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HOME
BULLETIN
LIFE TEEN YOUTH MINISTRY
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Our Lady of the Rosary
Representatives:
Our Lady of Jasna Gora
Representatives:
Rev. Tomasz Borkowski
Ex-Officio Members:
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The
purpose of the PPC is to
foster full, active, and
conscious participation
of the entire parish in
the life and mission of
the parish and of the
Universal Church. |
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Our parishes are to be commended for the work that was done in the past months to prepare the parish recommendations. We are hopeful that, together, we can prepare a plan that effectively addresses changes in demographics and the number of available priests while remaining focused on our mission to provide pastoral care in our community. As we continue this process, please keep everyone involved in your prayers. The parish planning prayer can be found in the left-hand column.
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KEY ELEMENTS IN PLANNING:
GOALS:
OBJECTIVES:
ACTION STEPS:
ACCOUNTABILITY:
Why is this planning process needed? There is an old adage that failure to
plan is a plan to fail. Parishes and schools face many
opportunities and challenges including significant
growth in some parishes and schools and decreases in
others; declining numbers of ordained priests available
to serve in parishes; economic challenges, especially in
the areas of facilities and personnel; growing ethnic
diversity; and increased availability of lay ministers.
All of these realities call us to examine how to make
best use of the human, financial, and physical resources
entrusted to our care as we carry out our mission to
proclaim the Gospel. What factors are considered in the planning process?
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Model A: Multi-parish pastor
One priest is assigned to be the pastor of more than one parish. The parishes maintain their individual canonical status and are separate communities of faith. This model is sometimes called the “twinning” of parishes. Each parish may have its own separate staff, some staff positions can be shared or all staff positions can be shared among the parishes in the cluster, e.g. St. Pius X and St. Joseph, Leicester; St. Denis and St. Anne, Ashburnham.
Model B. Multi-parish team
Like Model A
the distinct parishes remain intact but pastoral
responsibility for two or more parishes is assigned to a
team. The team may be one of priests (fewer in
number than the number of parishes), deacons, religious
and laity. Each parish maintains its separate
identity, with its own parish council and other
structures, but all the team members serve all the
parishes. Sometimes, one member of the team may
have responsibility for a particular parish..
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The future of parish ministry
has been the topic of conversations throughout the
United States for many years now. These
conversations have developed against the backdrop of
many positive developments as well as serious challenges
that have evolved over the last thirty-five years.
These years have witnessed the positive growth brought
about by the Second Vatican Council, the renewal of our
liturgical life, the expansion of ministries, the
vocation of the laity, and the renewal of our
proclamation of the Gospel in an effort to evangelize
the modern world. Throughout the country and in
our own diocese professional, trained lay ministers are
now serving in pastoral positions on parish staffs, in
hospitals, colleges, Catholic schools and a variety of
social ministries. We have also witnessed the
restoration of the permanent diaconate and the
ministry of deacons serving in our parish communities.
These
advances and changes have been accompanied by some
challenges as well. The growth of towns and
suburbs has created new demands on the
The current
situation for the Church of Worcester, as well as every
other diocese in the country, is a paradoxical
combination of the decreasing numbers of priests and
religious and the providential readiness of lay people
to share in church ministry. Pope John Paul II
recognized this reality when he said, “We see a true
source of hope in the willingness of a considerable
number of lay people to play a more active and
diversified role in ecclesial life, and to take the
necessary steps to train seriously for this.”
Over the
past number of years we have experienced many changes in
parish life in the Diocese of Worcester. Parishes
have been merged, several parishes share a pastor with
another parish, one new parish has been erected where
previously there were two, and many parishes have
undergone a reduction in priest staffing. These
realities have and will continue to affect all aspects
of our diocese’s ministry.
In these
beginning years of the third millennium we must
understand anew what it means to be Church. We are
both local communities and integral parts of the larger
church at both the diocesan and world levels. The
challenges we face are also opportunities for us to
deepen our commitment to and improve our practice of
collaboration in ministry. A VISION FOR PARISH LIFE
What does it
mean to be a viable and vibrant parish? This
question is essential as we continue the process of
planning for our future. While the declining
numbers of priests may be the factor which propels the
discussion about alternate ways of staffing parishes,
the hope and the end result of such planning are the
further development and growth of dynamic faith
communities.
In addition
to the opportunities for worship and reception of the
sacraments, a vibrant parish must be able to offer
religious education and Christian formation for all its
members. Adult religious education and formation
opportunities, programs for strengthening family life,
youth ministry and young adult programs must also be
regularly available and strengthened.
A vibrant
parish reaches out to the world around it and genuinely
cares about the needs of the poor, the sick and the
suffering. By fulfilling the corporal and
spiritual works of mercy, the parish imitates the zeal
of the first Christian community of which we read in the
Acts of the Apostles. A vibrant parish must
inspire its parishioners to care for its members and its
neighbors.
It is also
clear that as Church and as members of the local
communities in the Church, we must be involved in
forming a just society. We must strengthen family
bonds in Church and society. We must guard the
sacredness of life in all its stages. We must be
concerned about the poor and the societal systems that
affect their lives. We must pursue justice and
peace. Moreover, we must do this in collaboration
with the ecumenical and interfaith communities.
A vibrant
parish is a caring and welcoming community of faith, a
place where we feel at home, where we know we can grow
in our faith, where we can find God. A parish
should be a good place in which to grow spiritually – a
supportive and caring community of which we can be
proud.
What will
our parishes need in order to realize this vision of
vibrant parish life in the next decades? To be the
center of good worship, qualified liturgists and
musicians are needed to make sure that what is done is
in the best of the Catholic tradition. Parishes ,
either alone or in collaboration with their neighbors,
should have effective programs of education and faith
formation at all levels. Qualified personnel are
needed to administer and facilitate all of these
programs. Parishes will need to have coordinated
outreach ministries with qualified personnel.
Parishes will need to collaborate in providing different
services and support groups to assist all kinds of
parishioners with their individual needs, e.g. marriage
preparation programs, care for the sick and elderly,
programs for those seeking parenting skills, support
groups for the widowed and divorced, for those suffering
from addictions, and for those with difficult life
situations. While no single parish can afford an
individual minister for each of these needs, parishes
can cooperate to assure that someone coordinates them,
knows where such groups are available, and can evaluate
them. All of these opportunities require much
collaboration. They demand good stewardship and
the willingness to share with others.
Vibrant
parish life is the best way for us to manifest the
presence of Christ and to inspire others to embrace
Christ more profoundly. If all Catholics are to
experience vibrant parish life, we will need to sustain
and expand the vital ministries we now have, while
discerning new and creative means of providing ministry
in the future.
As parish
communities reflect on their history and present
vitality, they will be enabled to look to the future
with confident hope even as they face challenges and
changes.
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Pastoral Plan 2007 Short Term: next three years - which parish model we will follow? Long Term: next 10 years
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March
5, 2007
| | Town of Clinton | Item | Lancaster Times and Clinton Courier | Telegram Gazette | Catholic Free Press | Holy See | |