Pastoral Planning Reflects Our Calling to Holiness and Mission
By Monsignor Vincent J. Grimalia, V.G.
 

The Gospel reading for January 27, the Sunday before the training sessions conducted by The Reid Group for “Called to Holiness and Mission: Pastoral Planning in the Diocese of Scranton,” was a timely passage from the fourth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, verses 12 to 23. It is the story of the call of the first apostles, Peter and Andrew, James and John, to join Jesus in his mission: “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

This story of the vocation of the first apostles reminds us that everyone without exception is called to holiness and mission. The Gospel account directs our attention to the importance of an ever deeper and clearer understanding of vocation, communion, mission and stewardship. At this time in our history, we are being challenged to pray and to plan for good stewardship of limited resources and more effective ways of fulfilling the mission of the Gospel in the 21st century.

Referring to his 2004 Pastoral Letter, Bishop Martino recently recalled: “In that Pastoral Letter, I also raised an important question: ‘The spiritual and pastoral renewal of the Diocese of Scranton will mean that we need to look at every one of our structures, i.e., our parishes, schools, institutions, buildings and programs. Are these entities the right ones for the 21st century? Are these entities currently prepared to announce the Good News of Jesus Christ as Jesus intends them to do?’

“ ‘Called to Holiness and Mission: Pastoral Planning in the Diocese of Scranton’ is the process to answer those questions. We must allow our faith and our understanding of what we believe to guide our planning process and its eventual implementation.”

A better understanding of responsibility and personal vocation is important for every Catholic. Pope John Paul II looked at life in terms of four general vocations or callings. He wrote: “All human existence is therefore an answer to God, who makes his love felt especially on some occasions: the call to life; the entrance into his Church's communion of grace; the invitation to bear witness in the Christian community to Christ according to a completely personal and irreplaceable plan; the definitive call to communion with him at the hour of death.”

In other words, life is a gift and a responsibility for individuals and for communities, and we need to understand more clearly and practice more effectively good stewardship of our resources. Questions to pray about this Lent are: “Where is God calling us as a Diocese at this time? How can we grow, with the grace of God, into a clearer understanding of the vocation to holiness and mission in our personal lives and in our diocese?”

In Redemptoris Missio, Pope John Paul emphasized the connection between holiness and mission in these words: “The call to mission derives, of its nature, from the call to holiness…The universal call to holiness is closely linked to the universal call to mission. Every member of the faithful is called to holiness and to mission.”

A greater appreciation of this connection between holiness and mission will help us to pray and to participate in “Called to Holiness and Mission: Pastoral Planning in the Diocese of Scranton.”

In his apostolic exhortation on the laity, the late pontiff shared this insight about holiness and mission with a slightly different vocabulary, when he noted: “Communion with Jesus, which gives rise to the communion of Christians among themselves, is an indispensable condition for bearing fruit: ‘Apart from me you can do nothing’ (Jn 15:5). And communion with others is the most magnificent fruit that the branches can give: in fact, it is the gift of Christ and His Spirit…Communion and mission are profoundly connected with each other, they interpenetrate and mutually imply each other, to the point that communion represents both the source and the fruit of mission: communion gives rise to mission and mission is accomplished in communion.”

At this time, all the members of the Diocese of Scranton are being reminded of their personal call to holiness and mission by Bishop Martino. Our diocesan prayer mentions that this is “a time of profound parish renewal.” The Diocese and each parish exists for the mission of evangelization and communion with God and through Jesus with all of the members of His body, the Church.

Bishop Martino has reminded all of us that: “The Diocese is not a grouping of totally independent local entities. Pastoral planning at the local level cannot be done in isolation from the central administration of the Diocese or from neighboring parishes.” When a parish does a self study, it must look at itself in the context of the neighborhood, the deanery, the pastoral region and the Diocese. The parish must understand its mission in the light of the mission of the Diocese.

Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, recently shared some thoughts that are pertinent as we continue the spiritual and practical preparation for pastoral planning in our parishes and throughout the Diocese of Scranton. He stressed the importance of seeing the parish as an evangelizing mission. He states: “The church exists only if it evangelizes, and the same is true for the parish. If a parish does not evangelize, it is only a building.” The evangelizing model of the parish is the most appropriate way of understanding the parish and its purpose.

Other models of a parish are inadequate and need to be corrected. A maintenance model is concerned with buildings, and sadly its purpose is seen and its resources are used to maintain a building without any real thought about the mission of the parish. Archbishop Ranjith noted, “The parish community must move away from a maintenance model to a missionary model — if the only thing we do is repair the buildings, this will kill us spiritually.”

An equally inadequate understanding of the mission of a parish is what has been described as a consumer model. In this model attention is given to the parish as a provider of spiritual goods and services. A parish is useful when needed, but otherwise ignored. No thought is given to the purpose or mission of evangelization and communion.

