06.25.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:49 am by admin
12th June 2008
My dear people,
Today, I received with great delight the long-awaited Final Proposals of the extensive Fit for Mission Parishes Review. This report marks the end of an extensive consultation. First, let me, on behalf of the Diocese; thank the Review Team and Core Group for their commitment to this painstaking undertaking over a period of 18 months. I marvel at their generosity and perseverance.
Theirs was a gigantic task but they stuck with it for 18 months. Our sincere thanks and congratulations, too, to our parishes, deaneries and individuals who have contributed so positively to this review. Here we had consultation at every level throughout the Diocese and where it did not happen it was due entirely to resistance at parish or deanery level.
What we have achieved is something quite remarkable – a Mission Review that has combined an honest evaluation of our sacramental and mission priorities with a courageous vision of the future shape of the Diocese in the years ahead. Again, this Review was about mission and how we are to strengthen the communication of the Faith today. It was not all about the linking and merging of parishes though inevitably this will happen. What is of real concern is the prayer-life of our parishes, schools and homes and the living out of the faith with confidence. At the very heart of the mission of the Church is our being gathered together in Christ and being sent out as witnesses to Him and leading others to Him. For as the Prophet Jeremiah reminds us; The Lord is at our side as a mighty hero for we have committed our cause to Him. Today’s psalm teaches us that with His help we will never fail for the Lord listens to the needy. We can only do this under the power of the Holy Spirit. We need not be afraid.
Now I must take time to study the proposals and pray about them before taking my own recommendations based on my consideration of The Final Proposals to the Diocesan Council of Priests. My first task, guided by the Council, is to make decisions about the future of those parishes identified as requiring immediate action.
You know my programme over the next couple of months – Australia (World Youth Day Festival with the Holy Father), Lourdes (Diocesan Pilgrimage) and then a much-needed holiday. So there will be little time for an examination of these important proposals until early September. Perhaps we should be looking for a date in late October or early November for an initial meeting with the Council of Priests about the first round of implementations. I am bound to consult fully with the Council before making any final decisions.
Meanwhile, please continue to keep Fit for Mission to the forefront of your prayers and I ask again for your help in the work of mission; also support in the implementation of the changes when they are finally agreed – the future will demand of us great generosity, courage and sacrifice. In this year when we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady at Lourdes, I ask our Diocesan Patroness to help and intercede for us in the weeks and months ahead.
With every good wish and prayer,Bishop Patrick O’Donohue
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Posted in Uncategorized at 10:40 am by admin
12th June 2008
My dear people,
Today, I received with great delight the long-awaited Final Proposals of the extensive Fit for Mission Parishes Review. This report marks the end of an extensive consultation. First, let me, on behalf of the Diocese; thank the Review Team and Core Group for their commitment to this painstaking undertaking over a period of 18 months. I marvel at their generosity and perseverance.
Theirs was a gigantic task but they stuck with it for 18 months. Our sincere thanks and congratulations, too, to our parishes, deaneries and individuals who have contributed so positively to this review. Here we had consultation at every level throughout the Diocese and where it did not happen it was due entirely to resistance at parish or deanery level.
What we have achieved is something quite remarkable – a Mission Review that has combined an honest evaluation of our sacramental and mission priorities with a courageous vision of the future shape of the Diocese in the years ahead. Again, this Review was about mission and how we are to strengthen the communication of the Faith today. It was not all about the linking and merging of parishes though inevitably this will happen. What is of real concern is the prayer-life of our parishes, schools and homes and the living out of the faith with confidence. At the very heart of the mission of the Church is our being gathered together in Christ and being sent out as witnesses to Him and leading others to Him. For as the Prophet Jeremiah reminds us; The Lord is at our side as a mighty hero for we have committed our cause to Him. Today’s psalm teaches us that with His help we will never fail for the Lord listens to the needy. We can only do this under the power of the Holy Spirit. We need not be afraid.
