An Eight Minute Introduction to the Survey by my Pastor
evidently this is being done everywhere in the Diocese of Cleveland
Faithful asked to participate in survey to assess spiritual health of parish life
Dan Cellucci, CEO of CLI, said the survey is a pilot program funded by an endowment. “The goal is to help parishes and priests thrive in ministry,” he said.
The Cleveland Diocese is one of 40 in the United States and Canada to participate in the survey. He estimated 1,500 parishes are involved, amounting to more than 250,000 parishioners. The survey is available in 14 languages.
He first connected with the diocese a few years ago while teaching a sabbatical class in Rome. Father Dan Schlegel, diocesan vicar for clergy and religious, was in the class and they stayed in touch, Cellucci said. He also has had a long relationship with Philadelphia Archbishop – and former Cleveland Bishop -- Nelson Perez, who participated in a CLI leadership program during the early years of his priesthood in Pennsylvania.
Saenz and Cellucci said the seeds for the survey were sown a couple of years ago, while Archbishop Perez was still leading the Cleveland Diocese. The idea was presented to and approved by the Presbyteral Council and other diocesan leaders before the survey was offered. Because of the grant CLI received, there is no cost for the diocese to participate in this survey.
The Disciple Maker Index (DMI) is a survey tool, created by Catholic Leadership Institute to:
- Allow parishioners to reflect upon their spiritual growth and discipleship;
- Identify the ways in which the parish effectively supports that growth and look at opportunities to support that growth more in the future;
- Provide valuable input to help pastors and parish leaders make decisions and plan effectively;
- Help pastors and parish leaders have a sense of where to focus their evangelization efforts.
The Disciple Maker Index Survey
Catholic Leadership Institute
Catholic Leadership Institute was founded in 1991 by a successful Catholic businessman, Tim Flanagan, on the simple vision that God’s gift to us is our potential, and what we do with it is our gift back to God.
Tim saw all of the money and resources being invested into leaders in the corporate world, academia, and the military, and asked the question: why not for the Catholic Church? Nothing is more important or deserving of our support that deserves the best in leadership development and training than our Church.
Almost ten years later, Catholic Leadership Institute felt the call to expand our leadership curriculum. This was the beginning of our nationally prominent priestly leadership training program, Good Leaders, Good Shepherds.
Good Leaders, Good Shepherds, combines the science of leadership with the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church. Through this process, priests are taught more efficient and effective ways to lead, inspire, and motivate their flocks
Good Leaders, Good Shepherds became the catalyst and foundation for the services Catholic Leadership Institute offers today:
Supporting leadership through programs for bishops, lay leaders, seminarians, and a variety of Church leaders, diocesan consulting services, vision planning, goal setting, and evangelization and discipleship training
Bringing technology and data to the Church, specifically through the use of the Disciple Maker Index survey tool, one of the largest research projects in the Catholic Church
Paving the way for parishes of tomorrow through our Next Generation Parish programs and sharing of best practices
Catholics seem to me a little obsessed with "leadership" sometimes, often skewing their efforts to recruit from among top Catholic school/college grads and high-profile biz and professional leaders in the community. Raber, who attended a training day for RCIA leaders, commented that these efforts seem to have taken a page from Campus Crusade for Christ, a non-denom evangelical group back in the 1970s, that identified the most popular kids at school as the "key group" in the assumption at if they could be converted, the un-cool kids would follow.
ReplyDeleteI tend to be skeptical of "programs" generally as rigid, inspiration-killing, and tedious, probably because I was exposed to top many academic and workplace seminars run by control freaks who like to tell everybody what to do.
However some Catholic college students helped run an overnight retreat for The Boy's confirmation class. The kids had a great time, and it seemed especially helpful for the boys to have other guys, and not just the Church Ladies, to talk to (or be talked at by). It was all hands on, singing, skits, and Mass and prayers.
Then it was back to workbooks and signing attendance contracts. So maybe these things are a place to start.
I haven't heard of this organization. But it sounds similar to a lot of programs over the years. I suppose it might have some good ideas. If I sound under-enthused it's because I am. We had some of this kind of stuff in deacon formation.
