We recently started a cooperation with „Die Tagespost” (“the Daily post” – a German Catholic Newspaper that has become a beacon of quality journalism in the German speaking world). Here a translation of an interview they did, where some of the principles of what we do come to the fore. I thought it could be of interest.
Father George, what is behind the John Paul II center?
The JP2 Center is a young church community – young because it hasn’t been around that long, but also because most of the people who are here are relatively young. I’m the oldest. (Laughs) We want to disciple the unchurched and help other church communities to do the same. This means that we try to integrate programs like the Alpha Courses, „Adventure & Faith“ and „Hope Ministries“ into a discipleship process instead of just offering separate programs that have nothing to do with each other.
If there’s nothing after Alpha, then why do Alpha in the first place? You have to keep people the opportunity to grow, to take next steps! We also try to build everything around the masses on the weekends and to live four core values: first, openness. We want to become fertile ground for people who want to change the world and bring others to Jesus. Secondly, empowerment: we entrust young people with responsibilities in different areas, give them the opportunity to try things out and also to make mistakes. Third, zeal: we want to be on fire for Jesus and do everything for love of Him. Fourth, service: it’s not about what I get, but what I can contribute.
So taking leave from the a consumer mentality?
That’s exactly how I would say it. I’ve noticed that I myself used to promote consumer culture rather than a discipleship culture. It was a the lay people on the one side and me as a priest on the other. The priest offering spiritual products for passive consumers. Back then people would say: „Let’s help the Fathers with their projects“. There was no ownership for the common mission. Now I see that was totally wrong. It’s about building something together for the people of this city and showing the face of the Lord to as many people as possible. Of course, we have different roles, but the lay faithful have as much responsibility for the Church’s mission as the priests. If I have a consumer culture, even the best mission strategies are of little use.
Your mission also includes supporting other parishes in their work. What does this cooperation with other parishes look like in concrete terms?
We are milieu specific instead of territorial, but we work very well with the local territorial parish, for example by taking on parish services or celebrating together, as we did recently on Corpus Christi. I also represent the topic of innovation in the diocesan council of priests and was able to hold a seminar on parish revitalization for several parishes.
In the last three years, more and more parishes (parish priest, parish council, leadership teams…) from Germany and Austria have been coming to us for a day or a weekend looking for inspiration and help. Somehow God seems to use our small initiative to inspire others. Of course, it’s not about „copy and paste“, because what works in the heart of Vienna cannot simply be transferred to a community in the deepest mountains of Austria. But there are certain principles which, after discernment in prayer and through experimentation, one can very well apply in one’s own situation. We still have limited resources, but we want to expand this area more.
How do you explain this growth and the attraction that the Center has for young people in particular?
In the first place I would say: the grace of God. It’s just a gift and it’s not because we’re so great and wonderful. I’ve been in Vienna since 2004 and after ten years of work we had three dysfunctional small groups. Then I realized that I had to change something and made one of the best decisions of my life: that I will pray more.
Even though we Legionaries pray three or four hours a day, I started adding an extra time of Eucharistic Adoration each day. The second decision was to look outside the box for pastoral concepts that bring fruit for the kingdom of God in urban contexts. I read over 40 books on the subject and visited different places in England, USA, Canada and France, alone or with a team. Slowly a vision formed. One of the most important things we’ve learned over the past few years can be illustrated with an analogy from surfing: you can learn to surf a wave, but you can’t build a wave. We must try to look closely at what wave God is building and start there. Where we used to be too centered on ourselves, we started to focus more outward.
There is no shortage of great Catholic offers in Vienna, there are over 100 Sunday masses within 30 minutes walking distance in the city center alone. But just having more masses is not solving the problem of secularization of the massive exit out of our churches. We wanted to be a place for people who don’t go to church at all. And that’s a lot of people in this city, about 99 percent of the Catholic population under 35! We also focused much more on culture. Not without reason is it said: “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” You can have the best ideas and strategies, but if you don’t have a healthy culture and don’t live your values convincingly, it’s all for nothing.
Working in small groups is particularly part of your culture – men, married couples, students or young mothers, for example, meet regularly. Does this substructure of active small groups form the engine of your community?
To be honest, they could be even more the engine! The more we grow, the more we realize how important small groups are. You can’t have fellowship with 350 people, you can only do that with small groups. There one learns to get along, character is formed, one gives each other feedback and motivates one another. Small groups can absorb a lot of challenges and prevent people from being unnoticed in the church community. Many who visit our center wonder why we don’t have a large lecture hall. We are convinced that people grow more in circles than in lines, i.e. above all in small groups among themselves.
Some are also surprised that in the Center one will find the breviary next to healing prayer, silent Eucharistic adoration next to modern worship music, the rosary next to charismatic prayer. Do we have to endure the tension between the Church and modern culture?
Pope Benedict XVI took over the idea of the „Spannungseinheit” (“unity of a tension”) from Romano Guardini. We Catholics Faith profess scripture and tradition, faith and deeds, grace and freedom. This is a consequence of the Incarnation of the Son of God. Jesus is 100 percent human and 100 percent God, king and servant, lion and lamb, in the world but not of the world. We must maintain this tension. We don’t want to become the world, nor do we want to disconnect completely and flee to the „good old days“, but rather try to enter this world and transform it for Jesus. We believe that modern culture – like modern music – can be won over to Jesus.
And what role will the center play in 2040?
We want to be a resource church, support other churches in their revitalization process and, God willing, plant about five new church communities in the next ten years. This is the dream. Let´s see what the Lord wants. We also see ourselves increasingly in the field of the digital church, not as a substitute for the local church, but as a nice addition. For example, we recently did an Alpha parenting course, with couples participating from all over Europe. We also see great potential in the area of virtual and augmented reality and build this up slowly. The Church has still very little presence in the virtual world, it’s like a new continent where we want to bring the Gospel. Let’s see what the Lord is up to!