Now I must take time to study the proposals and pray about them before taking my own recommendations based on my consideration of The Final Proposals to the Diocesan Council of Priests. My first task, guided by the Council, is to make decisions about the future of those parishes identified as requiring immediate action.
You know my programme over the next couple of months – Australia (World Youth Day Festival with the Holy Father), Lourdes (Diocesan Pilgrimage) and then a much-needed holiday. So there will be little time for an examination of these important proposals until early September. Perhaps we should be looking for a date in late October or early November for an initial meeting with the Council of Priests about the first round of implementations. I am bound to consult fully with the Council before making any final decisions.
Meanwhile, please continue to keep Fit for Mission to the forefront of your prayers and I ask again for your help in the work of mission; also support in the implementation of the changes when they are finally agreed – the future will demand of us great generosity, courage and sacrifice. In this year when we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady at Lourdes, I ask our Diocesan Patroness to help and intercede for us in the weeks and months ahead.
With every good wish and prayer,
Bishop Patrick O’Donohue
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03.29.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:37 pm by admin
This is a unique moment for me to stand before you and render an account of my stewardship, as your bishop, over the past 7 years. I feel very privileged and will reflect briefly on issues that have precipitated and encouraged mission.
My time in Lancaster has been one of personal growth, much joy, high tensions and challenges. In the early weeks after installation I learned it wasn’t going to be easy – the tussle between those immersed in the “New Start with Jesus” and those not in favour erupted with both sides trying to ‘get my ear’. Believing that I was gifted with the ‘wisdom of Solomon’, I came up with a grand formula and hoped it would satisfy everyone: ‘where the New Start is flourishing, let it continue at a pace’. However, things don’t work like that - you know how our best efforts do not always succeed.
· My grand formula was seen as a sign of weakness by some and astuteness by others. It is true to say that the bold initiative of New Start was frustrated almost from the beginning – by the illness of my predecessor and a long inter-regnum. However, things had become soured and there was no recovery. That is my assessment; perhaps you have other views. What I know to be true is that its failure embittered a number of people and continues to do so.
The second great challenge was Bishop’s House, Cannon Hill and its sale was not an easy decision. Companionship means a great deal to me and there was not much at Cannon Hill. Many weekends I was a lone occupant from 4.00pm on Friday until 9.00am Monday morning. Besides, its upkeep was expensive and I was slowly becoming aware of the needs of the diocese. The Cathedral convent building needed refurbishment and I had eyes on it for a central pastoral centre, likewise the Cathedral itself and Cathedral House needed work done on them. I needed money and a home and decided on the sale of Bishop’s House. Certain repairs and changes were made to Clergy House and work done on the Cathedral; the Pastoral Centre emerged, £250,000 put aside for my successor and an apartment provided for the Bishop
There then followed an Education Review, spearheaded by Michael Doyle and his team, and shortly afterwards a Review of Diocesan finances. Monies are a thorny subject at any time but disclosures hotted-up the temperature and a debate which continues even today.
My address today is not a financial review, but it is necessary to put things in perspective. It is not my intention to rake up the past, rather to seek a new beginning by confronting issues which impede mission.
As at April 2005 the diocese had used up £10.8 million pounds of Parish monies (7.1ml), Restricted Funds (2.6ml) and Investment monies (£1.1ml) without due regard to Canon and Civil law. How could this have happened? There is a simple answer - one set of ledgers recording dutifully monies placed with the diocese but all incoming monies were placed in one diocesan account. In other words all diocesan monies were available to Central Administration, School building, staff salaries, etc, without regard to where the money had come from, its purpose and without permission to use it.
Two simple examples from my own experience might help:
1. I had a personal bequest from a priest friend of a property for spirituality purposes. It was sold for £138,000 and I placed the receipts in the diocesan account for safe-keeping and ring fenced it. However, when I sought to retrieve it, it was gone – spent on diocesan central administration.
2. On the sale of Bishop’s House, Cannon Hill, I ring fenced £250,000 for my successor should he not be happy with my apartment. That money, too, disappeared into the ‘black hole’ and there was no money in the diocese to retrieve it.
