Draft:Circus Ministry

The Circus and Traveling Show Ministries, also known as the Circus Ministries, are Christian ministries that support Catholic circus and carnival workers in the United States of America.

History
In 1927, the Catholic priest Charles Elslander moved to Sarasota, Florida, and began preaching to the congregation which later became St. Martha Catholic Church. In the same year, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus moved their winter headquarters to the city from Connecticut. Over the next several years, a relationship between the congregation and the circus developed: Elslander blessed the circus's trains as they left the city each year and began performing Mass and the sacraments for its members. While Ringling Bros. left the city for nearby Venice in 1960, St. Martha has remained an important building to the Catholic circus community as the National Circus Parish and the site of its sacramental records.

Modern day
While priests may have regular pastoral responsibilities which restrict them to only visiting circuses when required, some members of the Missionary Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (MSC) have chosen to travel alongside them and have even worked within their shows. Two members of the MSC, Dorothy Fabritze and Bernard Overkamp, travelled for over ten years since the 2000s with various circuses and founded the Show People's Evangelization of Catechists (SPEC) to help develop lay leaders within the circus population.

In 2011, the ministries represented around 4,500 people working in 41 travelling circuses.

Organization
The Circus Ministries operate under the Secretariat for Cultural Diversity of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

According to Frank Cancro, the Catholic Church is the only denomination which has had an ongoing ministry within the American circus industry.

Leadership
From the 1940s until his death in 1970, Edward S. Sullivan served as National Chaplain of the Circus Fans Association of America.

From 1990, the position was filled by George "Jerry" Hogan, a parish priest in Massachusetts who travelled with Ringling Bros during the 1990s. Hogan remained in the position until his death in May 2021.

After meeting Dorothy Fabritze in 2009, Frank Cancro began his involvement with circus ministry following decades as a pastor. He later became National Circus Chaplain for the Circus and Travelling Show Ministries.