Vision 2016 Update
Diocese Shares Draft Plan to Strengthen Sustain Catholic Ministry in Diocese
and
Draft Plan Includes Changes for About Half of Our Parishes This month, it is with both hope and sadness that the Diocese of Winona releases the DRAFT parish cluster structure details of Vision 2016, our plan to ensure a sustainable future for our parishes, parishioners and priests and success of our Catholic community within and across our 280–mile diocese. w Our sadness stems from the reality that in order to serve our parishioners well, we must take the difficult step of moving some of our parishes toward oratory status as they merge with larger communities. w Our hope rests in our faith in God. Our hope is bolstered by a thoughtful and inclusive process that will allow us to serve our communities well for the foreseeable future. And our hope is strengthened by the commitment, respect and love we have for each other -- within and across our parish communities and diocese. w We know that our diocesan leaders, our pastors and lay leaders will support each other through this process in order to ease the grief some in our communities will experience, as well as to welcome those who will join and re-shape our parish communities. The planning and changes are necessary in order to ensure that we are adapting to two critical and compounding factors: 1. We have fewer priests (current and projected for the future) in our diocese than in the past to serve our far-reaching 114 parishes and parishioners. 2. Demographic shifts of both growth and decline in areas of our diocese require us to re-examine and adapt how we serve specific communities and the diocese. w For example, the number of individual parishes in our diocese with fewer than 70 households or 70 people attending Mass has grown from 14 in the year 2000 to 21 today. All of these have very limited sacramental activity outside of Mass. w When we look at overall population, only 6 of our 20 counties will grow in the next 30 years and 14 will remain stable or decline. Stable Mass attendance depends upon a population growth of 30% over a 10-year period simply because our population is aging and our youth and young adult membership is in decline. w In the next decade we face a shortfall of about 10 pastors, as 20 priests retire and only 10 are anticipated to be ordained. As part of the Vision 2016 process for 2015-16, each parish in the Diocese will develop a two-year to three-year Parish Pastoral Plan "My greatest hope for this process is that we become a more vibrant, active Diocesan Church; more capable to build up the faith life of people and more effectively bring them into closer relationship with Christ." (Fr. Steffes: St. Augustine and St. Edward, Austin)
over the coming year to "Despite challenges, I do hope that we create a more sustainable can utilize resources and join efforts in path forward locally and order to have stronger parishes focused diocese-wide. In addition, on Jesus and not on community identity nearly half of our parishes alone. (Fr. Kern: Good Thunder, Mapleton, can expect organizationVernon Center) al change as a result of the draft plan. These may include variations in how parishes are clustered, the residence of a pastor, or the merging of parishes (including 21 to become oratories without a Sunday or Vigil Mass). While Vision 2016 focuses closely on the next 1 to 5 years, it also includes and encourages a longer-term view of trends, needs and possibilities, and an expectation that the plan will be reviewed and adapted in an ongoing fashion to ensure that all parishes, clusters and priests are positioned to thrive in their current community -- or in a new community should change become necessary. The overall goals of Vision 2016 are to strengthen our parish and diocesan life in Christ, to be proactive and wise in our stewardship and growth as a Catholic community, and to have the capacity to serve all of our faithful. Vision 2016 is a process of moving forward together toward greater and shared vitality, clearer expectations, and deeper hope and faith. “Together we will set goals towards Vision 2016 that will help us be the light of Christ in the world,” Bishop Quinn states in his introduction of Vision 2016. “We will together define the key actions we must take at the parish level to build the Catholic Church and to attend the pastoral and sacramental needs of the faithful … We will grow in our faith and be strengthened in our Catholic identity so we can enable our parishes and schools and thus the entire Diocese of Winona to indeed become a stronger, more visible presence of Christ in southern Minnesota.” As noted in updates about Vision 2016 in previous issues of The Courier, the draft Vision 2016 plan was developed with guidance and input from parish and deanery leaders over the previous two years. Over the coming weeks and months, all of our Catholic community members will have the opportunity to offer possible improvements to the proposed plan for their community. Ultimately, Bishop Quinn will be tasked with making the serious and necessary decisions regarding the future of our parishes, clusters and deaneries based on the capacity of our priests to serve them, and the capacity of our communities to sustain the wider mission of the church for the long term. This issue of The Courier provides a summary of what’s included in Vision 2016, the process for our community members to learn more about and provide input to the draft plan, and a timeline for the steps ahead. To read the public summary of the draft plan, as well as the Vision 2016 Parish Pastoral Plan Guidebook, visit the Diocese of Winona website at www.dow.org.
Prayer for Pastoral Planning in the Diocese of Winona
Almighty God, we the people of the Diocese of Winona prayerfully look to the future. During this time of pastoral planning, we implore the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us the gifts of wisdom, courage and hope. May we exercise the virtue of prudence by opening our hearts and minds to be good stewards of the legacy of faith inherited from those who built the Church on the prairie, the hills, and in the valleys. May we exercise the virtue of justice by opening our hearts and minds to assure that the voices of people from all generations, all vocations and all areas of the Diocese are welcomed and respected.
May we exercise the virtue of fortitude by opening our hearts and minds to understand and acknowledge the spiritual and practical realities of our day and prepare for the days to come; and May we exercise the virtue of temperance by opening our hearts and minds to accept the changes in diocesan, parish and personal life that the Holy Spirit, through this planning process, is guiding us to make. Under the protection of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, our Mother, may we discern and implement what is best for the diocesan Church and all the faithful of southern Minnesota. We pray this through Christ, our Lord.
February, 2015 w The Courier