After a long period of struggle in finances and church attendance, a
new pastoral plan in the Boston archdiocese emphasizes evangelization
while encouraging parishes to share their resources.
“Restructuring and evangelization must be absolutely tied to one another
so that we don’t get back into the mindset of 'we stabilize by
downsizing,'” Father Paul Soper, the Archdiocese of Boston’s director of
Pastoral Planning, told CNA Aug. 16.
“There’s no need for that. That would only be necessary if the Spirit were not still at work in the Church.”
The archdiocese's “Disciples in Mission” pastoral plan organizes
parishes into “collaboratives” typically of three parishes each. Though
each parish remains independent with its own financial assets and
responsibilities, these collaboratives share resources including one
pastor, one pastoral team, and a pastoral plan.
The first collaboratives began on June 4 with 28 parishes in 12 groups.
The restructuring is in part intended to address financial shortfalls.
About 40 percent of the archdiocese's 288 parishes cannot meet their
operating expenses solely through the offertory. Since 1990, 125
parishes have closed in the archdiocese, with 65 closing in 2004.
Sharing and strengthening the Catholic faith is the primary goal.
Fr. Soper said that the pastoral plain aims to have every parish in the
archdiocese “become a strong, stable, effective and intentional center
of the new evangelization,” Fr. Soper said.
“Parish-based evangelization
works, and we can train for it, but we need strong parishes in order to
do so.”
Without training, Fr. Soper said, “evangelization can way too easily become theoretical.”
“A parish looks at a long document, adopts a mission statement, and says
‘okay, well this is our mission.’ But then never does anything about
it.”
Practical steps for evangelization include one new program that aims to
train dozens of parishioners at each parish how to give witness talks.
These are “audible, brief and Christocentric” speeches about three
minutes in length in which individual Catholics talk about “their
relationship with Jesus.”
Fr. Soper said these talks aim to address significant questions: “What
is it about my relationship with Jesus that draws me to him? Why am I
Catholic? Why do I keep returning to the sacraments? What’s my life like
when I’m not in relationship with Jesus? If I’ve had a big conversion
experience in my life, what was my life like before and what was it like
afterward?”
This training helps in reaching non-Catholics and in deepening parish
spiritual life. Some who have gone though the training give talks to
parents of children preparing for First Communion.
This means parents experience their own peers and fellow lay Catholics
“telling them about Jesus and about how they love the Lord.”
The Boston archdiocese’s approach emphasizes the belief that “radical
hospitality” plays a major role in evangelization to reach those
Catholics who rarely attend Mass or are not involved in church.
Long-serving pastors estimate that at least five percent of Sunday
massgoers are not known to them.
“The people, the ‘lost’, are coming to Mass, they’re just not staying,”
Fr. Soper said. “Their experience there is not drawing them to stay.”
The archdiocese’s anonymous visitor program aims to help parishes improve to help draw these people back.
A pastor can request an anonymous visitor to attend a parish Mass and
report their experience.
Visitors evaluate the parish spirit in terms of
whether the people were welcoming, how they treated disturbances like
noisy children or cell phones, and whether the church was clean.
The visitor considers how the parish responds to newly registered
parishioners and whether the parish thanks those who donate with checks.
Even the parish website, voice mail system and receptionist practices are examined for whether they are helpful for newcomers.
The visitor’s initial report provides pastors with “early measureables”
to plan improvements before a follow-up visitor repeats the examination.
The pastoral plan emphasizes a “huge amount of training” in areas like
leadership, theology and the practices of new evangelization. Pastors,
parochial vicars, deacons, parish councils and pastoral teams are among
those who go through specialized training.
Part of the training involves the Pennsylvania-based Catholic Leadership
Institute, which has done leadership training and consulting for more
than 75 U.S. dioceses.
Dan Cellucci, the Catholic Leadership Institute’s vice-president of
learning and curriculum, said his organization trains leaders in smart
goal-setting, planning and time management, interpersonal skills, how to
run a meeting, and how to recruit administrators, staffers and
volunteers.
The consolidation of staff and some programs can create problems, he told CNA in an Aug. 15 interview.
“Just from a human resources standpoint, you’re trying to cover a lot of
ground with fewer people. That’s always a challenge,” Cellucci said.
“On the other hand, it really does force people to make sure that they
do know what is important. You can be more responsible with resources
and maybe do more and think about things in a different way by looking
at a different model for administering.”
Cellucci saw great promise in the archdiocese’s plan, noting that “all
the churches are staying open, maintaining the unique identity of each
parish, but also coming to a collaborative spirit.”
“They really understand that they are not doing this to constrict, to
get smaller,” he added. “They’re doing this to move toward
evangelization, to move toward outreach.”
“They’re keeping these parishes open because the idea is to go out and get more people to come to these parishes.”
Both Cellucci and Fr. Soper stressed the importance of broad
consultation with the clergy, staff and people of archdiocesan parishes
before making significant changes.