A great idea for evangelization, via OSV News:
“Hello! I’m a Catholic Priest!” greets the cheerful, large-font sign taped to the back of the laptop computer of Father Richard Miserendino, chaplain of the University of Mary Washington’s Catholic Campus Ministry and a priest in the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia.
The notice also invites passersby at the campus coffee shop — in Fredericksburg, Virginia, about an hour from Washington — to ask him a question, chat, or just say hello.
Everyone has heard of faith sharing, even if Catholics can sometimes find the concept more than a little intimidating.
So is this cafe evangelism?
Evangelization is admittedly an essential component of any Catholic priest’s professional toolkit, but Father Rich — as he is affectionately nicknamed — would probably also tell you that his usually twice-weekly station at a small, round patio table with chipped paint is not equivalent to a pulpit — and evangelization is not always his first or only mission while he’s sitting there.
Sometimes, it’s just to listen.
In the course of a couple of hours on a recent bright and clear fall day — the first after the 110-plus-year-old secular university’s fall break, when the leaves were turning and a jacket seemed like a good idea — Father Miserendino exchanged brief greetings with dozens of students who walked past.
Others, however, took a seat — and it’s then that the priest’s ministry of presence was especially evident.
A former U.S. Marine was adapting to civilian challenges in the wake of an intense deployment. Another student recently lost a grandparent. A young man wearing a white cowboy hat and clutching a cellophane-wrapped bouquet of bright flowers was on his way to present them to his girlfriend, to mark the six-month anniversary of their relationship.
Different people with different stories — but each trusted the bespectacled and affable man in a clerical collar with their confidences as they sat or stood in the early afternoon sunshine.
“Sometimes, they’re a bit more theological. Sometimes they’re a bit more heart — you know, things that people are working through,” Father Miserendino, who began his alfresco ministry about a year ago, shared with OSV News. “Sometimes people are just lonely, and they just want to talk. And so, it varies.”