Race car driver’s gift fuels mobile ministry in Ohio diocese
Drag racer Cody Coughlin donated a cargo van to the Diocese of Columbus, Ohio. The van is now a mobile outreach ministry delivering food, resources, and the Gospel to communities in need. Coughlin, who returned to Catholicism a few years ago, expressed gratitude for supporting the mission. Bishop Earl Fernandes blessed the van outside the Basilica of St. Mary of the Assumption on March 8.
about 23 hours ago
A cargo van donated by Ohio drag‑racing and stock‑car driver Cody Coughlin has been transformed into a mobile outreach ministry for the Diocese of Columbus, delivering food, supplies and the Gospel to local communities while serving as a visible “rolling billboard” of Catholic faith 1 2.
Coughlin, who returned to the Catholic Church in recent years, gave the van to the diocese at the end of 2025, describing the gift as a modest way to help “bring food and hope to families who need it most” 1 2.
Deacon Dave Bezuko, director of Catholic Charities, explained that the van is intended to equip parishes with a flexible tool for existing ministries and to take ministry beyond church grounds 1 2.
The vehicle is painted with Catholic imagery, including the Feeding of the 5,000, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Divine Mercy image, a portrait of Mother Teresa, and the Matthew 25:40 quotation, turning it into a mobile sign of Christ’s presence 1 2.
Bishop Earl Fernandes blessed the van on March 8 2024 outside the Basilica of St. Mary of the Assumption in Lancaster, Ohio 1 2.
In its first months, the van transported roughly 6,000 food items collected by Fisher Catholic High School and the basilica to support Mary’s Mission’s homeless outreach 1 2.
It also moved donated furniture for a ministry at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Logan and is slated for appearances at Fourth of July parades, high‑school football games, nursing‑home visits, and the county fair 1 2.
Bezuko hopes the initiative will expand into a “fleet of these” to broaden the diocese’s evangelization and charitable reach throughout Ohio 1 2.
Assess Catholic doctrine on layperson-led mobile evangelization
Layperson-led mobile evangelization (using phones, apps, messaging, short video, etc.) is fully compatible with Catholic doctrine when it flows from Baptism, aims at real proclamation and witness, and remains in missionary communion with the pastors of the Church. The Church’s teaching does not treat modern tools (including “mass media”) as off-limits; rather, it asks that the laity bring the Gospel into the ordinary world—now including digital communication—while avoiding clericalizing patterns, shallow “Church-only” activity, and disconnect from real life and the poor.
Catholic doctrine teaches that the laity have an apostolate by virtue of Baptism and Confirmation, with a right and duty to work so that the saving message is known and accepted. This duty is “the more pressing” when people can hear the Gospel only through them.
The Catechism specifies that lay people fulfill a prophetic mission by evangelization: it is “the proclamation of Christ by word and the testimony of life.” It also stresses that lay evangelization has a “specific property and peculiar efficacy” because it happens in the ordinary circumstances of the world.
So, if a layperson uses a mobile platform to share the Gospel—by speaking (word) and by living witness—this corresponds directly to the Church’s understanding of lay evangelization. The “mobile” character does not change the theological category; it is a new medium for the same apostolic duty.
Catholic teaching explicitly situates lay evangelization in the “vast and complicated world,” including mass media. Pope Paul VI teaches that laypeople’s “primary and immediate task” is not to establish the ecclesial community (that is pastors’ specific role), but to put to use Christian possibilities already active in the world, including “the mass media.”
Therefore, mobile evangelization can be doctrinally assessed as a subset of what Paul VI describes: participation in evangelizing the media environment from within daily life.
The Church places strong emphasis on authenticity and holiness as the first credibility of evangelization. Paul VI says: for the Church, the first means of evangelization is the witness of an authentically Christian life; people listen more readily to witnesses than teachers, “and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.”
The Catechism complements this: the “true apostle is on the lookout for occasions of announcing Christ by word,” whether to unbelievers or to the faithful. This matters for mobile work: it should not only post religious content, but also responsibly seek genuine opportunities for proclamation (e.g., informed conversation, respectful invitations, clear reasons for hope) without reducing the apostolate to purely online engagement.
Catholic doctrine does not envision lay evangelization as a private franchise. Evangelii Gaudium emphasizes that pastoral leaders must foster missionary communion and that participatory processes should have as their principal aim “the missionary aspiration of reaching everyone.”
Evangelii Nuntiandi clarifies role distinction: pastors have the specific task of establishing and developing the ecclesial community, while lay people evangelize the world. That said, lay apostolate is so necessary that “for the most part, the apostolate of the pastors cannot be fully effective without it.”
For publicly meaningful or organized initiatives (for example, a coordinated channel, catechetical outreach, or “ministry-like” role), Evangelii Nuntiandi also teaches that non-ordained ministries must be carried out with “absolute respect for unity and adhering to the directives of the pastors,” who are responsible for unity.
Doctrinal assessment: Mobile evangelization is licit and encouraged when it operates as lay participation in the Church’s mission—but it should remain accountable to ecclesial guidance so that it serves communion rather than fragmentation.
Catholic texts identify concrete spiritual and practical temptations relevant to lay media evangelization:
Clericalism / being pushed out of decision-making or trying to replace pastors. Evangelii Gaudium notes that excessive clericalism can keep laity away from decision-making, and also warns that lay responsibility isn’t always effectively expressed in transforming society.
A further Catholic reflection on co-responsibility warns against confusing “functions and roles in the Church” with genuine co-responsibility, describing clericalism as a “double sin” (priests clericalize laity; laity ask to be clericalized) and insisting that laity are called to bring Christ to the world from within.
Reducing evangelization to “tasks within the Church.” Evangelii Gaudium describes a pattern where lay involvement remains tied to Church tasks “without a real commitment to applying the Gospel to the transformation of society.”
For mobile evangelization, this warns against turning the platform into an internal religious bulletin while neglecting the Gospel’s social implications.
Avoiding mission to protect “free time” and comfort. Evangelii Gaudium warns that some laypeople fear being asked to undertake apostolic work and avoid responsibility that would take away free time; this can lead to paralysis and acedia.
Doctrinal assessment: Mobile evangelization should be evaluated not only by what is posted, but by whether it embodies the Church’s intended posture—missionary, integrated with real life, and oriented toward genuine evangelization rather than status or busyness.
The Church roots apostolic fruitfulness in vital union with Christ, and teaches that charity—drawn “from the Eucharist above all”—is “as it were, the soul of the whole apostolate.”
Evangelii Nuntiandi further emphasizes that evangelizing zeal must “spring from true holiness of life,” and that the witness of life is essential; without holiness, preaching risks being “vain and sterile.”
Doctrinal assessment: Mobile evangelization that lacks real conversion, prayer, charity, and Eucharistic life is not merely a “technical” problem; it contradicts the Church’s doctrine about evangelizing means.
Evangelii Gaudium insists: “No one must say that they cannot be close to the poor” and states that spiritual conversion and zeal for justice and peace are required of everyone.
For mobile evangelization, this implies that content and outreach should not be merely sentimental or purely informational; it should encourage and support concrete Gospel charity, especially toward the poor and marginalized.
Putting these teachings together, Catholic doctrine supports a model like this:
Catholic doctrine positively supports laypeople evangelizing through modern media, including mass media, provided the activity is an expression of the lay apostolate from Baptism, is rooted in holiness and Eucharistic charity, seeks real opportunities for proclamation, and remains in communion with the Church’s pastors—avoiding clericalism and the temptation to turn evangelization into internal Church activity or comfortable avoidance.