ARTICLES

Another Name for "Pastor"

The Direction of Lay Ministry in the San Jose Diocese

By Ingrid Hofer

The August 2003 issue of the San Jose diocese's Valley Catholic newspaper ran an article titled, "Harvard Business School graduate class reviews diocesan Pastoral Plan." The article referred to Renewing The Church: A Pastoral Plan for the Diocese of San Jose, a process of reflection the diocese has undertaken with a view to renewing its institutions and mission.

The article quoted Harvard Business School professor, Dr. Allen Grossman, as being "impressed with the openness of Bishop [Patrick] McGrath and the diocesan plan process" because Bishop McGrath asked the people of Santa Clara county what they thought was important. Grossman praised Bishop McGrath highly, mainly because the bishop doesn't match the professor's graduate school class's preconceptions. "The Catholic Church is interesting because it is 2000 years old and is perceived as being very hierarchical and rigid," said Grossman. "When we heard Bishop McGrath, however, we were impressed with him as a leader, one who listens and consults."

In June of this year, Sister Pat Mitchell, who directs the San Jose diocese' s office for parish and planning and oversees the implementation of the dioesan plan, told the San Francisco Faith (see "We Don't Want to be Silly, July/August issue) that the critical issues addressed by the plan were identified after Bishop McGrath put into motion "a broad consultative process over the course of more than one year." Lay people in parishes were invited to large meetings at which they gave input that, it was said, was going to shape the diocese's future.

The final pastoral plan listed three critical issues that came out of the input to the bishop, the first being lay leadership. Other concerns were youth and young adults and the Church's teaching on social justice. A fourth category was also mentioned: "Organizational and Structural Concerns."

Was the issue of lay leadership truly raised by the laity at their meetings, or was it part of an already existing diocesan plan? Articles from the Valley Catholic articles, going back to 1999, give a glimpse of what the San Jose diocese is planning and doing in the area of lay leadership, showing that lay participation in the running of parishes has been an oft-stated goal of both Bishop McGrath and his predecessor, Pierre DuMaine, and the diocesan staff since at least the mid-1990s.

Now in the diocese of San Jose sweeping changes are being made as to how parishes are led and how parish leaders are trained, purportedly based on the people's priorities. A diocesan position, called director of parish life, has been created that will have far reaching implications for how the Church of San Jose will be run in the future. The director of parish life position, as one Valley Catholic article states, is another title for "pastor." The director of parish life, it seems, will be the spiritual leader of the parish, not an administrator. A director can be a lay person, deacon, religious brother or sister.

The diocese's Institute for Leadership in Ministry, like the idea for the director of parish life position, existed before the planning process started; and the Institute is taking on more and more control of the training given to both unordained and ordained leaders in the diocese. The Institute is currently training all future deacons and potential directors of parish life, lay or ordained, and seven undergraduate seminarians.

What follows is a chronology, with quotations taken from the Valley Catholic, of the progress of lay ministry in the diocese of San Jose.

1995: The San Jose diocese's priests' council recommended that the position of director of parish life be created to allow lay people, permanent deacons, or religious to run parishes. (Go to February 2003 below for an article on the history of the emergence of the director of parish life position, which assigns this early date.)

In an October 1995 letter to priests, quoted in the February 2003 Valley Catholic, Pierre DuMaine, then bishop of San Jose, said, "my aim in encouraging the Council to pursue this matter [lay ministry] does not rest on any impending crisis or clergy shortage. It is instead an effort to delineate more closely the optimum use of priests in parochial ministry and to establish a doctrinally and pastorally sound basis for lay leadership that has continued to mature and evolve since the Second Vatican Council and which has developed constructively in the brief history of our own diocese."

Fall 1997: The Institute for Leadership in Ministry began holding classes under an interim director. The following year, Anne Grycz became the Institute's full-time director.

April 1999: In a Valley Catholic article about the start of the third year of classes at the Institute for Leadership in Ministry, Grycz, in answer to the reporter's question about what Institute students would do after graduation, said, "we will give pastors educated lay leaders and, hopefully, these lay ministers will be able to relieve the priests of many of the responsibilities they have now."

