting, watching, and moving as the Spirit leads. I don’t think we do it by shouting.”

I asked about the push for women priests by some. She responded that this was a separate, theological issue. Michelle is focused on the importance of women serving and sharing the message of Jesus. “There are around the world thousands of women catechists, who, essentially, are leading communities, they are feeding communities with the Word of God, and they’re doing it really, really well. Now, of course, over here in the West, we don’t see that so much. We miss out the feminine genius, really, of how women can bring the Word to people and present it in a way that is maybe different sometimes to the masculine perspective.”

Her advice is for women to make a place for themselves in the power of the Holy Spirit. “Throughout my life, I’m constantly amazed at how God can use this little lady from Leeds. I think it’s a case of stepping out and trusting that the Lord will give you what you need. Where there’s a need, the Lord provides.”