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Snapshots of Envisioning Ministry for the Future
archived from: 2007-11-19
by: Chuck Moody, Associate Editor

The initial goal of the diocesan Envisioning Ministry for the Future program is to make the average parishioner more aware of the impact the declining number of priests is having on pastoral ministry.

The Envisioning Ministry program resulted from a pastoral letter of the same name written in September 2004 by then-Bishop Donald Wuerl. The program has continued under Aux. Bishop Paul Bradley, who served as diocesan administrator after Bishop Wuerl left in June 2006 to become archbishop of Washington, D.C., and under Bishop David Zubik since he was installed Sept. 28 as the 12th bishop of the diocese.

The purpose of Envisioning Ministry is to design and configure the 214 parishes of the diocese in such a way that with fewer priests there will not be less ministry.

Since the program began, parishes throughout the diocese have convened in groups called clusters to share their individual plans and to identify areas for inter-parish cooperation. The cooperation is progressing well in a number of clusters.

Colleen Ford of St. Bartholomew Parish in Penn Hills coordinates the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and the confirmation programs in the parish cluster, which also includes St. Gerard Majella and St. Susanna in Penn Hills, St. Joseph in Verona and St. Irenaeus in Oakmont.

“The need arose from each parish becoming smaller and smaller and with limited resources,” Ford said. “The confirmation program is going on its third year. Prior to this, St. Susanna and St. Bart’s always held confirmations together. Then three years ago Father Martin Barkin became the pastor for both St. Gerard and St. Susanna. So it was a natural progression to add St. Gerard. That same year, St. Joseph’s wanted to begin having confirmation on a yearly basis, and since their numbers were small, they also join the three other parishes. St. Irenaeus is hoping to join the group next year.”

The RCIA effort includes all five parishes in the clusters and is in its second year.

“The program was born out a need for candidates to have greater resources to tap into such as a bigger team with more candidates to share the journey,” Ford said. “The RCIA team benefits also in sharing the workload and tapping into each of our different talents.

“The confirmation program works very well. All parishes have team members — program directors, teachers all working as one team for the confirmation retreat as well as the actual confirmation. Each parish will be the ‘host’ parish. However, the decision was made to hold the actual sacrament of confirmation at St. Bart’s due to our church being the actual largest church.”

The RCIA program has worked so well that last year Ford said she joked it should have been taped as a reality show, “How to Become a Catholic.”

“The program works so well because the candidates get to know someone just like themselves, and the team can tap into all the priests, parish life collaborator, as well as other team members,” she said. “This way, not one person is responsible for every class. The candidates form a strong bond, and it allows them to see the bigger picture of the church as they journey toward full communion with the church.”

Ford thinks that all the parishes have grown closer and have become a true team instead of a parish that stands alone. “These two programs are what the future church needs to strive toward so that they can grow and remain strong and alive,” she said. “I am proud of the work that God has done to make these programs work so well.”

Father James Young, pastor of St. Therese of Lisieux in Munhall and dean of the diocesan Steel Valley Deanery, is coordinator for the Envisioning Ministry programs in his deanery as well as the Mon-Yough Deanery.

“What we’re trying to do is to look at the entire area and come up with some type of a game plan that when the bishop is not able to assign a priest to a parish because of a transfer, a death, whatever, that we would have a game plan put together, present it to him, saying parish ‘X’ will no longer have a resident priest, this is how the priests in the deanery recommend that the parish be covered, both sacramentally and administratively,” Father Young said.

The parishes in the Steel Valley Deanery include St. Agnes, Holy Spirit and Resurrection in West Mifflin, Christ the Light of the World and St. Joseph in Duquesne, St. Claire of Assisi in Clairton, Holy Angels in the Hays neighborhood of Pittsburgh, St. Maximilian Kolbe in Homestead/Munhall and St. Rita in Whitaker/Munhall Gardens.

The parishes in the Mon-Yough Deanery are St. Angela Merici in White Oak, St. Jude the Apostle in Wilmerding, St. Mark in Liberty Borough/Port Vue, St. Martin de Porres, St. Mary Czestochowa and St. Pius V in McKeesport, St. Michael in Elizabeth, St. Patrick in McKeesport/Versailles, Queen of the Rosary in Glassport and St. Robert Bellarmine in East McKeesport.

