From Maintenance to Mission: A Deeper Look at Our Diocesan Plan

Two weeks ago I wrote about our Diocese recently releasing a document titled: “MAINTENANCE TO MISSION PASTORAL PLAN: Recalibrating our Structure to Move on Mission”. Writing about the plan, I mentioned that the Diocese of Superior had released pastoral plans in the past. These focused primarily on the shortage of priests our diocese was facing and how to organize the more than one hundred parishes in such a way that they could be served by a dwindling number of priests. The committee tasked with developing this latest plan realized that our diocese was not only facing a declining number of priests, but also a decreasing number of people in our pews and receiving the Sacraments. Thus this plan focuses more on this issue and our need to moving from simply maintaining parishes to guiding all of us to regain the zeal of the early missionaries who first brought the Catholic faith to northern Wisconsin. 

Previously I focused on the introductory letter to the pastoral plan that our Bishop wrote, the Introduction and the first pillar. The body of the pastoral plan is divided into six pillars. This week we will look at the second, third, and fourth pillars. 

The second pillar talks about the various roles of the baptized Christians. It begins by speaking about the diocesan bishop who, the document reminds us, “plays a unique role as the successor to the Apostles to whom Christ entrusted the leadership of the Church.” There are three tasks the bishop is responsible for: teaching, governing, and sanctifying. 

United with the bishop are the priests of the diocese. There are four responsibilities the priest is tasked with: feeding, forming, equipping, and shepherding. While the day-to-day activities of a priest may vary and he may wear many different hats, for us to successfully move from being maintenance to mission focused, we need to make sure our priests can focus on these four primary tasks.

Bishops and priests are often assisted by deacons. They too receive the grace of the Sacrament of Holy Orders and are called to a unique life of service. The ministry of deacons often differ, depending on the needs of local parish and the gifts the deacon possesses. 

Another vocation individuals may be called to within the Church is the vocation of consecrated life. Often those called to consecrated life are a part of a religious community. Their ministry is dependent upon the charism of their particular community. The Church and in fact much of society has been deeply impacted by the work of women religious, especially because of their commitment to education and health care. 

The rest of pillar two is dedicated toward the laity, which makes up the largest group within the Church. The laity’s vocation or call can be summed up in the words from Mark’s Gospel, when Jesus says, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.” What makes the laity unique is that they are called to primarily live this vocation out in the secular world. It is out in the world that all, especially the laity, are called to be saints. 

It might be said that the third and fourth pillars take somewhat of a step backwards. While the pastoral plan calls us to focus on mission, the reality is that our parishes and elements of our parishes need to be maintained. However if we “maintain” our parishes well, we will have the resources necessary to be mission driven. These pillars are also meant to be educational as they outline the structure of both the diocese and individual parishes. 

These pillars speak about several elements of both the diocese and parishes that many people may not be aware of, such as their legal structure, the presence of finance and pastoral councils and the role they play within the life of the diocese and parishes. Much of what is contained within these two pillars is not new, but over the years parishes may have grown lax in making sure they are active and fulfilling their roles. 

There are three noticeable changes that were added to the life of a parish to help us move from maintenance to mission. Each parish is required to now have a “Parish Evangelization Team”, submit to the diocese goals that focus on being mission driven, and to bring us in line with universal Church law which specifically states a priest is not able to celebrate more than four Masses on a weekend, not counting Masses such as weddings and funerals.

We will take a break for the next two weeks for Holy Week and Easter, and then come back to finish our review of our Diocese’s new pastoral plan.