McLaughlin’s mission: setting the field for faith

The Interview, a regular feature of The Catholic New World, is an in-depth conversation with a person whose words, actions or ideas affect today’s Catholic. It may be affirming of faith or confrontational. But it will always be stimulating.

As the last stragglers exit Soldier Field on Saturday night, Sheila McLaughlin has one thing on her mind: sleep.

“It’s not that I’ll be sleeping better, it’s just that I’ll be sleeping,” said McLaughlin, archdiocesan director of the Office for Divine Worship, who spoke with Catholic New World staff writer Michael D. Wamble during the week prior to Field of Faith, the much anticipated Corpus Christi celebration by the lake.

Since the first plans for the event were announced a year ago, McLaughlin has been its non-stop liturgical spark: from coordinating the distribution of Communion to choreographing Cardinal George’s procession with the Blessed Sacrament on June 24.

As she described the event, who would be where and how they’d get there, an electricity popped her eyes bright, and a knowing smile of confidence lit up the ODW office space.

And why not?

While this event would be unparalleled in its size for McLaughlin, she has helped put together celebrations with large crowds for over a decade, including the 1994 archdiocesan sesquicentennial Mass at Grant Park.

Where there has been perspiration and sleep deprivation, there has also been great joy in Catholics making their presence known.

In 1893, when the city hosted a World’s Fair, Catholics seized that moment to take a visible stand to champion the faith in the face of religious bigotry.

“There is still a certain amount of anti-Catholicism alive in our culture,” said McLaughlin.

“Today, there are many successful Catholic people in Chicago who are economically influential, but it doesn’t erase the need we have to publicly celebrate our faith.”

Catholic New World: How much of Field of Faith is based on the 1926 International Eucharistic Congress?
Sheila McLaughlin: It is connected in the sense that this is a special feast in the life of the church—the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. It’s something that is connected to the jubilee celebration not just in Chicago but around the world, particularly with the International Eucharistic Congress in Rome with the Holy Father.
We too gather with a particular focus on our sense of gratitude for the gift of the Eucharist.
It is also another great expression of the diversity of the Archdiocese of Chicago as it was in 1926. The only difference is probably the ethnic, cultural make-up of the archdiocese. At that time we had a lot of European immigrants who basically formed the foundation of the Catholic community in Chicago. Now, we have in a way a much broader spectrum of people from all parts of the world.

CNW: Recently, Soldier Field hosted a memorial for the football great Walter Payton, where expectations were high that the stadium would be filled. In fact, the attendance, while respectable, was less than anticipated. Were there thoughts to move this celebration to another location, like Holy Name Cathedral, or is the heart of this event also its size?
SM: Yes. We talked about different things. How do you build up excitement and get people interested, especially when for some people it’s hard to think about coming downtown. People worry about parking, walking from their parking space to Soldier Field, or being gone from home from 2 to 9 p.m. They wonder about bringing the kids or making plans for them to stay at home. All of those things have been considerations. This week, our work has been focused on making sure parishes who have requested more tickets receive those tickets. We’ve also been checking in with parishes to make sure things are OK.

CNW: On top of everything else on your schedule this week?
SM: Right. As of today, we have about 46,000 tickets “spoken for.” Then when you count in the numbers of volunteers, concelebrants and dignitaries added, we think we’ll be somewhere around 52,000 people all together.

CNW: Much has been whispered about attendance expectations. Does part of that talk rise out of changes in the tradition of public religious witness in this country and this archdiocese?
SM: At the time of the Eucharistic Congress in Chicago in the 1920s, I think the average Catholic had a different relationship with their parish than they have now. There was no television and many other means of entertainment we have weren’t available to people. Not that this is about entertainment, it is about faith. But the parish [then], especially at a time when so many national parishes were established, the parish community was the center of the lives of many Catholic people. For most active Catholics, their parish is important to them, but I don’t think they have the same relationship that perhaps Catholics had in those years.

CNW: Chicago has been described as a Catholic city, albeit with a good percentage of baptized Catholics who may or may not attend weekly Mass or have a parish home. Is this event an attempt to reach out to those baptized Catholics?
SM: I think so. Cardinal George certainly has made evangelization a priority. Evangelization is about more than speaking to those people who don’t know Christ. It is also about reaching out to those people who for one reason or another have been alienated from the church. Here are people we’d like to welcome back to the Catholic Church. That’s why we tried to get the message out through radio spots so that those who don’t have a connection to a parish learned more about the celebration and could get a ticket.
There is an open invitation to all to come and be part of this celebration. And if you come to Mass every week, come. If you’ve been away for a long time, come.

CNW: Does this event challenge the celebrity “cult of personality” mind state found in our culture?
SM: Do you mean, is Michael Jordan going to be there? No.
When I think about Field of Faith, I see it as a chance for all of us as brothers and sisters to come together. We’re all stars, in a way, when we join together in a celebration where we can be transformed in our lives in the world. I don’t think about it at all in terms of who’s going to be there. It is a sign of our commitment to the church and our willingness to say, “We are the Catholic people of Chicago.” This is the perfect way to celebrate that and celebrate our faith.

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