November 1999: Patrick McGrath became bishop of San Jose. A year later, in December, Bishop McGrath wrote in the Valley Catholic that he will start "a journey of discovery" with local Catholics "to discern the directions and steps" the diocese must take "to meet the challeges and needs of the new millennium."

January 2000: The Valley Catholic announced that Bishop McGrath was beginning a projected five-year planning process, which "will consider demographic information, needs of parishes, goals of the diocese." The article said that a planning committee of about six people would "implement basic research strategies" using "information to be gleaned from a broad-based questionnaire," and an advisory council of 15 to 20 people would serve as consultants. The article quoted the bishop as saying that he will have the final word: "I am prepared to make final decisions." "The question we need to answer," he said, "is who are we in this valley as church."

April 2000: The Valley Catholic reported on a March 17 letter sent by Bishop McGrath to the pastors of the diocese. "My concern for vocations is not restricted to the call to the priesthood and religious life." said the bishop's letter. "We must foster and encourage the call of the laity to holiness, to community, and to ministry."

November 2000: The Valley Catholic announced that local Catholics who are "interested in the role of the Catholic Church in the local community" were invited to a meeting at Our Lady of Peace Family Life Center, November 19. "The event will unveil some initial elements of the diocesan planning process." The following month, the Valley Catholic reported that at that meeting, called "Hopes, Dreams, Visions: Building on a Foundation of Faith," Bishop McGrath introduced the diocesan planning process. San Francisco priest, the Rev. David Pettingill, founding director of the San Francisco archdiocese's Institute for Pastoral Ministry and a current instructor at the San Jose Instuitute, gave a "rousing and sometimes amusing address in which he noted that it is the ongoing work of the Catholic Church to be open to change and to read the signs of the times." In speaking about the new role of the laity, Pettingill compared the old model of the hierarchical top-down Church with what he said is the post-Vatican II model of a circle. In the words of the Valley Catholic, Pettingill said that Vatican II's Lumen Gentium declared that "the church is described no longer as a hierarchical pyramid, but in terms of a circle, inclusive of all members of the people of God."

At the meeting, ideas for the future of the diocese were collected from participants. Lay leadership was just one of many concerns collected that night. (Please see sidebar accompanying this story.)

June 2001: The Valley Catholic reported that "over 15,000 people" registered their preferences among the 10 possible priorities for the Catholic Church in Santa Clara County." The article suggested that the ten issues were developed by diocesan offiicals, not gleaned from consultation with the people of the parishes. The "Pastoral Planning Team," said the article, "which oversees the planning process, developed the original list of 10 issues based on demographic information about the diocese in the present and projected into the future, and SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis meetings which included 800 participants."

September 2001: According to the April 2002 Valley Catholic (see below), The diocese initiated the Institute for Leadership in Ministry programs for training and formation of permanent deacons and advanced lay leaders (directors of parish life).

November 2001: According to articles by the Rev. Jack Bonsor and Institute director, Anne Gryzc (see January 2003, below), the priests' council recommended to the bishop in November 2001 that he create a new position of director of parish life. A lay person or a man or woman religious will be assigned "to be the central leader in some parishes in the future," noted the Valley Catholic. At the date this request was made to the bishop, the pastoral plan was being created, but the later public statements on the plan do not attribute any input from the priests. Religious brothers and sisters in service to the diocese are not mentioned as having had any input during the consultative process.

April 2002: A Valley Catholic article reported on the promulgation of the diocese of San Jose's pastoral plan. During a Mass on March 19, the feast of St. Joseph, the patron of the diocese, Bishop McGrath's noted that during the Loma Prieta earthquake, "that which survived was either built on rock, or it was designed to be flexible designed to move. There is a lesson here for us," he continued. "If we stand rigid and unable to move in the forces of change, we run the risk of destruction and disintegration." The bishop praised St. Joseph: "we look at his wholehearted embrace of God's plan and God's will even when it called him to leave everything and go into the unknown."