“When we started, we looked at the clusters that had been put together originally,” Father Young said. “We decided that they were not the most effective grouping of parishes. We submitted and got approval on the reconfiguration of the clusters in Steel Valley. We’re running a little bit behind that in Mon-Yough.

“To look at that, and then begin to look at probably a two-stage projection. One, with the way the clusters exist right now and how we’re going to handle a parish at a time when there’s a shortage. The second step, looking way ahead, how we as a deanery are going to propose that the parishes in the deanery be covered when there’s a substantially smaller number of priests.

“I think we’re going to do well with it. Because in the Steel Valley right now, there’s already three priests that each have two parishes, which is burdensome for any of the guys that have two. It doubles up on everything. What our projection is, we’re hoping that by June 1 (2008) we’ll be able to have a written plan together that we can submit to the bishop.”

Father Bob Guay is pastor of Our Lady of Peace in Conway, dean of the Beaver County Deanery and convener of the other parishes in his cluster: St. Cecilia in Rochester, St. Felix in Freedom, St. John the Baptist in Baden and Good Samaritan in Ambridge, plus the motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Baden.

“We’re still pretty much in a lot of preliminary stages relative to just discussions,” Father Guay said. “What we took was the six areas of parish vitality dealing with the whole thing of worship and prayer, leadership, administration, service, community, all those various things that are found in the Pastoral Resource Manual. We’re taking a look at them from the perspective of the cluster.”

The parishes currently have 15 Masses each weekend, plus one at the motherhouse. There are six priests, plus a chaplain at the motherhouse.

“The question is, ‘What happens if there’s only four priests or three priests?’” Father Guay said. “We’ve got to do something with the Mass schedule. We’re beginning to pursue that a little bit, how we could coordinate a Mass schedule for all five parishes and the motherhouse if need be.

“The biggest thing with the Sisters of St. Joseph is we’re tapping their resources.

Since they’re real close, basically what we’re looking at is the possibility of them sponsoring and perhaps even coordinating and doing some ongoing adult education for the five parishes. We’re also looking at renewal programs that might be done on an evening basis. For example, we’re talking about bringing together all the eucharistic ministers from all five parishes for an evening of reflection or a morning of reflection at the motherhouse and using their grounds. But also some of their personnel, depending on the topic and things of that nature. We haven’t really gotten down to the concrete brass tacks.”

The parishes in Father Guay’s cluster help each other out for penance services. “In the future, we’re going to be taking a look at instead of each parish having a confirmation, maybe three of the parishes will merge together and have a confirmation every year and the other two parishes do one every year,” he said. “We can’t do all five together at this point because we have too many kids, but we might be able to divide it up.”

The members of the cluster panel include two parishioners from each parish, a representative of the Sisters of St. Joseph and all of the priests from the parishes.

“Pretty much everyone sort of speaks their mind,” Father Guay said. “We just finished an open town hall meeting for any parishioner in any of the five parishes. We made a presentation of where we’re at, what we’re doing, what we hope to do in the future. It gave them a chance to ask any questions. We had a total of about 50 people there. It gave them a chance to hear what’s going on.

“We also did a general mailing to every parishioner in all five parishes. We sent a newsletter to everyone. We do a follow-up newsletter after our meetings in the parish bulletin. We’ll do that periodically too just to keep people abreast of what’s going on so they can never say they have no clue what’s happening. Overall, there’s been a lot of frank discussion.”

The first weekend of each month, the parishes publish in their bulletins a Mass schedule for all five parishes plus the motherhouse.

“People know that if they don’t go to Our Lady of Peace, but they go to Good Samaritan, they can just drop in their Our Lady of Peace envelope there and that always makes its way back here,” Father Guay said.

The representatives are looking at coordinating some CCD and confirmation programs in the future.

“We might do combined confirmation retreats rather than individual parish retreats,” Father Guay said. “We’re certainly taking a look at maybe during Lent other than the penance services can we rotate priests around so that people can see other priests. But also just to give them an idea that things are going to be a little bit different in the future. You might not always have the same priests all the time.”

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