Hospitality Survey Debriefing

At the diocesan evangelization training at Visitation Church in Brick yesterday, we discussed the results of our informal hospitality survey of Catholic churches in the diocese. We answered the question, "How friendly are our churches?"

First and second place went to Spanish services at Christ the Redeemer Church in Mount Holly and St. Barnabas in Bayville. I remember Fr. Joe, now at Christ the Redeemer, from St. Anthony's in Highstown when I attended daily Mass there. I liked him and wondered, when I read about his reassignment, what the Spanish community in Hightstown would do without him.

The upshot is that it pays to be Spanish-speaking in the Diocese of Trenton. My impression of Bishop Smith is that he consciously reaches out to the Hispanic community. Maybe he thinks that they are most at risk for non-Catholic proselytizing or he sympathizes with their hardships, being mostly immigrants.

My parish made the list of friendly parishes -- a shock. I graded hard, too. As I tried to show in the survey answers, it's gotten friendlier since Fr. Mike joined but there's still room for improvement.