Blessed Sacrament Parish reaches out to the local community

For the last few weeks, Br. Robert Gay has been working in Blessed Sacrament parish in the west of the city of Leicester. The parish was originally run by the Blessed Sacrament Fathers, but is now in the hands of the Diocese of Nottingham, and run by Fr John Joe Maloney. As well as getting sacramental and preaching experience as a Deacon, Br. Robert has also been involved in leading a team of young people in outreach to Catholics and others in the parish. Here is the team's account of their work and its value.

For the last two weeks, we have been carrying out a census of Blessed Sacrament parish, under the guidance of Br Robert. The aim of the census was to discover how many Catholic households there are in a particular area of the parish, and also to tell people about the Church, the faith, and about parish life. The area we covered was an estate to the west of the city of Leicester, close to the boundary of the parish. It is a new development, built in the last ten years, and there are still areas under construction. So we felt it was important that we provided information to these new families about the parish.

In our travels, we were pleasantly surprised at the reception we received from many families, even if they weren't from a Catholic background. We discovered many people who showed an interest in the Catholic Faith, and some who, although they were lapsed Catholics, were interested in returning to the Church. Now that we have made contact with these families, the parish will be able to liaise further with them to help them develop their ideas about the faith.

We have very much enjoyed meeting people in this way, both because of the reception we received, and of how we were able to give new information to people who would otherwise not have known about the Church. Although knocking on people's doors may seem like a lot of work, with a well organised team, it is possible to make an impact on a large number of people in a short amount of time. We would encourage other parishes to consider such a method of outreach.

Luke, Lottie and Bernadette