Landings offers faith, friendship to returning Catholics

Friday, Jan. 22, 2016

DRAPER — After Kiefer Thompson became ill and drifted away from attending Mass for a couple of years, she realized she needed to go back to Church and start a program for fallen away Catholics to ease their return to the faith.

Through the Landings program, Thompson and a support group have already welcomed 18 returning Catholics to St. John the Baptist Parish. Some see the eight-week program as a journey back to a spiritual home, while others are looking for reconciliation with God and the Church. Landings is an opportunity to be reintroduced to Christ and the Church without pressure, in a non-judgmental environment, said Thompson.

Landings can be started in any parish in English or in Spanish. A training DVD for the support team and the program can be obtained online.

A significant part of the meetings, which last about two hours, is empathetic listening. The first half of the meeting is the presentation of the Catholic theme such as who God is to the Church, the Eucharist, or sin and moral life; “the second half is the participants talking about their spiritual journeys. That is the healing, the touching part of the Landings program,” Thompson said.

Thompson, who attended Catholic school while growing up in Ohio, wasn’t angry at the Church when she stopped going to Mass, it just became hard to return after her illness, she said. “I have a real empathy for those people who have fallen away for one reason or another. I had been very active in the RCIA program for eight years when the parish was first established and it was a great way to be involved in the community. I knew a lot of people and when I started Landings, I had a lot of support.”

One of the parish deacons, Paul Graham, said he was excited to have the Landings program introduced to the parish. “There are so many Catholics who, for whatever reason, have drifted away from the Church.  We want them to know that we miss them and we hope that they will consider returning. In some cases, we are asking them to give us a second chance.” 

When the lay-oriented Landings process began in 1989, Catholics were dealing with a lot of post Vatican II issues; today more people fade away because of busy schedules or the result of a divorce and then “shame sets in and it’s easy to stay away and hard to come back,” said Thompson. 

Among those who have gone through the Landings program is Esther Martinez, who converted to Catholicism in 2007.  However, she felt didn’t learn enough about the faith in RCIA and felt lost, she said. After being fully accepted into the Church, she was attending daily Mass but then stopped going all together, not sure she had made the right decision. 

Then she went to the first Landings sessions and “Kiefer had been one of my RCIA leaders,” said Martinez. “Landings was magical; we all got along and we are still real close. After, we studied Father Robert Barron’s videos, but it has a lot to do with Kiefer; she has a way of keeping people together.” 

Lauren Enda also credits Thompson for the success of the parish program. Enda, a cradle Catholic, had been involved as a Sunday school teacher, a parish council member and an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, but fell away from the Church after her divorce; she then became a single mother and worked long hours, she said. 

“My daughter asked me why I didn’t go to church,” Enda said. “When I saw the Landings announcement and got a call from Kiefer, I was so excited, but nervous. Landings was probably one of the most profound experiences I’ve had in my life. I didn’t need the education Landings offers, I needed the connections, the warm acceptance and welcoming that Kiefer and the program in general gave, which has really changed my life. Our group is still really close. I’ve since moved to England and if I’d known how close we were going to become before I committed to moving, I would not have. In Landings, there were a lot of tears shed, honesty, stories told and extremely protected openness; we knew we were in a safe place. We knew the connections we made needed to be grown and acknowledged so we decided to continue meeting after the Landings program ended.”  

WHAT: Landings 8-week session 

WHO: Inactive and returning Catholics

WHEN: Mondays, 7-9 p.m. beginning Jan. 25 

WHERE: St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, 300 East 11800 South, Draper

There is no cost. For information, call Kiefer Thompson, 801-232-5775.