Re-Membering program offered during Lent

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
February 12, 2004

This is the 12th year in the Diocese of Sioux City that there has been a Re-Membering program offered to people of the diocese who have become inactive in their Catholic faith. The program will be available during the Lenten season.

The program will begin with its first session at 7 p.m. on Feb. 22 at the Blessed Sacrament Parish Center, 30th and Jackson Streets, in Sioux City. The next session is scheduled for Feb. 29. If someone is not able to attend the first session, it doesn't mean that they cannot attend at all.

"The most important thing is that there are so many people who are inactive and not going to church and receiving the sacraments," said Deacon Fred Karpuk. "People come back when they are ready to. We want to be there to show them that we have a way for them to come back. Sometimes they need to take practical steps such as taking care of marriage problems or answering questions about faith matters.

"They like the community that we offer, but they are not ready until they are ready, so we feel that we have to be there every year looking for them - searching them out."

The Re-Membering program will consist of seven sessions with the final session offered on Palm Sunday when participants are encouraged to go back to confession. They can go to confession on their own or there will be an opportunity to go during the Re-Membering session. According to Karpuk, sometimes the hardest part for people in the program is to go through the process of reconciliation.

The number of people that participate varies from year to year, but Karpuk commented that there are, on average, about eight or nine participants.

The program targets people such as those who have been divorced or remarried. There are also people who were married civilly or outside of the church and need their marriage blessed. He pointed out that some people stopped going to Mass because they were hurt by someone in the church. They are welcome to attend the Re-Membering sessions. Others who attend the sessions include people who have strayed from the practices of the faith or an adult who was never confirmed.

"They are people who are just shallowly practicing their faith. There is no depth to it," said Karpuk. "Through the class we offer a faith update, and we use the Creed for a basis for our class. We reintegrate ourselves through prayer and community."

The main topics of the sessions are based on the Creed broken into five parts. Ten topics are addressed in five weeks. The first week centers on God the Father and Jesus Christ. The second week looks at Mary and the Holy Spirit. The third week focuses on the sacraments of reconciliation and Eucharist. The next week, prayer and One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic church will be discussed. Finally, the participants would discuss life, death and resurrection.

"Anything in the Creed, we talk about it," said Karpuk. "If they have been gone long enough, we talk about the Mass and what they have been missing out on."

Karpuk added that the program is important everywhere because looking at the Gospel, Jesus tells his people that he was the one looking for the stray and lost.

"Because he does it, that's why he came so we take on that characteristic in our faith life," explained Karpuk. "For those who are inactive in faith we feel we need to bring them into the church because the church needs their activity and charitable works. It is what our Lord wanted us to do. You just don't bring people into the church, you also bring them back to the church."

Deacon Karpuk would tell someone considering entering the Re-Membering program to "take each step, one step at a time. They tell us, in the beginning, it is something that is very hard to do - to come back. One of our main focuses is to define the problem, what they need to have done and then we take care of the problem."