CATHOLIC AUTHOR PRAYS POPE WILL PROMOTE
IMPORTANCE OF THE PARISH

ROSWELL, GA (April 16, 2008) – During Pope Benedict XVI visit to the United States this week, author John Bernard Ruane hopes the Holy Father will encourage those Catholics who have stepped away from the church to reconsider that decision and seek a parish where they can resurrect their faith. Ruane believes each parish offers a different experience based on the pastor who leads it.

Ruane, author of “Parish the Thought, An Inspirational Memoir of Growing Up Catholic in the 1960s,” chronicled his days growing up in St. Bede the Venerable parish on the Southwest Side of Chicago. At that time St. Bede’s was a growing vibrant parish with the pews of new 1,500-seat Cathedral-sized church, that the Rev. John Griffin built, filled at each of the five Sunday masses.

Now Ruane and his family live in a suburb of Atlanta and are members of St. Peter Chanel, which very much like St. Bede’s, is a growing parish with great community support. Toward the end of his book, Ruane wrote about the importance of maintaining the Catholic faith and the influence of a good parish:

(Chapter 34)
“As parents we have a responsibility to raise our children with the best moral direction we can provide, because the journey through life is difficult enough for all of us. Having no sense of moral direction just makes the journey that much harder, leaving the faithless lost and confused.

“My parents worked very hard to make certain their five children were raised in the Catholic faith. And although it wasn’t perfect then, and perhaps some believe less perfect now, it is a religion I truly believe takes most of its followers in the right direction--despite the criminal and degrading acts of some. The key for Catholics today is knowing the individual priests of their church because, in effect, they are their church.

“The message given to us by God through Jesus Christ and his Apostles is a good one. Some human beings are always going to find a way to take advantage of a good thing and perhaps even destroy it. But after 2000 years, the Catholic Church, with all of its turmoil in history, still stands. The message lives because the message is good and true, and the messenger was sent from heaven.

“I am the product of two good parents and a mother who believed strongly in God and the Catholic Church. They didn’t have all the answers either, but they did have a pretty good idea of right and wrong. Because of them, my brother, three sisters and I all turned out to be decent people, good Catholics. If I can do as well for my kids, I will be happy.”

Just a few weeks ago, Ruane received a letter of gratitude for “Parish the Thought” from the Pope through his office.

< Read more about Parish the Thought  in the news.

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