Recruitment opportunity offers 'heavenly pension plan'

Thousands of Catholics across England and Wales are the target of an innovative recruitment drive which has been launched by the national evangelisation agency, CASE. The Catholic Agency to Support Evangelisation is hoping to recruit people from every background for what it describes as the most important job in England and Wales. There are currently a wide variety of evangelisation opportunities nationally which have yet to be fully taken up. Mgr Keith Barltrop, director of CASE, said: "This autumn we hoping to fill a large number of job vacancies which offer, quite literally, a heavenly pension lan. No previous experience is necessary and qualifications are most certainly not a prerequisite. Free training and resources are widely available so as to enable as many people as possible to take up post. What does the job entail? It involves daily and publicly sharing and celebrating your Catholic life and faith where you live, socialise and work." Home Mission Sunday, which this year falls on 18 September, will mark the start of the initiative. This is the one day in the year when the Church nationally prays for and supports mission work taking place in England and Wales. Free resource packs are being sent to every parish and religious house. Mgr Barltrop added, "In the parable of the labourers in the vineyard, which will be read out at Masses on Home Mission Sunday, the Lord invites us all to work in the Lord's vineyard. This is an invitation which is given to each one of us today, and CASE is here to help every baptised Catholic be those modern day labourers." The resource packs will include a wide variety of materials including liturgy notes, bidding prayers, parish evangelisation tips, extracts from church documents, and an evangelistic car sticker. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor said: "Now, more than ever, is the time to take up the task of evangelisation in England and Wales. There are many people in our neighbourhoods, at work and in our families, who have never heard the message of the Gospel. We need to be ever more courageous in witnessing through our words and actions to Christ. As we celebrate Home Mission Sunday today I invite you to continue to support the work of CASE who provide a vital service in enthusing, engaging and equipping the Catholic community for this work." The Bishop of Nottingham, Rt Rev Malcolm McMahon, who is Chair of the Bishops' Conference for Evangelisation and Catechesis said: "We can not afford to drag our feet. To evangelise is our Christian duty and we are all too often backward in coming forward because of fear of offending others or being rejected. As a Catholic community we must break through the fear barrier and give witness to Jesus Christ. CASE has been specifically set up to help support, resource and equip the Church for this task. The Agency is doing wonderful work and I encourage you to support and make use of the team and their resources." CASE is now poised to receive requests for more information about a wide range of evangelisation vacancies. Resource materials and training are freely available. The agency hopes that, as a matter of urgency, they will be inundated with job applications, so that more and more Catholics will more actively proclaim the Gospel message through their words, actions and gestures. For more information see: www.caseresources.org.uk