Religious Education Supplement
Prayer, study, fellowship and service are foundations of Catholic Adult Fellowship
Members of the Terre Haute chapter of the Catholic Adult Fellowship program meet at a restaurant for good times following one of their weekly meetings. Designed to help adult Catholics learn more about their faith, the program in Indianapolis and Terre Haute focuses on study, fellowship, prayer and service. (Submitted photo)
By John Shaughnessy
It didn’t take long for Natalie Hoefer to realize she had finally found what she was searching for.
After making the trip from her home in Indianapolis to Terre Haute, Hoefer was surrounded by the kind of devout Catholics that intrigued and excited her.
“It was so amazing to be around people my age who cared so much about the Church’s teachings and wanted to delve deeper into their faith,” Hoefer recalls. “I’ve always been active in my faith, but these people took it further, meeting weekly to learn about their faith. They also did fellowship, retreats and had service opportunities.”
Hoefer’s exposure to the Catholic Adult Fellowship program in Terre Haute touched her so much that she decided to start a similar program for adult Catholics in the Indianapolis area.
“Catholic Adult Fellowship (CAF) is a community of Catholics who desire to grow in love, knowledge and service of Christ and his Church, with other adults,” declares the program’s Web site at www.catholicadultfellowship.org. “Members are married and single adults, lay and religious, 21 to 101 years of age. We realize our desire and need for Catholic community at every stage of a person’s life.”
Hoefer was 34 when she first experienced the Catholic Adult Fellowship program four years ago. Growing up in Catholic schools in the 1970s and 1980s, she says she didn’t learn much about the teachings of the Church.
“There was just so much I didn’t know about my faith,” she says. “My generation was like, ‘OK, fine, we’ll go ahead and do what we want to do,’ because we never got the foundation of our catechism and what the Church teaches, let alone why it teaches that.”
As Hoefer grew older, she thirsted for that knowledge and a connection with fellow Catholics who wanted to know more about their faith.
So did Jim Kendall of Terre Haute, who joined the Catholic Church five years ago.
“It’s good to have good, solid Catholic friends,” says Kendall, 29, a member of St. Patrick Parish in Terre Haute and the fellowship coordinator of the Terre Haute chapter of Catholic Adult Fellowship.
“I think there are a lot of people—especially younger people who go to Mass on Sunday and love the Church—who want to go deeper in their faith. CAF allows people to not only learn about their faith, but to meet people who can encourage them to live their faith in a dynamic way.”
Both the Indianapolis and Terre Haute chapters meet every Tuesday evening, focusing on the four foundations of the program: prayer, study, fellowship and service.
In the weekly meetings, members of the group take turns researching and presenting information on a variety of topics from the perspective of the Church.
For example, the fall calendar for the Indianapolis group includes programs on St. Paul, the Gospel of Mark, Catholic teaching on divorce, martyrs of the French Revolution, Catholic use of the media and Catholic teaching on extraterrestrials.
There’s also a fall retreat and service opportunities at the St. Augustine Home for the Aged in Indianapolis and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Indianapolis. Fellowship events include a visit to a retreat center and a winery in Bloomington and a hike in a state park.
“We give them the opportunity to practice their faith through service opportunities, and we just have a lot of fun together,” says Hoefer, a member of St. Monica Parish in Indianapolis and the director of the Indianapolis chapter of Catholic Adult Fellowship. “We range in age from 23 to 50-something. It’s a good mix of singles, married adults, men and women, cradle Catholics and converts. It’s like a microcosm of the Church.”
Kendall appreciates the service element of the group’s efforts.
“We usually do a service project to help the greater Terre Haute Catholic community,” he says. “The most recent service project we did was with Catholic Charities. We supplied a family for back to school. We supplied the five children with clothes, shoes, backpacks and school supplies. Service is foundational to what makes us Christians. Christ is our model. We try to do service for the Church and the poor.”
It’s all part of an approach that helps people deepen their faith.
“I have grown so much,” Hoefer says. “I’ve grown in knowledge and also in faith. The people involved care so much about their faith and their relationship with God. They’re very inspiring to be with.”
One experience especially shows the impact the group has had on Hoefer and her faith.
“We did a retreat on the Beatitudes,” she says. “Learning to apply the Beatitudes in my life has made a difference. I’ve also learned different ways to pray. When you know more about your faith, it means so much more to you. It may start in the mind, but then it filters down into the heart.”
(The Indianapolis and Terre Haute chapters of Catholic Adult Fellowship meet every Tuesday from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The Terre Haute chapter meets in the rectory at St. Patrick Parish, 1807 Poplar St. The Indianapolis chapter meets at the Archbishop O’Meara Catholic Center, 1400 N. Meridian St. Parking is available behind the building. Anyone wanting to join the groups is welcome at any time. Further information about both chapters is available on the Web site at www.catholicadultfellowship.org.) †
