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By Kevin Cullen
The
Catholic Moment
FISHERS — Every religious vocation starts somewhere. The seed can be planted by a book, a movie or a sermon. Other vocations can be traced to the example set by a favorite pope, bishop, priest or nun.
Steve and Joni Abdalla, of Fishers, co-founders of Wee Believers Catholic Toy Company, know that exposure to religious toys can play a role, too.
In 2009, they introduced their first product for kids, a set of plush altar vessels called “My First Mass Kit,” that retails for $89.99. Now — during the Year for Priests — they’re marketing their first two “vocation dolls,” Father Juan Pablo and Sister Mary Clara.
The mission of Wee Believers is to create and market “authentically Catholic” toys, dolls, sacramental gifts and seasonal items that “enkindle the fire of faith in families,” Joni said.
“The Holy Spirit hit us in the face with it,” Steve said. “We really approached this from a parenting standpoint, to help parents have better tools to raise their kids, but it’s also a powerful vocations tool. To even have the most tangential effect on somebody’s vocation is humbling.”
The Abdallas and their four young children attend Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Church in Indianapolis.
They decided to develop their own toy line after watching children fidget during Mass. They searched for faith-related toys to keep their own children occupied, but often came home disappointed.
“We had our own children in church, so we knew that the art of keeping a young child quiet in church is distracting,” Joni said. ‘Something faith-related was needed to keep them distracted with.”
The concept of a Mass kit seemed to be a good one, she said, and it meshed with Steve’s goal of running his own business. He has an MBA from the University of Notre Dame, and now works full-time for Wee Believers.
“It started quite simply, in my maternal brain,” Joni said. “But once the Mass kit came out, catechists started raving about it, even RCIA teachers, teaching older adults … Then we started getting amazing videos of children using our Mass kits, and wonderful stories.”
Many of the kits have been given by grandparents and godparents to grandchildren and godchildren. After receiving a kit, one child even got his non-Catholic grandparents to start attending Mass.
Each of the new plush dolls is 13 inches tall and retails for $29.99. The priest wears a Roman collar; the nun wears a gray and black habit. According to the Abdallas, they’re designed to give boys and girls, ages 3 to 8, an inside look into the lives of real priests and women religious. They can be used at home or in classrooms.
Each of the first two dolls is accompanied by a booklet that features the actual vocation stories of five priests and five women religious.
“The booklet that goes with it is the key to the product,” Joni said. One of her daughters has already said that she “might be a sister someday.”
“The companion booklets have a tone that reaches the children in a conversational way,” Steve said. “These dolls aren’t meant to just be dolls; they are characters. Father Juan Pablo and Sister Mary Clara are characters that bring our products to life. We bring the doll to introduce the characters.”
To write the booklets, Joni interviewed five women religious, one diocesan priest and four priests who are members of religious orders. Their vocation stories were beautiful, she said, and inspiring.
The dolls are designed to open new lines of communication between children and parents regarding religious life. Each booklet urges parents to be open to religious vocations, and to take their child to see priests and women religious “in action” as they do their work.
Wee Believers plans to market an entire line of characters that centers around a family of Catholic dolls in a town called “Mercyville.” Father Juan Pablo is the pastor, and Sister Mary Clara serves as a sacristan and teaches in the parish school.
As new toys are released, children will be able to interact with the characters through the toys themselves, animated videos, online games and other activities.
Steve said that he hopes that by playing with the dolls, “children will grow in virtue with a deeper understanding of their Catholic faith. We pray that the Holy Spirit will use these dolls to call more men and women to the consecrated religious life.”
Archbishop Raymond Burke, former archbishop of St. Louis and head of the Vatican’s highest tribunal, already has endorsed the concept. He said that when he was a boy, he played with a toy Mass kit and portrayed a priest for his siblings and neighborhood children.
“I can tell you that that little Mass kit played its part in fostering my vocation to the priesthood,” he said.
“It is my hope and prayer that the Wee Believers vocation dolls, together with the companion booklets, will help young children to recognize the beauty of the vocations to the priesthood and to the religious life in the Church,” he said.
“My Vestment Kit,” with little chasubles and stoles for each liturgical season, is under development.
Another product, to be released this year, is called “My Quiet Church.” The plush, soft-sculpture church is designed to teach the names of items inside a Catholic church, and the significance of the decorations.
All this ties into Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 “Address on the World Day of Prayer for Vocations.” In it, he noted that it is the “first duty” of Catholics to keep the call to religious vocations “alive in families and parishes.”
“In the universal call to holiness,” he said, “of particular relevance is God’s initiative of choosing some to follow his son Jesus Christ more closely, and to be his privileged ministers and witnesses.”