NOVEMBER 2010 MEETING MINUTES

Genesis Vicariate Pastoral Council Combined Meeting

7 p.m. ~ November 28, 2010

Blessed Sacrament Cathedral Offices

AGENDA:

1. OPENING PRAYER/AGENDA REVIEW

2. 2.   PAT CHASE, AOD REPRESENTATIVE

3. ·      ENDOW CAMPAIGN

4. REPORT by MSGR. HANCHON

5. CHANGING LIVES TOGETHER

6. PASTORAL CARE OF THE SICK COMMITTEE

7. 6.   NEW BUSINESS

8. 7.   APC REPORT

9. 8.   ALTON JAMES, AOD REPRESENTATIVE REPORT

10. 9.   YOUTH MINISTRY

11. VICAR’S REPORTOPEN DISCUSSION

OPENING PRAYER/AGENDA REVIEW

The meeting started at 7:04 p.m. and after the opening prayer, Pat Chase, the Archdiocese Regional Coordinator - Sacramental Preparations of the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis gave the first report

PAT CHASE – AOD REPRESENTATIVE’S REPORT

They have been meeting and trying to coordinate everyone’s schedule. They sent out the Religious Formation Survey. It asks what’s going on with Faith Formation within the parishes (adults, teens, all) to work together.

Last month they met and the 5 parishes present discussed confirmation preparation. They’re going to do their catechesis at Madonna and celebration at Trinity. They’ll need representative from each parish at those meetings. The next one will be Thursday, January 20^that Blessed Sacrament from 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. (they’re trying to make it so it’s after work for everyone).  Please let Patty know who’s going to attend.

Patty invited all women to an Endowment Study educating women on the nature and dignity of women in the church. It is an 8-week study on St. John’s letter to women. It will be on Fridays beginning the 14th at the Blessed Sacrament. It’s for women of all ages – moms, grandmas, college students, working women, single or married, who want to grow in their understanding of their dignity as women loved by God, and yearning for the truth and a clearer understanding of what it means to be a woman in the world today.

It will be facilitated by Patty and the cost is $60 for the 8 weeks younger women (college age and younger - $30) and scholarships are awarded on an individual basis. You can register at https://www.endowonline.com/ecart/shopinventory_view.php?editid1=LTW0551. All registrations are handled directly through ENDOW. Scholarships are awarded on an individual basis. Go to: https://www.endowonline.com/resources/front-page/scholarship-policy for more information.

She said they’ll be discussing what the church teaches us about our dignity and what we are as women in the church & parishioners in the city of Detroit. It’s for women wondering what they’re supposed to be doing in their life. There will be no “homework”. There will be no teaching by the facilitator (Patty); it will be led by the group. It can help you put your life in order by using your special talents as a woman. For more information, you can email Patty chase.patricia@aod.org or call her at (313) 237-5758.

They’ll be having Facilitator Training at Sacred Heart Seminary on Saturday, January8^th 9:30 -12:30 p.m. For more information, please go to www.aodwomensministry.org.

Unfortunately there are no classes for teens yet. If they can get a group of teens together, it would be great but they will need a facilitator.

REPORT BY MSGR. HANCHON

Request for additional money for $159.65 to support young adult ministry (from each parish) annualized budget, is not for salary, but for office expenses. This is over and above the VPC Subsidy/Assessment.

There is a 15% tax on charter school income. Priests had large meeting to discuss with new Director of Education, the tax and aired out many complaints, ideas how to handle this tax ($1.50/family).  Right now no one is excused from the policy, but it is under advisement. The priests will gather again to fully discuss proposals for the Archbishop.  Any suggestions are welcome! They ant 15% from all parishes with lease income from building rentals that are supposed to be paying this assessment.

If your parish has no charter school they do not have to pay the assessment.

CHANGING LIVES TOGETHER

They have renamed the “Changing Lives Together” Campaign and 21 parishes participated in Wave 1. The pastors would have received information from the CLT Initiative. January 11^th is deadline to determine what wave your parish will be in.

We have done good things with our leadership team, looking at about 15 people. They would like to meet at night, Saturday during the day or on weekends after Mass.  It would serve the Central region better with meetings during the day. Our parish committee would prefer to meet on Saturdays or Sundays.

As Msgr. learns more, he’ll share the information at future meetings. We’re in the process of Wave 1. They are doing organizational things right now and no financial gifts have been requested until March. They will assign you a wave if you don’t choose one.

There’s only 21 in group 1 and the remaining 241 must be broken up somewhere. This is to take place over the next 5 years.

Definition of a wave is a Group – the Archbishop gathered all 21 leadership teams and answered questions going from table to table.  He was very patient and continued the meeting. Many asked “why now?”

$135 Million is the largest initiative yet. Stewards of tomorrow, 35% percentage was sent back to the parishes. This time the 70% will go back to the parish. Those with outstanding debts to the Archdiocese and Michigan Catholic Conference will lose 75% of their return to their debt. Without the Capital Campaign, we’d have to hire a company to do the front end for you.

They have suggested putting together a leadership team to determine what they want to use the money for. Depending on where you are in your community is will determine  how the money will be spent.