ReplyDeleteThe car is packed. It's been a beautiful California winter. Best was all the time with our son and his wife, and especially the grandkids. The first grader returns to in-person school for half days starting Monday. He is so excited about this. The afternoon special classes will still be virtual but the pressure on my son and his wife will be much eased. We need to get home to do a few things, so leave tomorrow to drive east in my new car, which will replace my 17 year old car at home.
ReplyDeleteStay safe, everyone and take whichever vaccine you can get! We feel safer going home with the vaccines done than driving west last Nov as it was headed to peak covid without any vaccinations! Very grateful we were able to get them while here.
Have a safe journey, Anne! Glad you are vaccinated and can be a little more relaxed this time. I'm sure it's been good to spend time with your son and family, but also nice to have some time to yourselves now.
DeleteHave a very safe journey. Glad you have immunity now. I got a vaccine appointment with St. Luke's Health Network for Wednesday. My illness SEEMS to have abated. I'll call my health provider on Monday to see if it's ok to get the shot. I came up with two negative COVID tests, so I should be good to go.
DeleteAnne, have a safe trip!
DeleteStanley, glad your illness has abated and you have a vaccine appointment.
Drive safely, watch for deer, and enjoy the trip.
DeleteGlad you are feeling better, Stanley!
Glad you are better Stanley! Also good that you have a vax appointment.
DeleteAnne, sounds like you've had a great winter - so happy for you. Maybe you'll get back home in time for cherry blossoms - do they have those in your area?
DeleteStanley, glad you're feeling better, and best of luck with the vaccination!
Thanks, folks. Hopefully, our little group will soon be in the safe zone.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of this program. At one time there were a few articles, I think in Commonweal, by a former business executive who wanted to address the sex-abuse crisis by having the church run via sound management principles. I don't think it was Tim Flanagan, though. I just poked around on the Commonweal website for a few minutes but couldn't find any examples.
ReplyDeleteSurveys, if they are done well, can give parish or diocesan leaders some insight as to what people are thinking and what their opinions are. They also can provide a factual demographic portrait. These things can be useful because most of us don't know more than a relative handful of parishioners (even though we know many of them to say hello to), and because many of those with whom we interact don't tell us what they really think - in part because church-goers tend to be courteous; in part because many of us are overly deferential to clergy; and even in part because sometimes we don't really know what we think until a survey question stimulates to think about a topic.
Diocesan priests in particular must go into their ministry with the understanding that they will, at some point in their careers, be leaders of an organization. They will be responsible for finances, for hiring and developing staff, for setting organizational priorities, for dealing with organizational issues ranging from leaking roofs to inter-ethnic or -racial conflict to a school with declining enrollment, and for keeping the bishops at bay so the parish can get on with its mission. Most candidates to the priesthood aren't attracted to the life because of this leadership/administrative dimension, but it's an important part of their ministry - I think most would say that it's the kind of thing which consumes way too much of their day. It behooves the church to give priests some management training, and to promote priests who actually have some leadership skills. So there is a place for this Institute.
It seems irresponsible to pile that all on a priest, especially one like ours who has two parishes, a chaplaincy to the KofC, and a hyperactivity problem that gives him a hot new enthusiasm every week that gets everyone running in circles.
DeleteA parish administrator makes more sense than centering all that responsibility on one guy. I presume that's why the diocese sent us an aged nun to oversee catechism, RCIA, and the rest of the stuff Father doesn't care about.
As fewer people are drawn to the priesthood, my sense is that they're letting a lot of sub-par people in, and lay people and deacons will need to take up an increasing amount of slack to make up for it, especially in the way of admin functions.
I guess it's the old question of whether God calls the qualified, or qualifies the called? Maybe a bit of both.
DeleteI agree that it's unfair to dump all the administrative tasks on the priest. Maybe a lay parish administrator is the way to go. However there's also the issue that they're going to have to pay them a living wage in order to get someone who is qualified for the job.