· That was April 2005 and how is it that today we can report a happy surplus, more than £2ml? Again the answer is fairly simple:
· Your good-will in accepting a bond issue of £5.5ml (yet to be repaid to parishes).
· Reducing central expenditure by a million a year.
· A moratorium on building.
· Parish levies & bequests
· The transference of diocesan properties to the ownership of the Sick and Retired Clergy Fund and the Diocesan Ecclesiastical Education Fund; compensation to them for the monies taken from their accounts.
· No mean turn about, but thanks, too to the indefatigable services of our Financial Administrator (who gives his services for free) and other voluntary helpers.
In all of this there is one big personal disappointment. I haven’t been able to carry some of you with me. It grieves me deeply when I hear that the whole Finance and Education Reviews were “a paper exercise” designed to discredit a few. Nothing could be further from the truth. Let me say for one last time – there was no evident fraud, nor did money go into back pockets but there were serious irregularities in management and spending (see this year’s management account).
My sincere thanks for your support during these difficulties and since. I applaud and thank you. All this served only to strengthen my determination and resolve to tackle the bigger issues in our great Church and diocese. I’m speaking, of course, about ‘Fit for Mission’ – Parishes, Schools, Youth Ministry, Permanent Diaconate. The issues discussed earlier were impediments to mission and had first to be resolved.
The enormity of the challenge spurred me on to ask for a coadjutor. Now that we have Michael, and how pleased we are at his coming, there can be a seamless transfer to my successor and without a long inter-regnum.
Back now to my real love – Mission and how we communicate the Gospel today in our society. The Fit for Mission Reviews must rank as possibly the most in-depth consultation ever embarked upon in the diocese and indeed in any diocese. There are no ‘sacred cows’ and nothing is taboo! What delights me is the involvement of our laity at every level.
Given what we’ve been hearing earlier today, and indeed for some time, there are daunting tasks ahead for you, me, the diocese and the Church. Weaker men and women would shrink at them but not us because of our confidence that the Spirit of the Lord walks with us.
Let me make it clear that we are struggling as a Church:
· Not so much with the linking and merging parishes or indeed what best to do with buildings;
· It is not the decline in vocations to the Priesthood and Religious Life
· Nor simply declining Mass attendances.
What we are facing is the extinction of the Church in this land unless we do something about it under the Spirit. Is it any wonder that the Holy Father speaks of the Church being ‘moribund’ in Europe – tired, lethargic and dwindling! It is clear that mission must be at the centre of all our thoughts, prayers, and plans. Let no one here doubt that the Fit for Mission review is about grappling with this urgent demand on each one of us:What then are we talking about?
First, let’s look at the opportunities created by Fit for Mission?Ø Fit for Mission? gives us a snap shot of the sacramental and mission life of each parish in 2007 - an indication of the strengths and weaknesses of our parishes.
Ø Now we can say that most parishes in the diocese need to develop the following areas of their sacramental and mission life:
Sacramental priorities:
· Develop the prayer life of the parish
· Identify and train more lay catechists, particularly for baptism, first holy communion, confirmation and marriage.
· Establish liturgy groups
· Develop ongoing formation from an early age.
· Establish faith sharing/ RCIA groups.
· Develop the ministry for fostering vocations
Mission priorities:
· Develop mission with families through relationships with primary schools.
· Develop parish links and collaboration with secondary schools.
· Establish faith focused youth groups.
· Develop mission with older people and the sick and housebound beyond home visiting.
· Establish bereavement groups.
· Develop new faith initiatives and outreach and let me tell you there are great things happening in many of our parishes.
· Develop outreach to other Christian communities and faith groups
· Develop mission to the poor at home and abroad
· Work for peace and the environment
· Promote Life and life issues
Ø The Fit for Mission review makes it clear that we need to consolidate our resources so we have strong, compelling parish communities that witness to the vitality and life-giving power of the Gospel.
Ø It shows that we have the ability as a diocese to successfully plan for change. An enormous amount of work has gone into the Revised Draft Proposals that come out on the 13th March –taking on board much of your input.
