Written by By Maryangela Layman Román Thursday, 22 January 2009 06:00
This week, the archbishop presented a far more upbeat outlook, even joking that financially compared to the federal government, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee is in "great shape."
Highlighting nine areas, Archbishop Dolan, spoke Jan. 19 to about 125 members of pastoral staffs at the Cousins Center with more listening in online. Over the next week, he was to give a similar talk to priests, deacons, Cousins Center staffs and parish council members.
1. Communications. The archbishop described the approach as "injecting steroids into communication efforts." Among the efforts to keep people informed about the local church, Archbishop Dolan noted his weekly "Some Seeds" e-mail communication with staff, the three bishops' columns that appear in your Catholic Herald and the bishops' sermons from the cathedral which are available through local radio and online.
"The Catholic Herald staff itself has made ambitious efforts to be a lot more evangelical, catechetical, inspirational and personal in relating stories of faith from the church in southeastern Wisconsin," he said, adding other efforts included bulletin inserts, submissions to the Journal-Sentinel and an upcoming weekly column in the Racine Journal Times. All of the efforts, he said, are an attempt at evangelization.
2. The Living Our Faith initiative. The effort conducted through a Web site
Anecdotally, the archbishop noted, "As I go around the archdiocese, I have a lot of folks greeting me, 'See you at Mass' - which of course is our bumper sticker; it is sort of our motto for Living our Faith initiative, so it must be working."
3. Vision 21. The results of a yearlong, intense consultation and planning led by Fr. James Connell will be unveiled next week, said Archbishop Dolan, through the Some Seeds e-mail and the Jan. 29 issue of your Catholic Herald. While not revealing details of the strategic plan, the archbishop noted that it recognizes the importance of lay leadership, the "blessing" of the immigrant communities, African, Asian and Latinos, the fact that increasing numbers of "cradle Catholics" are leaving the church and young Catholics are marrying older and often not in the Catholic Church.
"Our conversations about strategic planning in the life of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee have not been reduced to chatter about closing parishes or reducing numbers of priests, but about the challenges and needs of God's people right now and how the church must plan to meet them," he said.
4. Finances. "We're not doing too badly," noted the archbishop, pointing to sound stewardship. He said he's looking forward to the sale of the Cousins Center to Cardinal Stritch University. The sale hinges upon zoning changes approved by the City of St. Francis.
"We're hoping the sale can be completed by June ... and then we'll consider our next move," he said, noting the archdiocese would have a two-year lease back option of one wing of the center.
5. Litigation. The archbishop said he expects a big expense in the upcoming year will be legal costs in seven lawsuits, involving nine claimants by three (former) diocesan priests: Sigfried Widera, Franklyn Becker and Lawrence Murphy. As concerned as he is with the potential financial impact the lawsuits will have on the archdiocese, Archbishop Dolan noted he is also concerned with pastoral repercussions as negative news about the church "is regurgitated (in the media) over and over again and that's going to hurt us all."
6. Concentrate on tremendous progress and good church has done. Archbishop Dolan noted that Dr. Paul McHugh of Johns Hopkins University, one of the leading experts on sexual abuse of minors, said recently, "Nobody is doing more to confront the epidemic of child sexual abuse than the Catholic Church." Highlighting efforts in the archdiocese, the archbishop pledged to continue rigorous attention to preventing the problem of abuse and noted that for the fifth year in a row, the archdiocese has received an "A+" from outside auditors in dealing with abuse.
7. 2008 Catholic Stewardship Appeal. In spite of a struggling economy and the most ambitious capital campaign in the archdiocese's history, the 2008 Catholic Stewardship Appeal has topped its goal by $200,000 and reached nearly $7.9 million, the archbishop said.
"Can you believe that statistic with the economy going south for the last six months, in the middle of the most demanding campaign in the 166-year history of this archdiocese, and here we exceed our highest goal ever...." said the archbishop, praising the generosity and stewardship of the Catholic people.
8. Faith in our Future Capital Campaign. Equally happy about results of the $105 million capital campaign, the archbishop said the archdiocese is well on its way to reaching its goal. "As of today, we have pledges of $56 million - that's 53 percent of the goal with only 42 percent of parishes in," he said. Wave 3 of the campaign is scheduled to begin soon.
9. Vocations. Six men will be ordained to the priesthood for the archdiocese this spring, said Archbishop Dolan, noting that two religious communities also send their men to Saint Francis Seminary for formation: the Conventual Franciscans and the Community of St. Paul the Apostle. There is also the "high prospect" that the Diocese of Madison and the Diocese of La Crosse "will entrust their seminarians to us." He noted that the median age of the current seminarians is 24 "which means we will have them with us for a long time."
Noting that he recently returned from an eight-day trip to India with Catholic Relief Services, Archbishop Dolan acknowledged the church faces struggles.
"Yet in another way, everybody, I'm convinced the state of the church is robust, we have the same agenda as do our sisters and brothers in India - to teach, to serve and to sanctify, to call God's people to recognize and to discover the (worth) that they are in the eyes of their creator," he added.
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