Friends In The Field - Tracy Moran

There's No Place Like Rome
The Coming Home Network

"To be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant," wrote John Henry Newman, the famous 19th-century English convert from Protestantism. That line summarizes the reason Marcus Grodi, (pronounced grow-die) another former Protestant, converted to Catholicism. But, as he and many other Protestants are discovering, to cease to be Protestant and come home to Rome is to embark on a lonely journey. Grodi was a Protestant minister who knows from personal experience that pastors who convert to Catholicism often confront not just the loss of their job, but of family and friends too. The dramatic and inspiring story of his conversion is told in the book Surprised by Truth, (available from Envoy Magazine.) "When my wife and I began considering the Catholic Church," he says, "I had never even heard of a Protestant pastor converting! It's a well kept secret." Too well kept, as far as he's concerned.
Eventually he learned of the conversion of fellow minister Scott Hahn, with whom he had attended seminary, but he figured it was just a vicious rumor. "That, or else Scott had flipped," he chuckles. He investigated and, to his amazement, found out that it was no joke. Prior to hooking up with Hahn and getting his advice and encouragement to pursue his study of the Catholic Church, Grodi had no models for transition and no one to talk to. "The people you know, all your Protestant friends and family, have never conceived of becoming Catholic," he says. "And of course they have their long list of prejudices and questions about Catholic 'idolatry of Mary,' the Inquisition, and the like. They don't understand what you're going through. In fact, many Protestant ministers who are on the path to Rome don't really have any Catholic friends, especially at first. So they're out there all by themselves." Grodi was surprised and saddened to discover that when he did meet Catholics, some actually discouraged him from converting, claiming any number of reasons. "It's unnecessary in light of Vatican II," said one person with an obvious false understanding of ecumenism as discussed by the Council. "The devil puts up all kinds of barriers," Grodi says.
So he decided to help knock them down. He and his family entered the Catholic Church in December of 1992. The following summer, his apostolate, the Coming Home Network International, was born. Its goal, in cooperation with the Catholic bishops, is to help inquiring Protestant clergy and laity (as well as those of other religious traditions) return home and be made to feel at home in the Roman Catholic Church. According to Grodi, the Network's director, "The fellowship rose from the seemingly isolated experiences of several Protestant clergy and their spouses we knew. Upon leaving their pastorates to bring their families into the Catholic Church, they discovered with great surprise that many other Protestant ministers were also being guided by the Holy Spirit to make the same journey home." Today, there are nearly 800 people on the membership list, a number that amazes Grodi, since the Coming Home Network has never actively sought members. "This apostolate responds to people who call or write us because of what the Holy Spirit is already doing in their lives," he explains. Members include Catholic priests, religious, and laity who support the group, as well as numerous Protestant pastors and lay people who are somewhere along their journey into the Catholic Church. The number of Protestant pastors who contact the Network because they are considering becoming Catholic is growing. "Every single week I hear of a new one," says Grodi. "I just met five new guys, pastors, last week."
These men, Grodi explains, typically go through several stages: first, inquirers; then, those on the journey, who even if they remain Protestant, never think of the Catholic Church in the same way; and third, they move into what he calls "no-man's land."

"At a certain point you recognize that you can no longer remain a Protestant," Grodi says, "but there are still issues about the Catholic Church that stand in the way." The bottom line for most converts is the issue of authority, he adds. "Accepting any body of doctrines comes down to answering the question of who defines what is true. Besides embracing a different spirituality and piety than they are used to, converts to the Catholic Church have to deal with authority: the Petrine office and the magisterium." Once Grodi himself had struggled through the doctrinal and authority issues, and found the Catholic teachings to be true, all the other things fell into place. But even when someone has decided to enter the Church, barriers still exist: How am I going to support my family? What about my vocation? Finally comes what Grodi believes can be the most difficult time: actual conversion.
"These folks have resigned from the pastorate and come into the Church, but they typically don't receive the help and encouragement from Catholics they had at least hoped they'd receive. Sometimes it's as simple as needing sympathetic ears. That too is part of our mission at the Coming Home Network." The apostolate conducts seminars, produces a regular newsletter, and provides advice and assistance to Protestant ministers and their families who are on the road to Rome, as well as those who have already converted and are struggling to integrate themselves into their new life as Catholics. "The sad thing is that many of these men and women have great gifts but they're not being utilized," Grodi explains. "These converts bring any number of gifts to the Church in addition to their experience in various ministries. They can impart to their fellow Catholics a heightened expression of joy and enthusiasm about the Faith, a relish for Christian fellowship, and an increased appreciation of Scripture study." He points out the wisdom of Vatican II's Decree on Ecumenism: "Nor should we forget that anything wrought by the grace of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of our separated brethren can contribute to our own edification. Whatever is truly Christian is never contrary to what genuinely belongs to the Catholic Faith; indeed, it can always bring a more perfect realization of the very mystery of Christ and the Church." The Coming Home Network International can be reached at PO Box 4100, Steubenville, OH 43952-8100 or by calling (614) 283-6320.