They have designed the “waves” around the CSA Campaign. You will not be penalized if you don’t make your goal – but please try.  You can write a check for 30%, but please try to do as requested. There are no geographical boundaries – Monroe to St. Clair counties and all that are in-between. Some parishes are poor, some are large suburban and some inner city; a good testing sample will come from the 1^st wave.  The target is 1 year’s annual collection including the Christmas collection. Charter income is not a part of that. The City and suburbs are mixed and are included in the 1^st wave.

This is this folded into the 10 year master strategy plan.  With that 70% (30% to the Archbishop) is what you should be funding with. You can build a school, etc.  It will help you to achieve your 10 year plan. Six parishes from our vicariate have turned in their 10 year plan.  All information will then be sent to you electronically.

Fr. Andy inquired if an urban parish could be debt free.  With the difficulty of the City Planning Committee discussing restructuring the City, it would be hard to come up with a one-year plan yet alone a 10-year plan when more parishes keep getting added to your cluster. It can’t be avoided; the human factor will always be there. They’ll tell you at the Changing Life initiative whether yours is done or not.  There may be possible clustering out of necessity.

PASTORAL CARE OF THE SICK

They have suggested a first meeting on December 9^th at 2:00 p.m. The group will look at how we’ve been working with hospitals.  There’s more that do home visitations, nursing homes and hospitals.  Pastors have been contacted by hospitals to be on call.  Also the pastors and lay-workers from within our parishes have volunteered for the task. They will then report back to the group next month. Some pressure has been taken off of the hospital ministers. If you think someone will be interested, please let them know about the meeting which will be very detailed. They will also send you the Anointing of the Sick information.

They will be publicizing the “World Day of the Sick” (as close as possible to Our Lady of Lourdes day).  The Archbishop has designated it to be on February 20^th at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral at the 11:00 a.m.  Mass.  The Archbishop and many other priests will help. They have a number of organizations also helping, (K of C) etc.  They will need to publish on a regular basis which parishes have the communal anointing. If your community has one, they’ll try to put it in different areas of our Vicariate and on the website.  Please let Monsignor know so we can spread this information around the Vicariate.  The Capuchins also have a wonderful program and Blessing of the Relic.

NEW BUSINESS

There’s a long report on the charter school issue and Fr. Bob drew up a draft (it’s under the budget section). The Presbyteral council is keeping it on the agenda. Speaking on the school information, it was a productive meeting.  Still considering it’s not a fair approach to keeping Catholic Schools, but should be supported by ALL of the Vicariate parishes and the implications can be major.

Fr. Kotlarz requested we go on record to say ALL parishes should pay for these schools, even those with no charter schools. It would be considered another assessment, but the terminology has the same meaning. (Formula to address this – Catholic schools sharing with a freewill donation). There was no response to this suggestion.

Fr. Andy stated that the Archbishop is not satisfied with the answer from the 1^st meeting. At the 2^nd one, the Archbishop had the discussion still ongoing. The standard answer was “Is it fair to assess the parishes without schools to benefit the Catholic schools?”  The 15% of assessments are still not all being paid. The question is, “Is this a fair tax?”

They’re referring to the Archbishop Dolan in New York’s view of regional support as a frame of reference. The Presbyteral council is supposed to be coming up with a formula using New York as a model (their feeling is that all Catholic schools are important).

Msgr. LeFevre noted that it’s very ad-hoc. St. Blasé in Sterling Heights supported Catholic school for years when he was there by tithing; and St. Gerard helped with a Catholic school library.  There is a danger of doing something structural that could hurt schools until you find out what’s going on internally. They could get taxed and hurt the schools too.  We must be careful with that. They did a campaign for Catholic schools in Macomb County when there was none It is very ad-hoc.

It was brought to the table that this is not addressing the real question; what are we really doing for the Catholic schools?  How do we support Catholic schools already in existence? This could possibly hurt parishes already doing things. Merging parish schools might help.

Fr. Bob worried that it’s not fair across the board and that the Trinity Vicariate has same structure – you can designate 5% of the money. St. Hugo’s tithes 10% for their school. It is not allowed by Diocesan policy to rely on charter income. The Presbyteral council is to advise the Archbishop.

Fr. Wesley stated that it is not going far enough into school questions:  Catholic schools should give Catholics a discount to attend Catholic schools. This needs to be evaluated and put into discussion.

There was a LONG discussion on Charter schools; all was discussed with the Archbishop. The Presbyteral council versus the Vicariate needs to tell us what the REAL question is!  A policy in place is a policy. How do we approach this in a strategic way down the road?. They just keep closing schools. They also questioned what is the mindset when it comes to City schools? 100% is needed in meeting charter schools – how can they be helped too?

Msgr. LeFevre will revisit this at the next meeting.  Horace stated that St. Bart is the only parish with a Catholic school and not many Catholic children want to go to a Catholic school. Also, not a lot of Catholics coming from other areas go to St. Bart.  They feel that tuition should be cut in half for Catholic schools.  Students were bussed back and forth. There’s  a lot of parents that want their children to go to Catholic schools, but can’t afford them. We need to make sure Catholics that want this should come to St. Bart’s.  It was stated that we’re all Catholic and all should go to St Bart’s because it’s the ONLY one in the area.  We need to bring more Catholics into our schools – a more strategic approach should be used.  The mindset is that keeping Catholic schools open might hinder churches closing.

