Paulist New England Outreach

Paulist New England Outreach is headed up  by Fr. Robert Rivers, C.S.P.  He provides many of the services of this ministry, but he can also call on other members of Paulist community to supplement or even head up particular events.  Fr. Rivers is author of From Maintenance to Mission: Evangelization and the Revitalization of the Parish.  He has served as a pastor in California and North Carolina and in campus ministry in Minnesota and Texas.  He was Vice-President for Mission Advancement at Paulist Evangelization Ministries (PEM) before joining Paulist New England Outreach.

Who Are the Paulists?

The Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle (the Paulists) was founded in New York City in 1858.  It was the first com-munity of priests founded in the United States.

From the beginning, the Paulists sought to reach out to their non-Catholic neighbors with the with the Good News of Catholic Christianity.  Paulist founder, Fr. Isaac Hecker, was himself a convert to Catholicism.  He was a religious seeker whose journey to the Catholic Church was by way of the Transcendentalism of Ralph Waldo Emerson and the idealism of Henry David Thoreau. 

The Paulists today continue efforts to share the Catholic faith with others.  The ministry of the Paulists has expanded over the years to include particular outreach to those alienated from the Catholic faith.  The Paulists also strive to build bridges of good will to other Christian denominations and to non-Christian world religions, particularly Judaism and Islam.