By Father Dan Danielson
Special to The Voice

Anyone who has been active in the Catholic Church in recent years and anyone who has been exposed to any of the research on U.S. Catholics knows that things are different than they used to be — in many ways. One of the more significant sets of research studies has focused on ministry, the way in which pastoral care and pastoral leadership is developing in the U.S.

Some five years ago, through a significant grant from the Lilly Foundation, some of the main groupings of ministers (National Association of Lay Ministry, the Conference for Pastoral Planning and Council Development, the National Association of Church Personnel Administrators, the National Association of Diaconate Directors, the National Council Young Adult Ministry Association, and the National Federation of Priests’ Councils) began doing research. They entitled their work: Emerging Models of Pastoral Leadership.

During the week of April 20, members of these groups, some 1200 strong, gathered in Orlando, Florida, to listen to the results of the research and to wrestle with what it all means and where we go from here. The results were, for the most part, hopeful and exciting, looking very much toward the future that the Spirit is leading us to in this country.

There were some statistics that I previously had not been aware of that made the questions dealt with all the more urgent. For example, in the U.S. presently we have over 31,000 lay ecclesial ministers who are employed at least 20 hours a week, 60 percent of them women. We have 16,000 permanent deacons. There are only 21,000 diocesan priests, 70 percent of whom are over 55.

We have about 18,000 parishes, a number that is growing in the west and south. Thirty-five to 40 percent of these parishes share their pastor with at least one other parish or mission. Two-thirds of U.S. dioceses have more parishes than priests available to staff them. Catholic people other than priests are the leaders of 616 parishes in 110 dioceses.

Some of the major issues that emerged center around collaboration and communication among all these various ministries in the Church. The Church in the U.S. has a lot of people involved in ministry, and they have commitment, energy and creativity. But unless their working together can be sustained, this wonderful blossoming of the power of the Spirit could wane.

We need to work at creating an institution of collaboration, one that involves honesty and a willingness to face hard questions together out of love for the Church.

Six focus issues
The main six issues addressed in sub-groups (you could join the one you wanted) were: pastoring multiple parishes, parish life coordinators and sacramental ministers (Canon 517.2), youth adults: the next generation of parish leadership, implications of the Emerging Models studies for human resources, and best practices of parish leadership. Each grouping developed the issues as they saw them, with suggestions for development and change. All this information is being processed and will be forwarded to the six national groups for follow-up and development.

Best practices of parish life
I went to the sub-group on best practices. What is needed in the leadership of the Catholic parish today (perhaps this has always been true) is that the pastor leader possess the ability to develop human relationships in the parish, has some developed leadership skills, is able and willing to collaborate with others in ministry, and has sufficient theological formation.

There must be an intentional formation of lay leaders, and everything must be done with a view to empowering parishioners. Above all, the parish has to become an evermore welcoming Eucharistic community, facing outward in service to all and not inward in service only to its active members.

More specifically, there are 13 practices that the research consistently pointed out as the keys to the vibrancy of a Catholic parish. I’m going to list them here, without commentary, though it is very tempting to get into each of them in greater depth.

• The vision of a total parish as a ministering community in service to the world.

• A high level of engagement of parishioners in ministry formation with solid intellectual content.

• Redefinition of the role of pastor as a dynamic facilitator who orders and calls forth the gifts of others, serving as a change agent for new roles and structures, in other words, a shepherd.

• Extended role of parish staff to much of the day-to-day pastoral care and programming in the parish as well as calling forth the gifts of other parishioners.

• Collaborative pastoral team moving beyond “my” program area to facilitating the lay ministry of others rather than only administering one’s own projects and priorities.

• An intense connection with the Eucharist as the center of parish life as well as participation in the other sacraments — the fundamental defining characteristic of the Catholicity of a parish.

• Intense efforts to embrace multi-culturalism even before parishes themselves have become multi-cultural in their membership, especially in worship.

• Intergenerational faith formation through evangelization and catechetical programs based on the RCIA model, creating formational communities.

• Proactive personal outreach to individuals and households within the parish despite the size and complexity of the parish structure.

• Intentional collaboration among local churches to share resources whenever possible, transcending parish boundaries as each parish cannot continue as a stand-along enclave.

• A commitment to justice evidenced at a high level in parish organizations..

• Greater accountability and transparency of personnel management, finances, etc.
I came away from this meeting excited and filled with hope. There is such enthusiasm for continuing the ministry of Jesus in our world. There are certainly some problems that were not addressed by this conference.

I am concerned that other groups get involved in this discussion — those in consecrated life, the catechetical national groups, the national association of Catholic schools, etc. And one has to admit, as at most Church gatherings when Church leadership is gathered together, it was not representative of our cultural and ethnic diversity. Only 10 percent were people of color.

Also, it is not altogether certain how the results of this research will be moved forward. The studies will be published by Loyola Press in a series of books, the first of which, “Shaping Catholic Parishes” is already available. Over the next few weeks you can find what I have written and more information on the project website: emergingmodels.org.

The key words I came away struggling with and excited about were: collaboration, multicultural, welcoming, Eucharistic, diverse (beyond language and culture), prophetic, communion, pastoral, creative, and adoptive.

I am sorry that I am not younger and able to really get my teeth into all these things for the next 25 years, but I presumably have some years left to be involved in this exciting, hopeful work of the Spirit. It is wonderful to behold.

(Father Dan Danielson is the retired pastor of the Catholic Community of Pleasanton. He currently lives at Corpus Christi Parish in Piedmont.)

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