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July 12, 2007
Emerging models of ministry
Bishop Richard J. Sklba
Bishop Richard J. Sklba
Herald
of Hope is a weekly column started by
former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland
in the Catholic Herald and written by
the bishops of the Milwaukee Archdiocese.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the archdiocese must invest new energy at this point in history into the task of pastoral planning for service to our parishes and priests. This is an experience countlessly replicated across the entire nation as the numbers of parishioners increase and the number of active priests declines.
Business as usual won’t work, and new patterns of sharing responsibilities must be developed. Moreover, simply confiding additional parishes to the shared care of a single priest pastor is untenable, both in terms of the ordinary work load and the legitimate expectations of our Catholic people.
Last February I attended a special Symposium in Mundelein dedicated to reflection on the model which we in southeastern Wisconsin know as “parish director.” A similar gathering had taken place in California last fall. Both sessions were only one facet of an extended study co-sponsored by several well known and respected national Catholic organizations: the National Association for Lay Ministry, the Conference for Pastoral Planning and Council Development, the National Association of Church Personnel Administrators, the National Association of Diaconal Directors, the National Catholic Young Adult Ministry Association and the National Federation of Priests Councils.
Some 60 plus individuals convened in Mundelein to think about the model and to share “best practices.” It was a fascinating discussion. Basically we are speaking about that pattern of pastoral care in which a community is served by a qualified lay person, religious or deacon, formally delegated by the bishop to coordinate the life of a parish community and serve its mission.
The title may vary (the more common across the country seems to be “parish life coordinator”) and the precise responsibilities may differ from one diocese to another. The person, man or woman, works in tandem with a priest assigned to care for the sacramental life of the parish who is expected to preside at weekend Masses and weddings or funerals. In our practice, a supervising priest is also appointed to provide mentoring as needed and to make it clear that neither the parish director nor the assisting priest is subordinate to the other.
The Dioceses of Superior and Green Bay initiated the model some years before Milwaukee. We began the experiment in 1994 with the appointment of four parish directors.
The model is no longer judged an “experiment” and we have learned a great deal over these years. When the members of our priest council reviewed the model a few years ago, they reconfirmed its viability and suggested that it be initiated in all the various parts of the archdiocese so that people might come to experience its potential and its limitations.
Listening to the experience of people across the nation, it is clearly important that such an appointment be made officially and formally by the bishop, and that adequate preparation be given to the parish community which will be receiving the team of parish director and assisting priest.
An opportunity for the parish council to speak with people actually involved in this model seems important to clarify any misconceptions, even before its formal inception, and an official installation by the bishop at one of the weekend parish Masses is necessary for people to appreciate the official character of this model of pastoral care.
These recommendations have been part of our own practice in Milwaukee from the very beginning. The importance of preaching in the pastoral shaping of a parish community is a given for anyone who has ever filled that role. This poses challenges, given our present liturgical laws.
It has become clear to me that parishioners must appreciate the full pastoral authority of a parish director, and that a good match between parish director and assisting priest be established from the beginning. Finding mutually respectful team members can be a challenge.
We currently have four parish directors in our archdiocese, a (married) deacon who serves St. Peter Claver Parish in Sheboygan, two lay women who serve respectively St. Therese Parish and St. Catherine Parish in Milwaukee, and a married layman who serves St. Catherine Parish in Sharon.
I meet with them every six weeks to two months in order share pastoral experience and to offer support for their work. I myself serve as a supervising priest since I did not wish to ask anyone else to do something I was not willing to do as well. Our parish directors continue to speak very positively about the way in which they have been welcomed into the priest meetings in their district.
Perhaps one of the most fundamental challenges for all of us at this moment in history is the re-establishment of the more accurate original notion of “hierarchy,” namely, differentiated but interrelated gifts and abilities which do not automatically imply “higher and lower”!
The word suffers from its resonance with the English “higher” when “hier/holy” is intended. The word itself simply means a holy order, and everyone who has been baptized becomes a part of that holy order in the Church of God. Different responsibilities within the Christian community need to work together for the common good, and not be burdened by a false sense of greater or lesser importance.
A summit meeting on the various models in use throughout the country will take place next April. Meanwhile, further information can be found on the Internet by checking <www.emergingmodels.org>.