Also in the April Valley Catholic, Anne Grycz wrote that the diocese had begun programs for training and formation of permanent deacons and advanced lay leaders as far back as September 2001. Anyone who wanted to be a deacon or an advanced lay leader (director of parish life) now had to take the first two years at the Institute for Leadership in Ministry and then take three more years of advanced courses under the Institute's Advanced Lay Leadership umbrella. Anyone who wanted to be a master catechist, to train other catechists, had to take three years at the Institute also, followed by further training.

January 2003: The Valley Catholic announced the position of director of parish life in an article by Father Jack Bonsor. Bonsor is a professor of theology at Santa Clara University, serves at St. Martin of Tours parish, and "has been instructor, director and staff to the Diocese of San Jose's permanent diaconate program and the Institute for Leadership in Ministry." Father Bonsor is also a member of the Ongoing Formation Committee of Clergy. In the article, Father Bonsor wrote, "the DPL is a lay person appointed by the bishop to lead a parish. The DPL has the same responsibilities as a priest-pastor with the exception, of course, of those requiring ordination."

Anne Gryzc, in another article in the same issue, wrote: "In 1995 Father McCrillis presented the committee's [the Standing Committee on Ministries] report to the [priests] Council. Basically, the recommendation was that the bishop adopt the strategy of assigning a lay person or a woman or man Religious to be the central leader in some parishes in the future. This position would be called the Director of Parish Life; the person in that position would be responsible for the pastoral care of a parish. Bishop McGrath accepted the recommendation of the Priest's Council and has charged the Institute for Leadership in Ministry with the training and formation of those who meet the requirements for becoming the central leader of a parish."

These articles show that the topic of using directors of parish life to run parishes on the bishop's agenda before the consultative process began.

February 2003: "Directors of Parish Life to become reality in Diocese of San Jose," announced the Valley Catholic. Quoting an article from one of its 1996 issues, the paper said, "Director of Parish Life." new phrase, new idea, new job description? Yes, and no. Priests have been doing it for years, so, it's not a new concept. We call them 'pastors'.

"At their May 1995 meeting, the Council of Priests endorsed a proposal from its ministries comittee urging the bishop to adopt a strategy of assigning a lay person, religious, or permanent deacon to be the central leader in some parishes in the future.

"This person would be responsible for the pastoral care of the parish. Assisting priests would be made available for the sacramental needs of the parish."

April 2003: A Valley Catholic article announced that "pre-pastor workshops and workshops for potential Directors of Parish Life (DPL) will be held. for those who might eventually assume the role of parish leader (ordained or unordained)."

Anne Grycz and Father Jack Bonsor, said the Valley Catholic, developed a two-year program required for anyone who wants to lead a parish in the San Jose diocese. A new policy means that no priest who is an assistant in a parish (parochial vicar) will be able to become a pastor in the diocese without going through the Institute for Leadership in Ministry. "Participation in these workshops does not guarantee that a priest will become a pastor or that a lay leader will become a DPL, but participation is a prerequisite for anyone who aspires to these positions," said the Valley Catholic.

May 2003: According to one who witnessed the event (and who asked not to be identified), Father David Pettingill said goodbye to the current first year class at the Institute for Leadership in Ministry by joking, "see you at your ordination."

June 2003: In a Valley Catholic article, Anne Grycz said, speaking of Institute students, "not everyone needs a degree. A third grade graduate can succeed in the ILM program, graduate and be a natural born leader in his community." In contrast to lay ministers, priests are required to obtain college degrees plus seminary training on the graduate level.

September 2003: The diocese moves seven undergraduate seminarians from San Diego to live in parishes in the San Jose diocese. They will attend Santa Clara University, or another local college, receive some formation as a group, and take the Institute training. As a result, these seminarians will get much of their theological and pastoral training through the Institute.

SIDEBAR

DATA RAW OR COOKED?

