Mary Beth Yount, theology professor and former official for the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, has founded the Catholic Family Fun Club, a digital initiative for families.
Almost 100 families and more than 530 individuals have joined the Catholic Family Fun Club, a new digital Catholic family group, in less than a month since its launch.
The new initiative formed by local Catholic families aims to build locally networked communities so that all might grow in their faith together, according to founder Mary Beth Yount, an assistant professor of theology at Neumann University.
The club hosted on MeetUp.com is a grassroots outgrowth of the World Meeting of Families held in Philadelphia last year.
Yount, who served as director of content and programming for the meeting, wanted to develop a simple way to find out about already-existing Catholic family events and share them with other Catholic families in the five-county region.
“I was looking forward to members posting events like rosary campfires, saint movie nights and catechism quiz tournaments. These are things that I love to do with my children,” Yount said.
Using a crowd-sourced calendar, the Catholic Family Fun Club allows families from throughout the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to attend and create Catholic catechetical and social activities together and learn about other local events and organizations connected to the Catholic faith.
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“We are all learning a lot about local events and organizations connected to our Catholic faith tradition that we would never hear about otherwise,” Yount said. “For example, a post letting people know about an adoptive family picnic taught me about some of the needs of adoptive families and a network that is meeting those needs.
“There was another post inviting people to join the Interfaith Hospitality Network in feeding and being present to families that are in transition between homes, an event for families struggling with infertility, multiple events that describe particular levels of accessibility for those with special needs, and more. The new group has exceeded my expectations.”
To join the Catholic Family Fun Club, click on this link at MeetUp.com. The MeetUp app may also be downloaded onto a digital device and “Catholic Family” entered to find the new group.
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No need to consider yourself excluded or to allow yourself to feel marginalized–everyone was or is part of some kind of family in some way. Join the group and go to some of the events. Plenty of them would appeal to a single person.
Practically everything at church is geared towards families. There’s nothing for single people. We actually need more support and welcome because we are alone. Yet we remain unwelcome and ignored and excluded. Why do things have to be exclusionary?