Archbishop Ranjith also advised there is a need “to move away from a spirit of pessimism to a spirit of optimism.” He is in agreement with the late Pope Paul VI, who in his exhortation on Christian Joy, stated: “Let the agitated members of various groups therefore reject the excesses of systematic and destructive criticism! Without departing from a realistic viewpoint, let Christian communities become centers of optimism where all the members resolutely endeavor to perceive the positive aspect of people and events.”

Every member of the Diocese needs to approach the parish self study and diocesan pastoral planning with a commitment to prayer. At the beginning of this Lenten season Pope Benedict stated: “…prayer is a guarantee of openness to others. Those who free themselves for God and his needs, open themselves to others, to the brothers and sisters who knock at the door of their hearts and ask to be heard, ask for attention, for forgiveness, and sometimes for correction, but always in fraternal charity… True prayer is never centered on the self but always focuses on others. True prayer is the motor of the world, because it keeps us open to God. For this reason, without prayer there is no hope, only illusion.”

What is needed now is that all members of the Diocese take seriously the call of Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Bishop Martino on the importance of prayer. People of prayer, filled with hope, will also be people of charity, who will reject pessimism and destructive criticism. People of prayer, living the paschal mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus, will receive the grace of God to let go of personal agendas and preferences, and to reach out to what is needed for the mission of the Church in the Diocese of Scranton in the 21st century.

Pope John Paul noted the importance of prayer and the Eucharist during pastoral planning in his encyclical on the Eucharist: “Every commitment to holiness, every activity aimed at carrying out the Church's mission, every work of pastoral planning, must draw the strength it needs from the Eucharistic mystery and in turn be directed to that mystery as its culmination. In the Eucharist we have Jesus, we have his redemptive sacrifice, we have his resurrection, we have the gift of the Holy Spirit, we have adoration, obedience and love of the Father. Were we to disregard the Eucharist, how could we overcome our own deficiency?”

In “At the Beginning of the New Millennium,” Pope John Paul II explained, why at times, there is a failure and frustration with pastoral planning: “It is therefore essential that education in prayer should become in some way a key-point of all pastoral planning…If we have truly contemplated the face of Christ, dear Brothers and Sisters, our pastoral planning will necessarily be inspired by the ‘new commandment’ which he gave us: ‘Love one another, as I have loved you’ (Jn 13:34)… It is prayer which roots us in this truth. It constantly reminds us of the primacy of Christ and, in union with him, the primacy of the interior life and of holiness.

“When this principle is not respected, is it any wonder that pastoral plans come to nothing and leave us with a disheartening sense of frustration? We then share the experience of the disciples in the Gospel story of the miraculous catch of fish: ‘We have toiled all night and caught nothing’ (Lk 5:5). This is the moment of faith, of prayer, of conversation with God, in order to open our hearts to the tide of grace and allow the word of Christ to pass through us in all its power.”

The Long and the Short Form for the Parish Self Study are available on the diocesan website, www.dioceseofscranton.org, together with the Planning Guide for “Called to Holiness and Mission: Pastoral Planning in the Diocese of Scranton,” under the link “Called to Holiness and Mission.” The planning guide and the long and short forms help describe aspects of the mission of the parish and will help the Parish Core Team and the parishioners take a realistic look at the parish itself in terms of its mission, its resources, and its relationship to the Diocese. It will help a parish that is praying to come to recommendations about the future. If frustration occurs during the planning process, it is a clear signal for the need to pray.

We are not looking at the needs of the Diocese in the 19th or 20th century, but planning for the needs of the Diocese in the 21st century. The more members of the Diocese pray and become acquainted with the priorities, goals, assumptions and criteria of the pastoral planning process, the more they will be able to meaningfully participate in the eight steps of the pastoral planning process, which include: conversation at the Diocesan, Parish and Cluster level, suggestion of a particular model, preliminary recommendations of the Diocesan Planning Commission, conversation about recommendation at the Cluster level, response to the Diocesan Planning Commission, Final Recommendations to Bishop Martino, decisions by Bishop Martino, and then implementation at the parish, cluster and diocesan level of all decisions made by the Bishop.

It is important for all Catholics to be aware of the goals of “Called to Holiness and Mission: Pastoral Planning in the Diocese of Scranton.” These goals are:

1. To foster the personal and communal holiness of Catholics and support them to deepen their commitment in living out the mission of the Church.

2. To enhance quality parish life throughout the Diocese of Scranton.

3. To strengthen the presence and ministry of the Church in the urban, suburban and rural areas of the four regions and eleven counties.

4. To increase collaboration between and among leaders, parishes and the whole Diocese of Scranton.

5. To act as good stewards of all human, financial and facility resources.

6. To support increased understanding of and action for the assumptions and criteria related to vibrant parish life.

7. To build a greater sense of unity within the rich ethnic, cultural and generational diversity present within the local Church.

8. To work on the deanery-, vicariate- and diocesan-wide revitalization.