Missionaries in Indianapolis reach out
to those who feel no need for God
Father John Mark Ettensohn, left, Brother Pat McGee and Brother Paul Daly, all members of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, chat on Nov. 5 along the Canal Walk in downtown Indianapolis with Fred and Tana Moses, who live along the canal. In what they call “Mission with Secularity,” the Oblates seek to reach out through ordinary conversations and relationships to those who have a secularist worldview and feel no need for God.
(Photo by Sean Gallagher)
By Sean Gallagher
When you hear the phrase “mission territory,” what places come to mind?
Locales in Africa or Asia where people have little or no knowledge of the Gospel?
What about the heart of Indianapolis?
That is where Brother Paul Daly, Father John Mark Ettensohn and Brother Pat McGee have come to be missionaries.
They are members of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a religious order founded in the 19th century by French bishop St. Eugene de Mazenod.
For much of its history, the order has done missionary work in places where the Church did not yet exist.
The mission of Brother Paul, Father John Mark and Brother Pat is, in a certain sense, a return to the original spirit of their founder.
St. Eugene established his order, in part, as a response to the secularizing effects of the French Revolution on the society around him.
The three members of his order who moved to Indianapolis over the summer are seeking to minister to those who have a similarly secularist outlook on the world and see little or no need for God in their lives.
“We’re missionaries. That’s important to us,” said Father John Mark. “We know how to be missionaries in … Third World countries. But what about in the secular world of today? There’s a real need [there], a spiritual need that we see.”
The name that the three men have given their ministry, “Mission with Secularity,” is suggestive of the approach they are taking of reaching out to others.
“It’s a mission with people rather than to people, although there are aspects of that,” said Father John Mark. “We want to walk with them, listen to their stories and let the evangelizing happen through the back door, so to speak.
“We’re seeking to meet people more where they are, in the world, by being in there with them.”
Meeting people where they are will involve the missionaries spending time in coffee shops, bookstores and college campuses like Indiana University Purdue University in Indianapolis (IUPUI), which is near where they live.
The Oblates have a clear understanding about the difference between the concepts of “secularity” and “secularism.”
“Secularity” is a word that simply refers to the daily concerns of our life here in this world. It is more of a neutral term for them.
Not so with “secularism.”
“Secularism implies complete human autonomy,” said Brother Paul. “There is not simply no need for God. There is no room for God. For them, the divine dimension makes no sense. They ask, ‘Why do you need it?’ ”
It is to people who hold to varying degrees to this principle that the Oblates are seeking to reach out.
At this point in the missionaries’ ministry in Indianapolis, however, they are still trying to learn what will and will not be effective ways of building up relationships with people who have a secular worldview.
“We’re used to inviting people to an inquiry class, an adult education series on faith in the modern world,” said Brother Pat. “But we don’t have that anymore. We’re without programs, without a place to invite people. But we’re freed so that we can go out and into places where people are already meeting.”
One of the places they will go is Au Bon Pain, a restaurant near downtown Indianapolis at 901 Indiana Ave. From 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Nov. 17, the Oblates will host a discussion on the documentary Religulous, in which comedian Bill Maher pokes fun at people of faith and questions the very idea of believing in the existence of God.
They will host another conversation on the documentary from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Nov. 20 at the campus of Butler University.
Anyone who has seen the documentary is welcome to attend either discussion.
Brother Paul, Father John Mark and Brother Pat are convinced that every human person is created with a desire to know God.
“We believe that everybody has a need for God in their life,” said Father John. “There’s a deep longing that we all have. Maybe they’ve yet to become aware of it. Sometimes it’s more conscious for some than for others.
“We would seek through walking with them to help lift that up, that awareness, without browbeating, without attempting even to convert. That’s not our first focus. But [we want] to walk with them, to help them to become more aware of a presence [God] that we believe is there.”
The Oblates noted that members of their order had ministered previously in the archdiocese in more traditional parish and hospital settings.
In preparing to come to the archdiocese, the Father John Mark, Brother Pat and Brother Paul met with Msgr. Joseph F. Schaedel. In addition to his duties as vicar general, Msgr. Schaedel is also the director of the archdiocese’s mission office, which coordinates archdiocesan support for overseas mission work.
Msgr. Schaedel sees the presence of the Oblates as a way of helping the faithful of the archdiocese open themselves to looking at missionary work from a new perspective.
“They might broaden their understanding of the nature of ‘the missions,’ ” he said, “and become more open to how they are called through their baptism to participate in it more actively and consciously.” †
(For more information on Mission with Secularity’s upcoming discussions on the documentary Religulous, call 763-229-8498 or send an e-mail to JMenthuse@gmail.com.) †
