By Jay Sorgi • Posted March 12, 2026

During last year’s listening sessions across the Church of Philadelphia, Catholics learned much about emerging missionary hubs and the need to share the Catholic faith with all.

They also expressed a desire to learn more about specific topic areas.

As the missionary hubs move from concept to reality in five local communities, Catholics are enjoying new discussions on evangelization and other requested topics.

Since January of this year and running through April, Hub Life Sessions held at nine locations in the archdiocese are covering four main themes: religious education and faith formation; care for God’s creation; social outreach; and synodality.

The third theme of social outreach was the focus of the session held Saturday morning, March 7 at St. Matthew Parish in Northeast Philadelphia.

It engaged Catholics over coffee, doughnuts and frank conversation on how a parish and the neighborhood’s missionary hub serve the needs of all people in the community as an expression of missionary discipleship.

Facilitated by Richara Krajewski of the Catholic Leadership Institute, dozens of faithful Catholics took time to pray, discern how Christ is calling them to serve, and explore service opportunities within their parish.

“To evangelize does not mean simply to teach a doctrine, but to proclaim Jesus Christ by one’s words and actions,” Krajewski said. “That is, to make oneself an instrument of His presence and action in the world.”

Fittingly, Heather Huot discussed the numerous ways that Catholic Charities of Philadelphia impacts the lives of some 300,000 area residents each year.

As secretary and executive vice president of the organization and a lifelong resident of Northeast Philadelphia who grew up in St. Matthew Parish, she highlighted the Church’s outreach to people on society’s margins.

These include seniors, at-risk youth, people with disabilities, the hungry, the homeless, and everyone needing advocacy and support.

“We meet our sisters and brothers who are on the road, often a very difficult road,” Huot said. “Think about all the difficult roads around Philadelphia (where) our brothers and sisters are in need. Who is there? Christ is there, and we need to be there.”

Yet even Catholic Charities with its vast service network in the five-county area “can’t be everywhere serving every need,” Huot said. “We really do need parishes and missionary hubs to join us in the work that we do.”

While parishes and CCoP agencies have served human needs in the region for a very long time, the missionary hubs bring a new dimension.

“When people ask me, ‘What’s the hub doing?’ I say it’s like parents who are expecting a child, (then) the baby’s born, but then everybody’s asking, ‘So what’s the baby going to be when it grows up?’” said Father Patrick Welsh, pastor of St. Matthew’s.

“I think we’re ahead of the game. We’re crawling. We’re doing some things. But what we’re doing now is really, really important because we need to listen and we need to learn what the needs are.”

The faithful gathered at St. Matthew’s discussed how the parish and the missionary hub planted in Northeast Philadelphia would ascertain the needs of people in the area, and how to lovingly engage them.

Some small discussion groups talked about how particular parishes have struggled to serve the temporal and spiritual needs of area residents because of cultural barriers.

“How do you … build one-on-one opportunities to reach out?” said one participant who preferred to remain unidentified. “(Maybe) give cards to parishioners to offer the chance to say, ‘Here’s what I need,’ or build communal events that actually will connect people, and then get them into a particular space where missionaries can be present to what’s going on in their lives.

“If you’re present to someone and can open a door to be present to their greatest need, then you will bring them into this house, because their needs are being met.”

Another unnamed participant noticed the issue of unhoused people in her neighborhood, and the lack of services for people struggling to live on the street.

She suggested the parish could become part of the solution for unhoused people, while the hub could present the faithful with ample opportunities to serve others.

“There’s a lot of things that people would love to do, so maybe we need help with facilitating people knowing what the opportunities are,” she said, adding, “being able to give them a plan, kind of like the outline of what you can do and how you can help.”

The morning of discovery ended as it began, with prayer.

“We continue to explore and to discern ways in which we can become members of this mission that has been entrusted to the Church,” Father Welsh said as he led the closing prayer.

“We ask you to give us the grace of the Holy Spirit to continue to lead us and guide us and to make us open to the promptings of that Holy Spirit as we continue to envision how the Church can best be present here to the people who are entrusted to us.”

Click here to sign up for upcoming Hub Life Sessions, including:

• Saturday, March 14, 9 a.m. at the Archdiocesan Pastoral Center, Philadelphia, on Synodality;
• Wednesday, March 11, 6:30 p.m. at St. Pius X Parish, Broomall, on Religious Education and Faith Formation;
• Tuesday, April 14, 6:30 p.m. at St. Joseph Parish, Downingtown, on Synodality;
• Tuesday, April 21, 6:30 p.m. at Holy Innocents Parish, North Philadelphia, on Care for God’s Creation.