We all have a spark of the divine, I'm sure, but I doubt God actually calls a lot of the clergy. Maybe having been a Protestant gives me a certain cynicism about these things. Or maybe just being me gives me a lot of cynicism.
DeleteI have known clergy who were holy and wonderful. And I have known many more for whom ministering was a job they felt attracted to because they were ultra religious and had a lot of ego that they mistook for leadership.
Expanding the diaconate to include admins makes sense to me, since most of them come from the business and professional world and already have high visibility in the community. Most of them are already doing a lot of admin work where the priests are elderly.
Many of deacons are retirees and already have a nice income and wouldn't need to be paid much.
"a lot of ego that they mistook for leadership"
DeleteI love that phrase. Describes a lot of people.
Certainly describes me!
DeleteI also love the "ego mistook for leadership" comment!
Delete60-70 years ago, it was possible for a parish to have 3-4 priests (or even more) assigned to a parish. In that model, the pastor could be a "CEO", with the associate pastors responsible for the pastoral ministry, and the religious sisters responsible for the school. These formal professional roles were supplemented by a thick network of Catholic spiritual and social organizations affiliated with the parish and/or the local community, from altar server groups to sodalities to the Knights of Columbus.
As time has passed since those days, that model has evolved, with the disappearance of sisters and associate pastors, and the addition of deacons (who either are retired or have a day job) and lay ministers and teachers (who need a living wage). There still are lay organizations in the parish, but they were sort of declining, as mediating organizations have been for decades throughout society, even before the pandemic.
My perception is that the old model worked better than the new model. Whether that is because the model itself is better, or because it flourished during more propitious times, I'm not certain. For sure, the finances are stressed more in the new model.
What about the pastor's role? By necessity, pastors now have a lot of day-to-day pastoral and spiritual duties because often they are the only priest in the parish - or, as Jean notes, the only priest across several parishes. But the administrative tasks don't go away; in fact, because of aging physical plant in places like the Northeast and the Upper Midwest, administrative tasks probably are becoming more urgent.
A parish administrator separate from the pastor could possibly be a workable model. But there are implications for church governance. Pastors answer to the local bishop; to whom does a parish administrator answer? Does a parish administrator have pastoral duties? These should be answerable questions, but I am not certain that the answers have been fully baked into church governance at this point.
I'm not sure there aren't models for Catholic parish admins? Seems like I read a story years ago about a nun who was an admin in a rural parish in the Dakotas that had no regular priest. She had no pastoral duties, though I think you can argue that keeping the lights on and changing the toner cartridges can be tasks in the service of God and God's people.
DeleteEpiscopalians have a vestry/church council that pays the bills, deals with the leaky roof, arranges floor maintenance, decides when the parish hall needs a new coffee pot, collects the rents (ugh), oversees the bank accounts, decides when there are too many flower pots in the shed, and that type of thing.
The priest is always a member of the vestry, sets the agenda, and has a vote, but he/she cannot run the place like his own fiefdom.
No system is perfect, of course. Episcopal vestries are sometimes dominated by a few "personalities" whose families have belonged to the parish for generations and see themselves as some sort of minor nobility. The vestry members on the BritCom "The Vicar of Dibley" are really not too far off the beam in my experience ...
And therein lies a huge problem. The laity haven't been ignorant, uneducated shlubbs for at least a century. I am sure that the average parish has a plethora of skilled laity who have a lot of experience in their worklife in just about any secular activity found in their parish. A smart pastor takes his Finance Council and Parish Council seriously, assuming that he simply hasn't created window dressing to rubber stamp his wishes. I think that the Episcopal Church is a good model of how to effect a working partnership between the laity (Vestry) and the clergy. The RCC could learn a lot from that model.
DeleteSorry, Jean. I wrote my posting before reading yours, i.e., re: Vestry.
DeleteJim, I think it is advisable for everyone here to carefully read each and every one of my posts before they say ANYthing. Hee. :-)
DeleteBut, yes, we agree that Catholic parishes really don't need to reinvent an administrative body from whole cloth.
