Pastor meets with small groups to foster community

Intermountain Catholic

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SALT LAKE CITY —Two years ago Ask Father Andrew! came alive as part of St. Ambrose Parish’s efforts to evangelize and gather the community.

Ask Fr. Andrew is a regular event, held in parishioners’ homes, in which a small group of people meet in a relaxed environment and ask questions of Father Andrzej Skrzypiec, pastor of Saint Ambrose.

“They have asked all kind of questions – a lot about the Catholic Church as a whole, a lot about the parish, about what’s going on with this or that project, also about the school (J.E. Cosgriff Memorial Catholic School, which is attached to the parish),” said Lisa Louie, a St. Ambrose parishioner and a member of the parish women’s council, where the idea for the event was born.

“About two years ago in a retreat of the parish, we were talking about bringing communities together. We used to have neighborhood hosting parties, but that went away,” Louie said.

As they were talking, Louie recalled a newspaper column that she used to enjoyed.

“I was born and raised in Salt Lake and I remembered that back in the day in the Salt Lake Tribune there was a column titled ‘Ask Andy,’ where you could submit questions to the newspaper and whomever the columnist was answered these questions,” Louie said.

The formation committee and Fr. Andrew welcomed the idea of adapting the concept to the parish.

 “We decided that that might be something that we could do – further reach out to different parishioners and different groups and Fr. Andrew loves to do that; he is always about reaching out. He loves to talk to different people; he is very gregarious,” Louie said.

She and her husband hosted the first gatherings, and people invited acquaintances who were not Catholic.

“We thought it brought in a lot to it. It was and is exciting. In a form, it is a way of evangelization. It’s a big challenge but it also gives a great satisfaction,” Louie said.

The gatherings happen three or four times per year on a Friday evening.

“The last time we had one, there was a lot of interest; questions such as the difference [between] an apostle and disciple,” and whether someone could get married in the Catholic Church after an annulment, Louie said.

The gathering is usually a group of 10 to 20 people.

Fr. Skrzypiec said that the gatherings give everyone an opportunity to build up community.

“When we get together in the home of the people that host it, we sit together and people ask the questions. They can write them on a piece of paper or they just ask them,” he said.

People ask many kinds of questions and he always tries to give them an answer, he said.

“It helps me to kind of grasp where the people are with the religious understanding,” Fr. Skrzypiec said.

“Fr. Andrew is very knowledgeable and we have been able to bring together generations. Fr. Andrew is very comfortable speaking about different issues,” Louie said.

One of the challenges that they have faced is finding people to host the gatherings, but Louie said that people are starting to show more interest.

“We would like it to go further – maybe do it more times and reach out to a younger community, maybe even to our children,” she said, adding that reaching out to other generations and to more community members is important in today’s world because people are starting to lose the sense of community.

 “We are more spread out as the city grows,” she said. “Reaching out and getting different communities [together] has become harder and harder, but the message of these gatherings is that we can all get together and share and learn. We need to bring our community back together.’

For information about Ask Fr. Andrew, email Lisa Louie at Elizabeth.Louie@aol.com or contact the St. Ambrose Parish office at 801- 485-5610.