By Renée St. Martin Wizeman

One of the priorities identified in the diocesan pastoral plan Come to the Light was the creation of a plan for the equitable distribution of priests into the future. At present, 62 percent of the Diocese of Helena’s presbyterate is made up of men over the age of 60.

As part of the implementation of Come to the Light, an ad hoc committee was assembled to address the equitable distribution of priests. The ad hoc committee is drawn from the Presbyteral Council and College of Consultors and the Diocesan Pastoral Council. The group is chaired by Father Gary Reller, Vicar for Priests and includes Father Ed Hislop and Dan Doyle, Diocesan Pastoral Council, with Sister Rita McGinnis, a Sister of Charity of Leavenworth, as diocesan staff person.

Sister Rita, director of pastoral planning for the diocese, said the Living Stones process and subsequent plan are meant to insure that Catholics throughout the diocese will have access to sacramental ministry. The process uses wide-based consultation to formulate a plan, similar to the process that was used to create the diocesan pastoral plan.

Over the spring and summer, parish pastors, administrators and staffs conducted self-inventories as the first step in the Living Stones process. The second phase – whole parish input meetings – started last week. During this series of two meetings per parish, parishioners first consider some of the data from the parish inventory and respond with focused questions to the information collected about their parish, with topics ranging from celebration of the sacraments to different ministry efforts, Sister Rita explained. In the second meeting, parishioners are asked to begin thinking about how the future sacramental needs in the diocese will be accommodated with fewer priests available and in response to local demographics.

The whole parish input meetings will continue through 2009. Sister Rita said that all parishioners are invited and encouraged to be a part of this important work. Individuals parishes will publicize the meeting times and locations for their parish.

Deb Kralicek, religious education and faith formation director for St. Mary Catholic Community in Helena, said their parish’s first meeting was held last Wednesday, Sept. 9, with about 60 parishioners participating. “One parishioner expressed surprise at all the ministries we do here, when we take all the pieces together, she said.

“Another striking comment was about the need to remember we are still all one Church, and we aren’t in competition,” Kralicek said.

In early 2010, Living Stones will enter its third phase, deanery planning. The information gathered through the parish inventory and whole parish input meetings will assist the deanery groups as they start to form concrete proposals regarding their region. Sister Rita said it is anticipated that these proposals will move back to the parishes for comment sometime during Lent 2010, which will mark the fourth phase.

In the fifth phase, the deanery plans are finalized, then sent to the Diocesan Coordinating Committee to fashion a diocesan plan. The DCC is made up of the deans, one deanery representative for each deanery and the equitable distribution ad hoc committee members. The DCC may return plans to the deanery level for further clarification, if needed.

In the final steps of the Living Stones process, the Presbyteral Council and College of Consultors will review the DCC’s plan for possible recommendation to Bishop George Thomas. Pending review, approval and promulgation by Bishop Thomas, the diocesan plan for equitable distribution of priests will be implemented.

Sister Rita said there are guiding principles to be followed throughout the process. First, all proposals will be in communion with the mind of the Church. The other principles, drawn in large part from Come to the Light, include providing quality pastoral care; providing sacramental ministry without compromising priests’ health, well-being and safety; undertaking a plan with widespread collaboration among the regions of the diocese; emphasis on assigning personnel in each parish, providing a good fit for the priest and the people; and great sensitivity to the rural and Native American parishes in the priest personnel redistribution process.

For more information and updates about Living Stones, visit www.diocesehelena.org/planning/lstones.htm.


Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Vol. 25, No. 9, September 18, 2009.