I presume most parishes have an advisory council, and I would bet cash money that many priests are happy to show up for meetings and rubber-stamp a lot of the nuts-and-bolts details and delegate tasks to various committees.
Until we were combined with our hated sister parish and got one priest, that's pretty much how the men's club functioned as a kind of vestry in our local Catholic parish.
The new priest, however, is more authoritarian. He has told the men that all their money in the maintenance fund will now be rolled into the two-parish general fund.
He also told the men's club that they have to include the Church Ladies (nominally known as the Altar Society) in their fish fry plans, and resentments are really boiling over.
The Church Ladies have long wanted to run the fish fry, and hate the way the men make the baked fish (crumbs and butter on the bottom of the baking sheet vs. sprinkled on top).
I wish I were making this up.
"The Church Ladies have long wanted to run the fish fry, and hate the way the men make the baked fish (crumbs and butter on the bottom of the baking sheet vs. sprinkled on top). I wish I were making this up".
DeleteComment 1/2:
This is from Gulliver's Travels, Part 1. A Voyage to Lilliput.:
One morning, about a fortnight after I had obtained my liberty, Reldresal, principal secretary (as they style him) for private affairs, came to my house attended only by one servant. He ordered his coach to wait at a distance, and desired I would give him an hour’s audience; which I readily consented to, on account of his quality and personal merits, as well as of the many good offices he had done me during my solicitations at court. I offered to lie down that he might the more conveniently reach my ear, but he chose rather to let me hold him in my hand during our conversation. He began with compliments on my liberty; said “he might pretend to some merit in it;” but, however, added, “that if it had not been for the present situation of things at court, perhaps I might not have obtained it so soon. For,” said he, “as flourishing a condition as we may appear to be in to foreigners, we labour under two mighty evils: a violent faction at home, and the danger of an invasion, by a most potent enemy, from abroad. As to the first, you are to understand, that for about seventy moons past there have been two struggling parties in this empire, under the names of Tramecksan and Slamecksan, from the high and low heels of their shoes, by which they distinguish themselves. It is alleged, indeed, that the high heels are most agreeable to our ancient constitution; but, however this be, his majesty has determined to make use only of low heels in the administration of the government, and all offices in the gift of the crown, as you cannot but observe; and particularly that his majesty’s imperial heels are lower at least by a drurr than any of his court (drurr is a measure about the fourteenth part of an inch). The animosities between these two parties run so high, that they will neither eat, nor drink, nor talk with each other. We compute the Tramecksan, or high heels, to exceed us in number; but the power is wholly on our side. We apprehend his imperial highness, the heir to the crown, to have some tendency towards the high heels; at least we can plainly discover that one of his heels is higher than the other, which gives him a hobble in his gait."
[Continued in next comment]
[Comment 2/2 - a continuation of the passage from Gulliver's Travels]:
ReplyDelete"Now, in the midst of these intestine disquiets, we are threatened with an invasion from the island of Blefuscu, which is the other great empire of the universe, almost as large and powerful as this of his majesty. For as to what we have heard you affirm, that there are other kingdoms and states in the world inhabited by human creatures as large as yourself, our philosophers are in much doubt, and would rather conjecture that you dropped from the moon, or one of the stars; because it is certain, that a hundred mortals of your bulk would in a short time destroy all the fruits and cattle of his majesty’s dominions: besides, our histories of six thousand moons make no mention of any other regions than the two great empires of Lilliput and Blefuscu. Which two mighty powers have, as I was going to tell you, been engaged in a most obstinate war for six-and-thirty moons past. It began upon the following occasion. It is allowed on all hands, that the primitive way of breaking eggs, before we eat them, was upon the larger end; but his present majesty’s grandfather, while he was a boy, going to eat an egg, and breaking it according to the ancient practice, happened to cut one of his fingers. Whereupon the emperor his father published an edict, commanding all his subjects, upon great penalties, to break the smaller end of their eggs. The people so highly resented this law, that our histories tell us, there have been six rebellions raised on that account; wherein one emperor lost his life, and another his crown. These civil commotions were constantly