Community

Today I had the privilege of speaking with Bishop Frank Caggiano from the Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport (Ct). I am not Catholic, and in fact am not much of a church-goer, but this gentleman is wonderful to speak with and I always learn something about the importance of faith to him and so many others.

Bishop Frank talked about the need to get people ‘back to public worship’ and how much he has learned from this pandemic. He cited two macro priorities: personal holiness and small communities of faith. He described evangelism as simply bearing witness to your faith, not about proselytizing. So then we talked about these ‘communities’ that are so important. It starts of course with family, but too many people just don’t have a strong enough family life to draw upon. As a result, collaboration is needed in order to build these communities for people.

He went on to say that the US is now a ‘post-christian’ world; people don’t really understand christianity, other than what they learn on CNN and social media. He thinks we need to re-introduce Christianity to people and give them the tools to lead good lives.

The pandemic has allowed us to see with greater clarity what we couldn’t see before, and he said that to be a good person (my words, not his) one needs the pursuit of human virtues: honesty, integrity and temperance.

The Diocese needs to be where people are…not rely on people coming to them. This requires a more proactive strategy than in the past, one where the various parts of the Diocese (church, school, charity, community centers, etc) work together to be where kids need help, to give them the tools to live better lives. This is the collaboration he will be calling for.

It was very cool to listen to him; he has a vision for his communities and the leadership skills to bring people together. I’m rooting for Bishop Frank to build the ‘neighborhood’ that kids need these days.