Msgr. stated that these have been done before and explained fears that families have. Further discussion is underway and an Advisory board has been mandated to come up with a plan by May 2011.

A representative stated that all of these things (regional solution, Catholic education for all children that want it, etc) are all out there. The Archbishop mandated that there be a plan developed. By St. Bart being the only Catholic school on the Eastside, you think it would be full.  

Some people feel the charter schools give a better education then public schools and they’re free of charge. We need to change this way of thinking - if you are Catholic, you should be going to a Catholic school. It was brought up that in Hamtramck the Muslims feel their people are being picked on and the St. Ladislaus school not being rented anymore because of this issue.

APC REPORT

Our APC representative was not at the meeting, but gave his report via phone.

The work of the APC is still a work in process. Initial reports submitted to the Archbishop and studied with advisors have been returned to the parishes.

All reports had flaws for which he had comments and were sent back for further comments. In the future they can be sent with communications so that laity and clergy has input into the process. 

They would also like to change Catholic TV to another carrier to ensure the EWTN programming will not bump our programming on TV.

The council is currently not formally meeting; they are meeting via phone and email. When they feel they have the report fixed, they will resubmit it and the progress is taking longer than anticipated.

ALTON JAMES – AOD REPRESENTATIVE

Alton had no report to submit, but was taking questions. He asked how many grants given for students to go to Catholic Schools?

There used to be TONS of people given scholarships to Catholic schools.  The Archbishop doesn’t want to lose the students and needs the number of parishioners that give so the children can go to a Catholic school.   It seems that when you start them; then they don’t finish. The school group needs to meet; not just Catholic Central’s and De LaSalle’s, but in reach of everyone.

YOUTH MINISTRY

They are in the process of forming a leadership board, like a sounding board for issues young adults are facing.  They met at the Seminary 2 weeks ago and they’re in the stage where they want to gather information and talk to young adults as to where they are in life.  They would like to work on a toolkit for parishes so when young adults come into parishes, there’s information they can distribute to get them involved.

Alton asked that since this is a 18-35 year old group looking at service opportunities, what can we  provide for them?  Also, they are looking at the job situation in the City and how they’re going to go forth from here.

An AOD rep inquired whether they identified our vicariate has young adults participation. Corpus Christi, St. Elizabeth, St. Cecilia, St. Aloysius and St. Mary’s of Redford; everyone but the Southwest are involved. They are reaching out to more young adults to get them to the table.  Ideally we will have some in each vicariate.  Joi offered to go to the parishes to talk to the young adults if we’re interested. They have only have met twice and are feeling out if they want to be a part: 4 participants from each vicariate is the goal.

Msgr. LeFevre suggested that we should create a mailing list of young adults from our vicariate. We’re all using the new software program (ParishSoft), and we can use it to do demographics of young adults and~~ do a targeted mailing. No matter how many they have, it would be great to get them together from all of the parishes.

VICAR’S REPORT

The Archbishop asked the Regional Moderators to try to meet at least once a year with the priests and asked “what
they think are reasonable expectations?  The document was reviewed by Msgr. LeFevre and contained strong questions for our area considering the language barriers.  They need to forget that there are 800 priests and they don’t all know each other by name.  They don’t want to lose anyone because of neglect.  

 The question was raised “What can we do to help our priests?”.  Some will meet on an evening and have supper together to converse & break bread. Like a “meet & greet”, it will help the priests.  Questions raised were; “Who can they turn to?”; “Is this reasonable for me to ask my priests to do this?”. This could entail Vicariate and Diocesan activities.

Some pastors don’t come to the VPC meetings because Mondays are their nights off. Msgr. LeFevre asked the priests & deacons to meet here alone mid-month. There is a new calendar adjustment and a schedule has been set for the rest of the year. Every other month will alternate between Priest & Deacons and VPC Representatives: 

Msgr. LeFevre has set the following dates for the 2011 VPC Meetings at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral:

Priests: 

January 11th

March 22nd

May 10th

Meetings begin at 12:00 Noon

Vicariate Council Reps:

February 28th

April 25th

June 27th

Meetings begin at 6:30 p.m.

We will still attempt to keep the agenda going forward, so please mark your calendars with the updated information.

They broke the working groups into “clusters” of parishes; the Hamtramck Group & Far East Side.  Msgr. LeFevre will provide a breakdown. 

The questions they are working on will help to flush out the data. When the Presbyteral council meets they will start the work due in April – it’s a short window with a lot of work to be done. They will try to determine what issues are unique to us, using the data and feeding it back to us. In that group it might end up with Fr. Kotlarz with St. Louis the King.  

The thought is that the smaller the groups, the tighter the discussion.

Respectfully Submitted,

Monica Archibald

Recording Secretary

NOVEMBER 2010 RECORDED MEETING
 

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