‘Kindness Matters’ campaign coming to the Diocese

Tom Cronin is the Director of Evangelization & Strategic Planning in the Diocese of Albany. Contact Tom with any questions about boosting evangelization efforts at your parish at [email protected] or by visiting www.rcda.org/evangelization. Follow me on Instagram: tom_rcda.

Why does kindness matter? As Christians, we are told to love the Lord our God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus clearly summarizes and affirms this declaration by stating, “There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31). 

Acts of kindness can be natural building blocks to being less selfish and increasing our awareness of the needs of others. Through kindness, we can take steps in loving others as ourselves since it can be somewhat unrealistic to love our neighbor if we are not first kind to our neighbor.

The Diocese of Albany is excited to launch a large-scale evangelization initiative this summer around the theme “Kindness Matters.” For those most observant across the Diocese, you may recall that our last evangelization campaign utilized full-size roadside billboards across the Diocese with the theme of “What are you seeking?” The roadside billboards directed people to a diocesan website landing page which provided a variety of resources about the Catholic faith and specifically young adult events and links to our Catholic young adult regional groups.

The purpose of “Kindness Matters” is to encourage the more than 1.4 million people across our Diocese, regardless of their religious affiliation, to step up and be better neighbors to one another. If each one of us makes a concerted effort to be kinder and show more love to one another a tidal wave of benevolence will fill our homes, neighborhoods, parishes and towns. This initiative will gain momentum one person at a time and one small act of kindness at a time. It starts with you and me. 

The vehicle for the “Kindness Matters” campaign will be lawn signs, similar in style to the many election-type signs that will soon be popping up in every nook and cranny of our country this fall. A supply of more than 4,000 “Kindness Matters” lawn signs will be distributed to our 126 parishes in the next month for parishioners to proudly display in their yards and across their towns. The call to action from the sign is to direct people to a website landing page (www.rcda.org/kind) which will provide not just resources and ideas to help us be kinder to one another, but examples showing ways in which the Diocese is leading by example through many ministries and initiatives in being kind to others.

Be on the lookout for the launch of this campaign and please be part of spreading the word that kindness does matter. Change starts with us. It is critical that we take a more proactive stance and have the courage to live our faith more fully through not just our words, but our deeds.  

Kindness is contagious!  Go out and love others the way you would like to be loved. Go out and be kind to everyone you encounter. Why? Because kindness matters.

Tom Cronin is the Director of Evangelization & Strategic Planning in the Diocese of Albany. Contact Tom with any questions about boosting evangelization efforts at your parish at [email protected] or by visiting www.rcda.org/evangelization. Follow me on Instagram: tom_rcda.