Pastoral council forms work groups on five concerns for diocese

Members of the Diocesan Pastoral Council met with Bishop George Thomas the weekend of June 9-10 to begin forming preliminary recommendations from the data collected throughout the diocese in regional listening sessions. The planning process – which started last September with the formation of the Diocesan Pastoral Council – moved forward as council members met in work groups to study and analyze the information gathered from throughout the diocese, and begin to form recommendations for the pastoral plan. Sister Rita McGinnis, SCL, pastoral planning director, said that the council hopes to have Bishop Thomas’ final approval of the plan in late fall 2006.

This session of the DPC brought the work groups together to craft presentations of their work to the bishop and the whole council. Five themes were identified from the regional listening sessions; these became the themes of five work groups. Each council member serves on one of the work groups.

Work group themes and assignments follow; the chairperson of each group is denoted with an asterisk:

Quality Pastoral Care in our Parishes
Vocations, diaconate, plan for use of priest personnel into the future, liturgical/spirituality formation concerns
Members: Laurie Croghan (Bozeman), Father Jeff Fleming (Dillon), Sister Mary Jo McDonald* (Butte), Jim McNeely (Browning), Peggy Walsh (Anaconda)

Formation
Youth ministry, young adult ministry, adult formation, formation for lay/religious parish leadership, parent education, schools, religious education concerns
Members: Mary Jean Brophy (Valier), Sylvia Bryce (Conrad), Tim Norbeck (Butte), Seaneen Prendergast* (Butte), Doug Tooke (Kalispell)

Resource Management
Building concerns, stewardship, financial support for diocese, financial stability for diocese/parishes, historic buildings preservation
Members: Ron Johnson (Dillon), Don Shaughnessy (Hamilton), Larry White* (Missoula), Bev York (Columbia Falls)

Outreach
Evangelization, social justice, Native American concerns, ecumenical, rural life concerns
Members: Chris Burgmeier (Hall), Dan Doyle (Missoula), Deacon Tom McCarthy* (Missoula), Chuck Tellier (St. Ignatius), Sue Zezeus (Jefferson City)

Communication
Effective communication between diocese and parishes (two way), effective communication with the Catholics of the diocese, public relations – promotion of a positive image of the priesthood, “delivery systems” for communications (teleconferencing, etc.)
Members: Steve Barry* (Helena), Virginia Hanson (Kalispell), Vondene Kopetski (Missoula), Jim McDevitt (Polson)

During this meeting, the rough drafts of the recommendations were presented, discussed, critiqued, clarified, and modifications were suggested. The work groups will take the input from the whole council and rework their proposals which will be crafted into a rough draft of the pastoral plan. That document will receive further refinement when the DPC meets in October. The Diocesan Presbyteral Council will also receive and critique the document before it becomes a formal proposal for Bishop Thomas’ approval in late fall and is then promulgated to the entire diocese.

The Diocesan Pastoral Council asks the entire diocese to continue in prayer with them as they move forward to the next step of this work to provide a roadmap for the future of the diocese.

Published in The Montana Catholic, Vol. 22, No. 6, June 16, 2006.