July 17, 2009
Strategic planning underway to ‘Re-energize our Parishes’
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
This past winter I hosted “Town Hall Style” sessions throughout our diocese in Vincennes, Jasper, Evansville East and West. Within the context of those meetings, I announced that I had appointed a task force to assist me in developing a strategic plan for our diocese to “Re-energize our Parishes.” (En Español)
Happily, the task force and I are meeting the challenge. In June, with the unanimous recommendation of the Strategic Planning Task Force, I have engaged a consulting firm to guide us in the planning process. By this time next summer, all of us will have some clear direction in meeting that challenge.
Who are the “us” in the above sentences?
Brothers and Sisters, the “us” includes all of us! You and me! We form the Body of Christ by our profession of faith!
The planning process will provide each of us the opportunity to participate. As I engage in it in a very intense way as the bishop, I invite all of you to share your time and your insights on ways we can re-energize our parishes and welcome back so many who have left us. I am excited about the possibilities it affords us to face some very troubling issues including declining parish attendance, school enrollment and the shortage of priests. It is encouraging that the Holy Father established this year as the Year of the Priest which began on the Feast of the Sacred Heart on June 19, 2009.
Following is a sketch of the time-line facing us in the planning process. Its fulfillment depends upon us.
Calendar Year 2009
August
- Develop Project Plan
September
- Develop Data Collection Techniques
October and November
- Gather Data via Input from Diocesan and Parish Groups
December
- Analyze Data
Calendar Year 2010
January and February
- Identify Key Issues and Draft Strategic Plan
March
- Develop Processes to Implement Strategic Plan
April
- Finalize, Communicate, and Begin Implementation of Strategic Plan
This year marks the 175th anniversary of the founding of the Diocese of Vincennes by the Decree of Pope Gregory XVI on May 6, 1834. Our first bishop, Simon Bruté, was one of only two priests for the entire area encompassing the state of Indiana and the eastern third of Illinois including Chicago. In a spiritual way, we are his sons and daughters. He died one year before Mother Theodore Guerin arrived.
St. Theodora Guerin and her Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods were missionary sisters who came at the request of Bishop Bruté. She founded many Catholic schools throughout the Diocese of Vincennes, most of which were located in what is now within the confines of the Catholic Diocese of Evansville. In all too many ways we have betrayed her legacy.
Bishop Bruté and Mother Theodore knew the value of Catholic schooling in the face of poverty and anti-Catholicism. Their common mission was to proclaim Jesus and the Gospel to all. It must be ours as we live in a culture of religious ignorance, religious indifferentism and moral relativism. We even face ridicule and even hatred for what we believe and teach as did they!
Brothers and Sisters, this is a time of renewal of our faith as we share it and practice it! How might we do it better in the spirit of the Scriptures: “See how they love one another!”
Join with me!
May St. Theodora Guerin, Foundress of the Sisters of Providence at St. Mary-of-the-Woods, and Bishop Simon Bruté, Servant of God intercede for us in all our efforts to proclaim Jesus to all!
Faithfully yours in Christ,