25 April 2006. (From Catholic Heradl) "They’re Catholic missionaries?" was a common question heard by teens during a Holy Week door-to-door ministry. People answering the doors assumed that any faith-inspired person knocking on their door would be Mormon.
Nearly 150 teens traveled to the Arlington Diocese last week for the Youth for the Third Millennium Mega Mission, an outreach of Regnum Christi. The teens were sponsored by five parishes — St. John Parish, McLean; St. Catherine of Siena, Great Falls; St. Louis, Alexandria; St. Anthony of Padua, Falls Church; and St. Mary of Sorrows, Fairfax.

The mission’s main focus was door-to-door evangelization. According to Brother Michael Maciborski, LC a member of the Legionaries of Christ, this isn’t something just Mormons do. Catholics have a job to evangelize the Gospel as well.

St. Mary of Sorrows hosted nearly 30 young men for the mission. Many of the participants came from Maryland or Washington and were joined by members of the local youth ministry groups.

The participants went door-to-door several times throughout the Wednesday-Saturday retreat. They explained that they were Catholic missionaries and invited people to attend Holy Week activities at the parish, including a Living Stations of the Cross, performed by youths from St. Mary of Sorrows.

“There are people who want to know about faith,” said Brother Maciborski.

The teens returned with stories. Some people had welcomed them into their homes and listened to what they had to say. They met people who didn’t know how to return to the Church or didn’t realize they were welcome back.

Patrick Jacobeen, a member of St. Timothy Parish in Chantilly, met a man who had taken the name Christopher as his confirmation saint only to discover that Christopher is “no longer considered a saint.” He thought this because St. Christopher’s feast day isn’t celebrated anymore as part of the Church calendar.
Jacobeen explained to him that much of Christopher’s life was legend, so he was taken off the calendar — but he is still a saint.

The teens offered to pray for any intentions the man had. He said that there had only been three times in his life when someone had offered to pray for him and this was one of them.

Arturo Guerra, a Spanish-speaking consecrated member of Regnum Christi, traveled with the teens. One man had been raised Catholic in El Salvador but had fallen away when he moved to America. He was open to hearing more about the Faith.

Some of the teens’ stories were not positive. Many had doors slammed in their faces. One man accused the Church of trying to take over the world. He blamed the Church for the immigration crisis, AIDS in Africa and failed marriages. He also claimed that there are five Supreme Court Justices in a secret Catholic society, said Steve Rohr, a teen from Hagerstown, Md.

“At the end, we gave him the flier,” Rohr said. “Then he shut the door in our face.”

His group also met an Episcopal man who welcomed them in. They invited him to the Living Stations, and he attended.

Along with the door-to-door mission, the teens participated in service projects for their host parish. They performed a walking Stations of the Cross, carrying a tall wooden cross around the block.

Benjamin Windfuhr Lewis didn’t think carrying the cross would be that difficult, but he was wrong.

“Crosses are heavy, and there’s no comfortable way to carry it,” he said.

On the main highways, people honked their horns in support. At the intersection of Route 123 and Braddock Road, the group stopped to say several stations. In those 15 minutes, Windfuhr Lewis guessed that maybe 1,000 cars drove by and saw them standing with the cross erect.

“You never know how many people you’re going to touch,” he said. “People may go home and tell their families about it.”