What Facilitates and What Hinders the Establishment of Parish Social Ministry Core Teams: An Exploratory Qualitative Study

Abstract

: A significant proportion of Catholic charitable activities is done not only by professional Charity Agencies (ChA), but also by local volunteer groups in parishes. The parish setting of Charity underwent a significant decline in Czechoslovakia in the second half of the twentieth century, which continued with the unilateral expansion of ChA after 1990. Due to the new ecclesiological accents following the encyclical Deus caritas est there is a renewed sensitivity to the charitable/social ministry of parishes and ways are being sought to establish it where it has not been before. There is a minimum of knowledge in this area. The aim of this study is to explore the experience of those (N=20) responsible for the establishment of parish social ministry teams (PSMT) in the parishes of the Archdio - cese of Olomouc (Czechia) and find out what factors helped and hindered. The qualitative research highlighted the following facilitative categories: logistical support of PSMT from ChA; identification of the parish with the idea of PSMT, clear communication of the idea of PSMT in the parish, appropriate competencies of the PSMT leader and active strategies for recruiting volunteers.