The Parish Plan is on the desk of Archbishop Carlson. He is discussing it with the Priests’ Council, the College of Consultors and the Archdiocesan Finance Council and so forth. As we await his final decision, we have our common Catholic life to share and strengthen whether the two parishes merge or remain twins. The week after Easter, 80 parishioners, evenly distributed from both parishes, came together in the St. Dominic Savio cafeteria for two days to learn about the discernment of spiritual gifts which the Holy Spirit has distributed to each of us and the benefits of biblical stewardship. I am grateful to all those who attended the sessions and to Dave Baranowski and Jane Guenther from the Archdiocese who addressed us.
This is a moment in the life of both parishes when we can think creatively, think outside-the-box, about our life together. It is an opportune moment to reorganize our life, rethink how we carry out our apostolates and worship God. I know that most of us find comfort and security in regular routines, but those same routines can also become deadening. This is an exciting time when the Holy Spirit is as close to us as He was to the early Church as it was coming together in the beginning at Pentecost. Obviously, we will need some kind of Parish Council(s) in the months to come to continue doing the work of vision-making and strategic planning. At the same time, I have been praying about a Parish Leadership Team to assist me in the prayerful leadership of the parish. The idea is that the pastor would collaborate regularly with this team of parishioners who are willing to prayerfully discern the way forward. More about that in the weeks to come.