A Gift for Pith
Catholic Information League

A young woman, laboring on a treadmill, turns to her male friend, who's lifting weights nearby.
"Hey, Joe, Phil here tells me you still believe in purgatory," she says. "I thought Catholics had given up on that medieval notion."
"Of course I believe in it," Joe responds. "It's an important doctrine which has existed and developed throughout Church history."
"I heard it's considered a second chance for people who reject God in this life," she says.
At that, Phil chimes in. "Yeah, Catholics invented it in the Middle Ages so they could charge money for prayers for the dead."
It looks like Joe's gym buddies are ganging up on him, bandying about misinformation as if it were fact. Unfortunately, many Catholics, poorly catechized, would be unable to respond to such charges. But don't worry about ol' Joe. He knows his stuff. You see, he's Joe Hardhat, a character in the Catholic Information League's series of over 20 pithy cartoon tracts. It's often inappropriate to hand someone a full-scale apologetics work and expect them to wade through it, but anyone can understand - and use - the Catholic information contained in these brief but effective evangelization tracts. Each tract is built around a "real life" vignette that teaches the reader essential Catholic truths. The message is upbeat and sometimes humorous, and the Catholic doctrines discussed in each tract are presented clearly and convincingly. "We hope to entertain people while providing clear, snappy answers to critics and Catholics confused about Church doctrine," says Dan Grajek, the League's cofounder, along with his boyhood friend, Joe Polgar. Many of the tracts' scenarios are based on real conversations Grajek has had.
"Afterward, I'd inevitably think of things I should have said," he says. So he and Polgar made use of those "I should have saids" by turning the scenarios into tracts. Putting the Church's beliefs into this user-friendly format provides a number of advantages.
"When someone's confronting you about something to do with your Catholic Faith, you can get nervous and misspeak," he explains. "But this way you have the answers handy."

The tracts can be used in a variety of ways: handed out to friends and strangers, left along with tips for waitresses, included with your utility payments, or simply read to strengthen your own knowledge. And unlike those infamous anti-Catholic comic books by Jack Chick, the characters featured in the League's tracts are not caricatures of non-Catholics.
"The opponents in our tracts are sincere people with good questions," says Grajek. "I don't put them in a stereotype or satirize them. We try to present them in a charitable way." Many of the current tracts address Protestant arguments against the Catholic Church - for a very good reason. Grajek, raised in a Catholic home, left the Church and became an Evangelical Protestant for 13 years - an experience that helped him gain an impressively thorough knowledge of Scripture. He also knows firsthand the objections Protestants raise against the Church, because he used those arguments himself. Like Grajek, Polgar was born into a Catholic home but drifted out of the Church during college. Both men, now married fathers in their 30s, returned to the Church in 1991. They juggle their Catholic Information League apostolate with full-time careers - Grajek as a graphic artist, Polgar as a sound engineer. They also receive assistance from their editorial advisor, the highly esteemed Father John Hardon, S.J., who's been known to send the tract team back to the drawing board when their tracts missed the mark. Though time and resources are often stretched thin, Grajek and Polgar know this is the work God wants them doing right now. To order a sample pack of tracts for $3 or to make a donation to help this apostolate, contact: The Catholic Information League, PO Box 5162, Warren, MI, 48090, (810)545-0485.

Missal Launcher for Christ
Catholic Caravans

Nearly every weekend, Peter Querciagrossa, his wife, Margaret, and their five kids hop in the family van and head to church. Sounds normal, until you consider that they're towing a trailer full of Catholic books, tapes and sacramentals, which they sell at parishes throughout California and the western states. Realizing that many don't have access to a Catholic bookstore or simply don't take time to visit one, the Querciagrossas have built a reputation over the last three years for providing quality products faithful to Church teaching. Best of all, they have a ready market of folks streaming out of church after Mass to see their wares. Their full-time apostolate, Catholic Caravans, was launched as a way to help spread the Catholic Faith. Specifically, lots of people are unaware that great Catholic books, tapes, and videos are out there -resources that will strengthen their faith and teach them how to pass it on to their children as well as share it with others. Catholics need to know about the tools that are available to them. Everything from missals and prayer books to videos and rosaries, Catholic Caravans is stocked with good resources for Catholics. By essentially transporting an entire bookstore to the parish and making it as easy as possible for people to browse through the best Catholic resources out there, Catholic Caravans has found an innovative way to evangelize Catholics "where they live." A former Air Force engineer who designed ballistic missile systems, the affable 38-year-old Querciagrossa has found that at first the most challenging part of his apostolate was getting a pastor's okay to visit his parish and set up the mobile book and gift shop for a weekend. "This was a new concept, and it took a while for it to catch on," he says. But that obstacle began to disappear when he hit on a way to create an atmosphere of cooperation and enthusiasm on the part of the parish: A percentage of Catholic Caravans' sales are returned to the parish as a way to say thanks.

The response has been good and sales brisk. Catholic Caravans is now getting repeat invitations to return to some parishes on an annual basis. But when visiting a new parish, they like to learn as much as they can about it, particularly because from a marketing and sales standpoint, certain interesting pieces of information can help determine expected sales. For example, Pete has found that if a parish doesn't kneel at the Consecration, the sales are less than half of what they would be normally, everything else being equal, at a parish where the faithful kneel for the Consecration. The Catholic Caravans apostolate can also be found at parish schools during the week and at many of the large Catholic conferences.
His best-selling item?
"In our culture," Pete says, "videos and sacramentals are the big sellers, rather than books. People gravitate to the visual. Children especially love religious articles: rosaries, statues, medals, and the like." CD-ROMS are hot, but icons are not. "We personally like icons, so we began to carry them, thinking other Catholics would love them too. We were wrong. They didn't get much interest at all," he says. Through experience, Pete and Margaret have learned what religious materials to carry. The apostolate is making a difference in many lives, and the couple are happy to be able to spread the Faith this way, seeing it as their way to spread the message of Christ and His Church. "We've been very blessed with meeting people in other apostolates who have helped us learn our Faith the proper way. Now we're trying to do our part and help others too." To contact Catholic Carvans, or to schedule them to visit your parish or school, call (619) 242-1223, or write 19517 Yanan Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307.