fomented by the monarchs of Blefuscu; and when they were quelled, the exiles always fled for refuge to that empire. It is computed that eleven thousand persons have at several times suffered death, rather than submit to break their eggs at the smaller end. Many hundred large volumes have been published upon this controversy: but the books of the Big-endians have been long forbidden, and the whole party rendered incapable by law of holding employments. During the course of these troubles, the emperors of Blefusca did frequently expostulate by their ambassadors, accusing us of making a schism in religion, by offending against a fundamental doctrine of our great prophet Lustrog, in the fifty-fourth chapter of the Blundecral (which is their Alcoran). This, however, is thought to be a mere strain upon the text; for the words are these: ‘that all true believers break their eggs at the convenient end.’ And which is the convenient end, seems, in my humble opinion to be left to every man’s conscience, or at least in the power of the chief magistrate to determine. Now, the Big-endian exiles have found so much credit in the emperor of Blefuscu’s court, and so much private assistance and encouragement from their party here at home, that a bloody war has been carried on between the two empires for six-and-thirty moons, with various success; during which time we have lost forty capital ships, and a much a greater number of smaller vessels, together with thirty thousand of our best seamen and soldiers; and the damage received by the enemy is reckoned to be somewhat greater than ours. However, they have now equipped a numerous fleet, and are just preparing to make a descent upon us; and his imperial majesty, placing great confidence in your valour and strength, has commanded me to lay this account of his affairs before you.”"
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/829/829-h/829-h.htm
As one of the Bottom-Crusters observed, the Top-Crusters have "got their hooks into" the priest and are pushing to expand their influence and territory. And those are just two factions within the parish, never mind the friction between the two combined parishes.
DeleteFather lives at the rectory in the other parish, but had the one here remodeled. He talked about renting it to seminarians to defray expenses, but is now talking about taking up summer residency here because it's got a/c and the patio is nicer. His own little Castel Gondolfo retreat.
Our parish wants to know if we can still get $$ from the seminarians--moot, as far as I can see, since it all goes into the new joint General fund, but possibly a point that can be leveraged in a later power play over parish contribution size--and the Other Parish is concerned about Father taking up residence outside their sphere of influence.
Meantime, the bell which we salvaged/stole from the Other Parish has not worked for years. At one point Father was hot on getting it working, and everyone liked that idea, not least because it would irritate the Other Parish. But then he got hot on building some type of wedding gazebo, so who knows where that is.
Yes, it's all very Swiftian.
I really shouldn't indulge myself on local parish politics. Fish fry season is a godawful time and brings out the worst in everybody. There is some nutty idea being floated that we will have drive-up service for the public, but some kind of secret maskless dine-in option for parishioners only in the hall.
DeleteThe K of C here is doing a drive-up fish fry and it is doing as well, or better than dine-in did in previous years. Of course last year they had to cancel the whole works and were stuck with a bunch of frozen fish. So they were begging people to please buy frozen fish from them so they could get rid of it and recoup their losses. I guess they finally did get rid of all of it and started over fresh this Lent.
DeleteOf course one thing leads to another. They're running double car lines for the drive-up, and that's tearing up the unpaved section of the parking lot. So the next project is a fund drive for paving the parking lot. Which Father said was in the in the planning stages, fish fry or not.
Yeah, the men's club sold some fish. Some they are using for this year. Hopefully it will still be good since it's frozen. The drive thru will make those who want to eliminate the all-you-can-eat deal happy because they can control portions.
DeleteI honestly can't see paying $10 a plate for year-old fish, canned corn, soggy fries, and Bisquick biscuits--that's my sodium allotment for the week--but apparently that's a big thrill for a lot of people. The real draw was the dessert table. I will miss Joanne's kremkes.
Everyone says they miss the dessert table. I usually contributed either a jello poke cake or bread pudding with caramel sauce at least a couple times during Lent. Our side dishes are scallop potatoes from a box and coleslaw, neither of which I am too wild about.
DeleteMmm. Bread pudding! Haven't had that in a long time!
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