What methodology did Bishop McGrath and his staff follow to get input from the diocese of San Jose's laity for the diocesan plan? Were their concerns truly the stated ones outlined in the dioesan renewal plan? How was the input sifted and prioritized for the final plan?

On November 19, 2000, this reporter participated at a large gathering at Our Lady of Peace Family Learning Hall in Santa Clara, called "Hopes, Dreams, and Visions." Diocesan staff directed people at 75 tables to talk with each other and to report concerns to diocesan staff for them to record. Not all concerns were recorded, however. The staff who collected the parishioners' responses ignored at least some of the concerns about the orthodoxy of the teaching in the diocese. For example, people wanted their fallen-away children to return to Mass, but they didn't state a need for the Mass to be more relevant or for young people to be consulted about how the diocese should be run.

Following is the list of topics developed at the November meeting as reported in the December 2000 Valley Catholic. Only nine out of thirty-five that were written down were related to the "three critical issues" -- lay leadership, youth and young adults, and the Church's teaching on social justice. The seven that seem to be related to the top three topics appear in italics.

The topics were as follows: "We are building a 'family,' not an institution" ; "We need people with a willingness to participate"; "Speak out without fear"; "We are energized and excited"; "Have to read the signs of the times and respond to change"; "Most important are Eucharist, prayer, love of neighbor"; "We have to attract and retain young people"; "We need inclusiveness in the church"; "Encourage lay leadership"; "Contrast of hope on the part of many lay people with statements from Rome that are not progressive"; "Lack of vocations must be addressed"; "Surprise at bishop's openness"; "Renewal and reform lead to chaos"; "The analogy of the 'circle' [in Father Pettingill's address] does not square with the Roman Catholic hierarchical church!" "Every parish should have a parish council; the diocese should have a diocesan pastoral council"; "We Hispanics are grateful we were invited"; "The number of immigrants is a challenge"; "Is this for real? Lay people have a role?"; "We need a change in our religion, a change in education and thank God Vatican II has arrived in San Jose!" "We have to value and utilize youth"; "Drop all division and put Christ in the center"; "Focus on multiculturalism and evangelization"; "We need more priests, not priestesses"; "We should be more in concert with Pope John Paul II and his decrees"; "We must be clear about ordained and non-ordained ministries"; "We have to reach out to youth with the World Youth Day model of the pope"; "Children are our future -- they are the missing link in our mosaic"; "Strive for inclusion"; "Don't seek reform just for the sake of change"; "Priests need to change"; "Address struggles of faith in families"; "Strive for more participation and celebration in worship"; "We need more communication between the parishes and the people"; "The diocese is a very big bureaucracy and it needs to change"; "The Spirit will guide us."

The February 2001 Valley Catholic, in an article titled, "Bishop McGrath seeks wide consultation during diocesan planning process," reported the following list of concerns: "ecumenism, vocations, social justice, nonpracticing and/or alienated Catholics, interparochial cooperation and communication, evangelization and catechesis, more focus on catechetical schools and adult education, and how Catholic presence might influence and even transform the materialism of Silicon Valley." Out of the above list, only one (social justice) made it into the top three.

In March 2001, the Valley Catholic reported on the methodology of the planning team for the diocesan Pastoral Planning Process. "Meeting with more than 800 people to hear their opinions and evaluations of the current state of the Diocese of San Jose, the Planning Team heard a wide spectrum of concerns and affirmations," said the article. In this article, the key themes are provided in great detail, and in the Planning council's roll up, the issues more closely map to the final list of critical issues. The entire article may be read at http://dsj.org/vc/mar01/swot.htm.

June 2001 In June 2001, the diocesan paper reported that "over 15,000 people throughout the Diocese of San José, with 100 percent parish participation, took '15 Minutes for the Future' to register their preferences among the 10 possible priorities for the Catholic Church in Santa Clara County." The article reported only the following issues: "improving access to Catholic schools and engaging youth and young adults significantly in the life of the church." Only one reported concern, "engaging youth and young adults significantly in the life of the church," matched the critical three issues that were included in the diocesan plan.

The article never stated what the remaining eight "potential priorities" were.

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