News

Diocese takes spotlight at ministry summit

By Sam Lucero
Compass Staff

GREEN BAY -- With a shortage of priests to minister in parishes, new models of pastoral leadership are emerging in the United States. At a ministry summit held April 20-23 in Orlando, more than 1,200 church leaders gathered to discuss these emerging models of ministry.

The National Ministry Summit was a culmination of five years of research and planning by six Catholic entities. Discussion and recommendations offered at the event may have implications on parish life for years to come, said Mark Mogilka, director of stewardship and pastoral services for the Green Bay Diocese.

Mogilka was one of the summit presenters. He and Kathleen Wiskus, associate dean of formation at Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, Ill., facilitated a presentation on Pastoring Multiple Parishes.

With 32 years of work in diocesan pastoral planning and stewardship, Mogilka is recognized nationally as a leader in the field of pastoral planning. The Green Bay Diocese, which has experienced numerous parish closings and consolidations in recent years, is seen as a model for dioceses around the country that are responding to the priest shortage.

The number of parishes without a resident pastor has increased from 1,051 (5 percent) in 1985 to 3,238 (17 percent) in 2007, said Mogilka in an interview with The Compass. "That is a steady graph upward. So at a bare minimum, one-third of our parishes share a pastor with at least one other parish," he said. "In some dioceses, including our own, we've had upwards of four or five parishes under a single pastor."

These statistics provided a lot of discussion for summit participants, said Mogilka.

"I think everybody is very aware that (priests serving multiple parishes) is growing and happening more," he said. "I don't think they realized how much more. In our own diocese, we have 12 parishes that among them have 31 worship sites. So it's not uncommon for us to consolidate several parishes to create a new canonical parish, or for that new parish to have more than one worship site."

The summit was funded by Lilly Endowment, Inc., which provided a $2 million grant to six Catholic groups in 2002 to study emerging ministries. Those six groups include:

• Conference for Pastoral Planning and Council Development (CPPCD),
  
  
• National Association of Church Personnel Administrators (NACPA),
  
  
• National Association of Diaconate Directors (NADD),
  
  
• National Association for Lay Ministry (NALM),
  
  
• National Catholic Young Adult Ministry Association (NCYAM), and
  
  
• National Federation of Priests' Councils (NFPC).

Mogilka, who oversaw the CPPCD's part of the research, gave a brief history of the summit.

"The Lilly foundation announced that it wanted to study emerging models of church ministry in the United States and invited people from throughout the U.S. to apply for grants," said Mogilka. "The six national groups agreed to work together.

"Each of the six national groups took different parts in the various research projects with an understanding of doing three years of research ... then coming together in what is the first ministry summit," he continued. "Not just to review the research, but also to look at what are the implications of that research for further development of pastoral ministry in the Catholic Church."

Mogilka spent more than two years conducting research, organizing a national symposium and creating a pilot training program for pastors and parish directors serving multiple parishes.

He and Wiskus presented findings of their research at the summit. "As a result of this project, we are writing a book on this topic," he said. "If we get all the editing and rewrites done, it will be published at end of year through Loyola Press."

In addition to pastoring multiple parishes, other areas of research presented at the summit were:

• Parish life coordinators and sacramental ministers;
  
  
• Young adults: The next generation of parish leadership;
  
  
• Implications of the emerging models studies for human resources;
  
  
• Implications of the emerging multicultural diversity for pastoral leadership;
  
  
• Best practices of parish leadership.

Summit attendees broke into action groups representing the six research areas. Each group came up with a list of tasks for further study. From those lists, 10 overall recommendations were reached, said Mogilka.

Lilly has proposed another grant for continuing research, said Mogilka. "I've already been asked to continue and chair the task force that will do further research and development of training materials for parish leaders."

Mogilka said he came away from the experience impressed with the "incredible array of talented and caring people that want to help this church move into the future, utilizing the best resources and tools that are available."

Deacon Paul Grimm, director of the diocese's diaconate program, also attended the summit. He said the summit's collaborative approach to exploring ministry was noteworthy.

"We were better able to understand the giftedness of each ministry and to vision together what might be called for in the future as the various ministries work together," he said. "The summit findings will encourage people throughout the country to closely collaborate with others in reaching creative solutions to the emerging needs in the church and to consider the emerging models of ministry necessary to address those needs."

In the future, Mogilka said he would like to see social justice, liturgical and education ministers involved in the discussion.

"I heard many people say, 'My hope and prayer is that we could do another ministry summit and only this time make sure all the voices are present,'" he said. "I know some of the national organizations that were not a part of this summit have already contacted leadership and indicated their interest."