ARTICLES

Draft of five-year pastoral plan seen as guide

By Jean Denton
of The Catholic Virginian

In presenting the final draft of the diocesan five-year strategic plan at the annual Priests’ Convocation in Roanoke last week, Beth Neu came away with a sizable stack of comments and questions from the clergy.

Although most of the priests had participated in developing the plan through periodic meetings of their own local planning areas (LPAs), this was their first look at the overall proposal that showed stark numbers attesting to the effects of the current priest shortage.

In fact, Ms. Neu, director of the diocesan Office of Pastoral Planning, explained that the two main goals of the plan are “inter-church collaboration and priest allocation.”

She pointed out that the office’s “most optimistic” estimate for 2013 is the net loss of seven priests for the diocese, although realistically she expects the number to be closer to 23.

“We know there will be a priest shortage,” she said flatly, noting the plan’s “new models of inter-parish collaboration.”

The model relies heavily on creating what the plan calls “clusters.”

Ms. Neu suggested to the priests, “Cluster is not a bad word. It just means you are sharing something, not necessarily a priest.”

Questions priests expressed at the convocation concerned pastoral responsibilities for other constituencies such as hospitals and prisons, how priests are assigned to multiple parishes within LPAs, and what happens next.

“How will it be implemented? Who initiates putting the plan into action?” asked Father Tim Keeney of St. Anne’s in Bristol.

Ms. Neu emphasized that the plan will be implemented over time — between 2009 and 2013 — with changes put into place as needed.

She reviewed all 19 LPAs’ clustering alignments, made to accommodate the projected number of priests, and reminded the group that the plan is still in draft form.

The Office of Pastoral Planning will invite further comments at vicariate meetings this month where, she noted, “all are welcome.”

The priests’ comments as well as those from the vicariate meetings will be taken into consideration in finalizing the plan.

“Can we promise everything will actually look like this in five years? Probably not,” Ms. Neu said about the proposal.

“But what we have is a plan on paper, to be used as a guide. It is not in concrete.”

Among the key recommendations, she pointed out, are to have more senior pastoral associates and deacons and the closing of two small parishes — St. Elizabeth of Hungary, Brookneal (which has not held a Mass in months) and St. John the Baptist in Crewe.

Vital to the plan’s success will be education and training of laity for professional ministry, providing training for clergy in pastoring and managing multiple parishes and educating parishioners “on what it means to be Church with a capital C,” she said.

“This will not be done on the backs of the priests,” she stressed, adding, “Parish staff will be added as needed.”

Nevertheless, some priests privately expressed concerns about their ability to adequately pastor the faithful as the numbers grow disproportionate.

Ms. Neu acknowledged the priests’ apprehensions in speaking about the plan after her presentation.

“If you do the math — considering the number of priests and the number of people going to Mass — this doesn’t work,” she admitted.

“Still we’ve come up with the best possible plan and we’re hopeful about its implementation,” Ms. Neu said.

“What may eventually have to happen is parishes merging — and this will have to be in larger (highly populated) areas. But in the meantime we have to live with this.”

She said that in deliberating on the LPAs’ recommendations, “So many times the planning committee said, ‘We have to protect the health of our priests,’ and this wasn’t coming from the priests, but from others.”

Father Dan Brady of St. Michael’s in Glen Allen, who serves on the diocesan Planning Commission, said he believes the consultation process was good.

Noting that in developing the overall scheme some adjustments had to be made to LPA recommendations, he explained, “Adjustments were made that people were comfortable with. I can tell you we agonized over every decision — they were not lightly made.”

Having a plan in place will be helpful to other decision-making bodies of the diocese, Father Brady added. As a co-chair of the Priest Personnel Committee, he said, “We’ll feel better knowing we’re not imposing our own views, that we are interested in what’s good for the priests and the people.”

Ms. Neu said, “It involves forming people to collaborate. I think it’s an excellent first step.

“And then there’s the other piece of the puzzle,” she added, noting that there is currently a slight rise in seminary enrollment.

“We must continue to pray and actively recruit for vocations.”

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