Ø The Draft Revised Proposals will show - to all who have doubted it - that nothing has been set in stone, that alternative proposals from parishes have been taken on board wherever possible.
Ø This is a genuine consultation that will prove that the diocese and parishes can work together to plan and manage change. This is a source of great hope for the future, because I think that one thing is certain – that our parishes must be able to adapt to change and grow if they are to survive and thrive.
Now let’s look at some of the problems identified by Fit for Mission? that need solving
Ø Some parishes adamantly refuse to face up to the reality that change is inevitable due to the decline in priests and Mass attendance. What are the reasons for this adamant refusal? What can be done to encourage reasonably minded parishioners to face the need for merging or linking parishes?
Ø In responses from parishes some have seen the proposals for merger as signalling the death of their communities, while on the ground, we know that people ‘shop’ around to find the church that suits their needs. How do we encourage people to see that their needs will be better served in stronger, better attended parish communities formed from the merger of parishes?
Ø Most of the parishes need the involvement of more lay catechists, particularly for baptism, confirmation and marriage preparation, which in many cases is solely provided by priests at present.
What can we do to encourage more lay people, particularly married couples, to volunteer for these vital roles? What do you do?At this critical time, I’m reminded of Christ’s challenge: “If your brother asks for bread, do you offer him a stone; if he asks for a fish do you offer him a scorpion?” Our brothers and sisters are calling out for help and what are we offering them? A diet of cynicism about the object of this Review, lethargy (it doesn’t concern me), stirring passions about buildings and engendering anger?
In a society rife with aggressive secularism, relativism and the like, we must analyse clearly what is being said, as facile and glib answers will not be adequate at a time when heroic self-giving, vision and the will to do the Lord’s work is being demanded.
There are no easy answers but my answer would rest on the response of the early Christians. They adhered to:
1. The Teaching of the Apostles (that Jesus has truly risen from the dead.)
2. The ‘breaking of bread’ (breaking open the mystery of God in Word and Sacrament).
3. Fellowship (the moral life and how we relate to God and our fellow human beings).
4. Prayer (communion with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in their life and mission). These are, of course, the Four Pillars spoken about in ‘Fit for Mission: Schools’. I want to end my talk by looking at the challenges ahead:
Ø We love our parish churches, and we will grieve – together – as some will take on a new shape. Fit for Mission has made it clear that many of our parishes will be linked, and some will be merged. I know many of you are having difficulty seeing where the Review is going to take us.
Ø When the Revised Draft Proposals are issued next week you and your parishioners will have another opportunity to shape Fit for Mission? I urge you, if you have not yet fully engaged in the consultation, now is the time to make practical suggestions and recommendations.
Ø As we gather today and then return to our parishes and deaneries I ask all to participate in the process with a spirit of openness to the opportunities and a determination to co-operate in solving the problems ahead of us.
Ø Looking at parish/deanery responses my guess is that two thirds of our parishes have not really engaged with Mission. I think I should repeat this:Looking at parish/deanery responses my guess is that two thirds of our parishes have not really engaged with Mission.
Ø So please, as you meet as Deanery Conferences, Parish and Deanery Pastoral Councils and General meetings over the next month or so, take a minute beforehand to picture a parish that reaches out to the community with the love and support that only a strong parish community can offer. Think about how you can lead your parish to become a stronger community. Now, I beg you to take this ‘Fit for Mission: Review’ by the scruff of the neck and turn it into a real work of evangelisation. You and I cannot do this alone but united together and with our parishioners we can do great things under the power of the Spirit: we can accomplish miracles. In a few moments you will go into small groups to share your reactions and thoughts about my address.
All that I ask of you as my brother priests is that all of us work and pray together, be creative together, and speak out of our love for our faith and our Church.
May I conclude with stirring and inspirational words from St Edmund Campion’s Brag: “The expense is reckoned, the enterprise is begun; it is of God, it cannot be withstood.”
+Patrick O’Donoghue, Bishop of Lancaster
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