This year, like every year, we will see strange faces on Christmas. Some of those folks will be from far away, visiting friends and family. Others live nearby, maybe living closer to the church than we do, but strangers to us. They are the Christmas and Easter Only (CEO) subset of fallen-away Catholics.

While we don’t see them often, they are our brothers and sisters. They are members of our Catholic family who are drawn to the Church yet often harbor “issues.” They are like the brother who only comes home for Thanksgiving but avoids us the rest of the year. We care about them and we miss them.

Then too, we will also come across others who have fallen-away and will not even step foot into the church on Christmas. We love them all and want what’s best for them. Their boycott of the Church is harmful to them and we hate to see this self-destructive pride that has taken hold.

This is a wonderful time to engage our family and neighbors, to invite them back, to tell them they are important to God and to us. If someone pushed them away doing or failing to do something in the name of the Church, we should apologize for it (even if that person was right, pastorally they failed). Flawed as it is, the Church is their surest path.

Katie Warner offers some helpful perspective in her recent piece for the National Catholic Register:

But perhaps the most-shared feeling or expression in the many correspondences I have fielded over the years is this: Almost all of these fallen-away Catholics want to know that someone cares.

They want to know that someone cares that they left. They want to know that someone not only notices their absence, but also is actually saddened, or at least affected by it. Sadly, many, if not most, of these inactive Catholics have never found anyone to express this concern to them.

So I make an effort to tell fallen-away Catholics who reach out to Catholics Come Home that they are missed, and their brothers and sisters in Christ – including me – want them home and that their Heavenly Father in particular wants them to again be a part of the Catholic Church that Jesus Christ founded.

As a unity in the Body of Christ, a living organism, we aren’t the same without them, and we care that they are away.

It never ceases to amaze me how even the seemingly hardest of hearts in an initial correspondence can be turned around after hearing that someone, anyone, cares about them and about their leaving the barque of St. Peter.

I’ve been moved to tears more times than I can count by people who seemed bent on spewing their rage toward the Church and have then responded to my reply with words like, “Thank you for answering. You are the first person to respond to me – and to care.” Some of these people have admitted attempting to reach out to other people or organizations, seeking a listening ear or an extended hand of welcome, only to be further disappointed by the fact that not only did they exit the Church without a single person knowing that they had gone, but they also couldn’t find anyone to help them explore the possibility of returning.

So many of our fallen-away family, friends, co-workers, relatives, neighbors and even strangers whom God puts in our path are desperately wanting to know that they are missed. Many just need to hear it from one person — and that one person can be you.

Read the whole piece: The No. 1 Thing I’ve Learned From Talking With Fallen-Away Catholics.

We have all heard the famous quote from St. Francis: “Preach the Gospel always. When necessary, use words.” It seems that a month does not go by that I do not hear or read it somewhere from a well intentioned source. It drives me nuts.

St. Francis never said this. St. Francis never would say it.

Certainly, there is an important point to be made about living the Gospel through our actions as well as words. No quibble there. However, this (misleading) saying, taken at face value, tells us to evangelize by being “good people.” Many atheists, agnostics and those of other religions are that too, so how would that alone lead people to Christ? Worse, it implies we should NOT say anything (unless perhaps absolutely necessary). Brothers and sisters, the notion of leading only by example is NOT ENOUGH to communicate the fullness of Christian life.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 14:6

How could we communicate this to the world if we evangelize through even exemplary lives, but are otherwise generally silent? St. Paul:

But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can people preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring [the] good news!”

Romans 10:14-15

Through our baptisms and confirmations we were sent and given the office of priests, prophets and kings. The Great Commission applies especially to the Apostles and their successors in the ministerial priesthood, but also applies to us laity in the common priesthood too. Our Lord commanded at His Ascension:

He said to them, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.

Mark 16:15

Marcel LeJeune (Aggie Catholics) has also commented on all of this in his recent blog piece:

St. Francis would have agreed, we all need this personal change and transformation of life through a conversion to Jesus. Francis decided he wanted to live a radical life of poverty and service to Jesus Christ. He started to cast off all the trappings of the world and lived for God alone. In the poverty of spirit, which he formed, he found a great call to help others grow closer to the love of Christ.

This love propelled him out into the world to preach Good News to others, while loving them with acts of service. His preaching was powerful, not only because he was a good orator, but because his love for God was reflected in his deeds.

Both his life and his words were a critical part of his mission as an evangelist.

St. Francis never said the phrase above and I don’t believe he ever would have, because it leaves out the heart of evangelization — helping others come to know Jesus — by proclaiming His name! Imagine if St. Francis never spoke about Jesus. Imagine if the 12 Apostles never spoke about Jesus. We wouldn’t be Christians today.

Others cannot know Jesus unless we talk about Him!

St. Francis knew (and so does the Church) that evangelization is NEVER complete, until the saving message of the Gospel is proclaimed. The Church repeats this over and over.

Marcel’s full post is St Francis Never Said “Preach The Gospel Always. When Necessary Use Words.”

Glenn Stanton also wrote on this topic for the National Catholic Register in his piece What St. Francis of Assisi Didn’t Actually Say.

If you want to follow St. Francis’ example – preach the Gospel with words and live a life consistent with them.