Lenten campaign 2026
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Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson Perez was installed in 2020 as bishop in a diocese that he says “has experienced more than two decades of crisis.” His priority, he said in a letter earlier this year, is to “help our Church move from crisis to hope.”
The 64-year-old has a plan to form missionary hubs around the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, an entirely new idea, but one – he says – that is “nothing more than the mission of the Church.”
Estimates are that 83% of Catholics in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia are non-practicing. Archbishop Perez wants to invite them home to the Church through a long-ranging initiative centered on these "hubs" around the archdiocese.
He writes,
Over the next decade, I want to establish “Missionary Hubs” across the entire Archdiocese, aiming for at least 10 per county, planted at parishes and other locations. The goal is to reach out to Catholics who don’t participate and non-Catholics, using our resources and talents to ignite a spirit of Missionary Discipleship.
This will create a supportive network of missionary life across the whole Archdiocese, animating our communities everywhere, especially in underserved areas.
Archbishop Perez shared with Aleteia that the plan is to establish five "pilot" hubs, strategically placed around the archdiocese, which represent different social demographics. From there, other parishes will draw from the hubs’ experience, and eventually more hubs will be planted.
The hubs will focus on what Archbishop Perez says is a reason the Church exists -- a missionary impulse -- hearkening back to the last words of the Mass, when parishioners are sent outwards to share the Gospel.
Changing the question when it comes to a crisis
Archbishop Perez shares that he was a priest of the Archdiocese for years before being ordained a bishop and moved to other assignments. When he returned to Philadelphia five years ago he wanted to lean into his episcopal motto “Trust in Hope.”
He acknowledges that there have been numerous parish closures in the Archdiocese. In his letter, he boldly writes, “I do not want to perpetuate this cycle.”
With the collaboration of Daniel Cellucci, President and CEO of the Catholic Leadership Institute, and a lot of prayer, the archbishop thought about the question he thinks the Church often asks in the face of closing parishes and similar challenges: "Where can the Church not afford to be?"
But he wasn’t satisfied with asking and addressing that question and focusing only on closures. Instead, he says, he flipped the question and asked, “Where does the Church need to be and how?”
This reframing, he explains, “unleashes creativity.”
He took this new question and prayed about it and consulted people and made a decision to focus on how to “reignite a cultural reality, calling people back to the Eucharistic altar.”
Focusing on those who aren't in church
Archbishop Perez knows that reaching out to people and inviting them (back) to church won’t be a short process. But the idea is to create "onramps" to help people back.
Watch short videos about the plan here.
The strategic initiative plans for 50 hubs over a 10-year-period. But, these evangelization centers won’t start all at once. Archbishop Perez hopes that parishes will learn from the experiences of the first five parishes and then gradually more and more hubs will open.
How hubs will evangelize is yet to be seen, and plans will vary depending on the particular area in which the hub is located. For example, the archbishop agrees, one hub could decide to undertake door-to-door missionary efforts while another could host an evangelization event, depending what the missionaries discern would be most effective.
Each hub will operate under the pastor of the parish, but will be focused outwards. Often, Archbishop Perez says, parishes focus on the people who come to church; the hubs will be focused on those who don’t.
The staff – five at each hub – will be accompanied through mentorship and formation and then they will decide how to best approach evangelization in their individual area. They will receive support from their pastor and also from the Archdiocese. Funding for the work of these hubs comes from philanthropists dedicated to this mission of evangelization.
Archbishop Perez acknowledges that an initiative like this is not without risks. Yet, he says, “the desire, the hope, the passion is there” -- combined with focus and disciplined strategy.
The Archbishop emphasizes though that, as we do at church, this effort “has to begin and end on our knees.”
We need to be “grounded in prayer and then go out in mission and then pray again.”
“We do our part,” he says. “God will do the rest through His Church.”
