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Aug. 17, 2006
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Priests take collaborative approach
to Hispanic ministry |
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Twinning offers opportunities
for better service, more effective ministry |
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ST. FRANCIS — For several months, a group of priests have been convening to discuss a new form of Hispanic pastoral ministry for Milwaukee’s south side.
As a first step in this new form, eight south side parishes have been paired, allowing priests to better serve parishioners. In June, the following parishes were paired: Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Patrick; St. Stanislaus and St. Anthony; St. Hyacinth and St. Vincent de Paul; and St. Adalbert and St. Raphael. The area of the archdiocese which houses these parishes is known as District 14.
According to Fr. Robert Stiefvater, vicar for Hispanic ministry and pastor of St. Hyacinth and St. Vincent de Paul, many aspects of ministry on Milwaukee’s south side are being examined.
“It’s a very poor neighborhood and a diverse neighborhood. How do we minister better to such a diverse community and use our resources better?” he said. “One resource is the diminishing number of priests and how do we help lay ministers minister better?”
One of the ways the team of eight priests is working is by using a “Five-Step Methodology” that was introduced by Jesuit Fr. Jose Moreno, parish team member and pastor at St. Patrick and Our Lady of Guadalupe.
The five steps the group is looking to improve upon include leadership formation, integration of cultures, faith formation, stewardship and outreach.
According to Fr. Stiefvater, the team has chosen to focus upon leadership, faith formation and outreach this year. However, he did say that stewardship is ongoing.
As part of the faith formation changes, the team is looking into adapting changes for marriage and baptism preparation.
“Each pastor has his own way of doing things,” explained Fr. Stiefvater. “We would like a team of pastors to prepare a couple for marriage and prepare people for baptism. We would like people to be members of the church for a period of time before baptism.”
Fr. Stiefvater said that the pastoral team would like to train couples to do marriage preparation and be available to serve all the parishes, not only their own. The team would also like the parishes to partner their youth ministry programs. If a speaker is invited to one parish, invite the youth from all eight parishes to attend, said Fr. Stiefvater.
“It’s sharing human and physical resources,” he said.
Recently, Fr. Stiefvater said that four of the eight parishes hired one bookkeeper and are planning to hire a parish administrator to free up priests to have more time for pastoral ministry. Fr. Stiefvater said he’d like the parish administrator to work on details such as taking care of the property, rent and maintenance.
Another change the team is implementing is in the Mass schedules.
“We’re all changing one Mass time to make Mass available through the eight parishes so no one duplicates Mass time,” said Fr. Stiefvater. “This is more convenient to parishioners.”
Fr. Stiefvater said the process of implementing these changes has been a learning experience.
“It’s been a good education for all of us on the difficulties we’ll encounter as we try to bring these eight parishes together,” he said.
The pastoral team plans to meet again at the end of August. They hope to have all changes implemented by spring 2008.
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