Goal: Ensure Quality Pastoral Leadership for Parishes
Objectives
- To engage all members of the diocese in inviting, praying for, and supporting those who are discerning a call to the priesthood
- To build up the practice of fraternal care and support among priests
- To direct the ongoing formation of parochial vicars in order to prepare them to serve as pastors in the future
- To initiate training and support for priests, deacons and parish staff persons serving in multiple-parish and merged parish situations
- To facilitate a shared approach to the continuing education/formation of priests, deacons, religious, and lay ecclesial ministers
- To explore cooperative arrangements among parishes and among priests in the areas of ministries, staff, and shared use of facilities and other resources
- To assemble and support collaborative pastoral teams in parishes
- To encourage the hiring and training of competent Parish Business Administrators in parishes
- "The Parish Business Administrator serves as a staff resource in support of the pastor, fulfilling parish administrative needs in finance, buildings and grounds, and personnel. The Parish Business Administrator directs these efforts with technical and legal expertise within a framework of shared ministry in Christian and Catholic values."
- To make Lay Ecclesial Ministry formation more accessible and share the expertise of lay ecclesial ministers throughout the diocese, especially in underserved populations
- To establish and form a Parish Pastoral Council in every parish of the diocese by November 2010 to engage in visioning and pastoral planning
