A million “faith cards” are being produced so that their holders can be identified as Catholics if they have an accident – and to help to spread the Gospel.
The credit card-sized cards are being produced by the Department for Evangelisation and Catechesis of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.
They will be freely distributed over the next two months throughout the dioceses – including the Bishopric of the Forces and the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham and Blessed John Henry Newman.
The Department for Evangelisation hopes the cards will serve “as a reminder that all baptised are invited to know and share their faith”.
Bishop Kieran Conry of Arundel and Brighton, chairman of the department, said: “We all carry a variety of cards in our purses and wallets which reflect something of our identity and the things that are important to us.
“The faith card for Catholics aims to offer a daily reminder of what it means to be a follower of Jesus . We can’t summarise the whole of our faith in bullet points, but we hope that the card simply inspires people to do, read and learn more.
“The card is also designed to give Catholics confidence to share their faith. Carrying a faith card takes courage, it signals to others, every time you use your wallet or purse, that you believe in God, that your life has a purpose, that you are trying to love and serve your neighbour.
Bishop Conry added: “We hope that Catholics will use it to witness to their faith,” he said. “If someone asks a question about Catholicism, a starting point could be to show the card and to take it from there.”
The card features a space for the owner to sign a clear statement that he or she is a Catholic and lists six things that Catholics are called to do: pray, share with others the joy of knowing Jesus Christ, celebrate the sacraments regularly, “love my neighbour as well as myself”, “use the gifts that I have been given wisely”, and “forgive as I have been forgiven”.
Along the bottom of the card is a sentence that reads: “In the event of an emergency, please call a Catholic priest.”
The reverse of the card features a quote from Blessed John Henry about the individual vocation that God has given to each person.