IMAGE: CNS photo/New Albany Deanery
By John Shaughnessy
INDIANAPOLIS (CNS) — While
talking about The Man Tour, Conventual Franciscan Brother Andrew Hennessy
shares his purpose for creating an evening that combines throwing axes,
drinking beer, eating pizza, smoking cigars and participating in eucharistic
adoration.
The 28-year-old friar, who’s involved
in young adult ministry, wants The Man Tour to deepen the bonds of young men
who already share the Catholic faith while also connecting with young men who
don’t have a home in the church.
“My main hope is to strengthen
the community for guys who are in the core group and to reach out to guys who
are on the periphery of the church — to feel some spiritual solidarity together,
to make connections across parishes, to build up the church,” Brother Andrew told
The Criterion, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
“Hopefully, it will be a lot of
fun, a lot of good energy, and a chance to come together before the Lord,” he
said, in advance of what he calls a “night of recreation
and holiness.”
The Man Tour, which costs $30,
is open to 30 young men. On March 10 participants gathered at the Mount St. Francis Center of Spirituality in Mount
St. Francis, in the archdiocese’s New Albany Deanery. It’s where Brother Andrew
lives with his fellow Conventual Franciscans.
From the center, the group was chauffeured
in two deanery vans to the Flying Axes establishment across the Ohio River in
Louisville, Kentucky, where they could throw axes, eat pizza and drink beer.
Brother Andrew explained that
Flying Axes is set up like a bowling alley, “but you’re throwing axes at
plywood. It’s a really cool concept, a macho thing to do.”
The second part of The Man Tour
involved a return to Mount St. Francis for evening eucharistic adoration
followed by “cigar smoking and conversation.”
Brother Andrew said that his
inspiration for The Man Tour partly came from “my imagination running away from
me.”
“I work with a lot of young
adults here. Being guys, we were just throwing out ideas of hanging out as
guys, doing guy things,” he told The Criterion. “We figured we’d get guys from
across the deanery, have some fun together, pray together and build the
community of the Church together.”
That element of building
community is at the heart of The Man Tour, Brother Andrew insists.
“Someone told me that the two
things that bring guys together are work and play. As Catholics, I think we
also add ‘pray’ to it — even though it’s not easy to get people to pray
together,” he said. “It’s natural to come together to have fun, and it’s
natural to come together to worship.
“The thing in my head is the
Christian community. It’s a community centered around Christ. We’re having fun,
but we’re centering it all around Christ.”
Combining faith and fun is a way
of trying to connect with young adults who aren’t closely tied to the church, said
Philip Wiese, director of youth ministries for the New Albany Deanery, who
helped coordinate The Man Tour with Brother Andrew.
It’s an age group — from 18 to
35 — that’s searching for something deeper, that’s at a defining time in their
lives, said Wiese, who is 29, married and the father of four children, with
another child arriving soon.
“It’s such an important time,”
he explained. “When you become young adults, the questions in life become more
clear: Am I going to be married or single? Is the Lord calling me to be a
priest or a religious sister? Where am I working, and is the place good for me
spiritually or bringing me down? What kind of community am I in, and is it
building me up?
“We’re made for community as
human beings. That’s why it’s so important for young adults to have authentic
community — to be built up as a man and as a son of God, to be built up as a
woman and as a daughter of God,” he added.
When Brother Andrew shared his
idea for The Man Tour, Wiese embraced it. He also wants to explore ways to draw
young women closer to God and the church through some combination of faith and
fun.
“Pope Francis talks about going
to the peripheries,” Wiese said. “We need opportunities for people to come into
the church and to grow in their relationship with Christ and the church without
being overwhelmed-to involve them in something that strikes them as
interesting.”
He called The Man Tour one step
in that process.
“We want to bring men together
to see where they are in their walk in life, and where they are in their
relationship with Christ and the Church so we can better prescribe a men’s
ministry,” Wiese said, adding, “I’m interested to see where this will go, where
the Lord will lead us. Prayer and adoration will always be involved.”
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Shaughnessy is assistant editor of The Criterion, newspaper of the
Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
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