The First Year

The First Year

We have now completed first year of diocesan reorganization under the Uniting in Heart Pastoral Plan.

We would like to get your thoughts on this first year, since surveys are apparently all the rage.

First, take our poll:

Which of these best expresses your experiences this last year?

View Results

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If you want to elaborate on your answer, drop us a comment that addresses one or more of these areas, based on your observations:

  • In your parish, has membership increased, declined, or remained steady? (Make some allowance for the impact of the Covid-19 shutdowns.)

  • Are parishioners more or less likely to become or remain involved in volunteering / ministries, or the same as previously?

  • Are parishioners contributing financially less, more, or the same?

  • Is communication with the priests or staff easier, more difficult, or the same as before?

  • Are educational, liturgical, or devotional opportunities better, worse, or the same as before?

  • Is your parish better equipped to evangelize?

  • What have been your main concerns, and do you believe you have a forum to address them?

  • Have you seen positive improvements?


14 Replies to “The First Year”

  1. This CM article should sound kind of familiar:

    https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/controlling-the-cash

    Replace “Families of Parishes” with “Pastorates” and this story could be written for our diocese.

    Perhaps we should do what the remnant faithful are doing in Detroit as the end of the article states:

    “To show just how much Detroit Catholics oppose the scheme, there are actually clergy and laypeople praying, fasting and even offering up Holy Communion for the intention that Families of Parishes fails.”

    Sounds like a good idea to me!

  2. I am a priest whose parish is going through the pastoral planning process as we speak. The process is supposedly meant to survey the parish to help write a vision plan. But the survey was poorly written and is rather long. We have also heard from other parishes (ones further along in the process) that their vision plans have been ripped to shreds by the Diocese. They say they want each parish to write a plan, but unless that plan looks exactly how padre Ted wants it (who knows what that is) then it gets kicked back. It is insulting.

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    1. God bless and protect all our priests. You are all on the front lines, and much of what has happened must be very painful for you. We love and pray for you every day. You are not alone.

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    2. If there was one word that I would use to describe the entire “Uniting In Heart” experiment it would be this: Contempt. It hangs like a poisonous smog over the entire diocese right now. Its stink reeks from virtually every single action and inaction taken by our diocesan leadership. These people really don’t like their fellow human beings. How else can you account for all the rotten fruit piling up around the diocesan tree since this disaster was implemented? And we’re only just starting “Year Two”!?!?!

      That our Blessed Lord will continue to save souls at the hands of our willing and faithful priests in spite of our inept and malicious leadership is simply proof of Who really runs the Church.

      Oh, but it didn’t have to be this way. It still doesn’t. I pray that our leadership realizes this before they eventually run out of chances.

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      1. The chancery needs new leadership … I’m praying that we do not have to wait for the bishop to reach retirement age before he and Ted leave. What a mess they gave wrought!

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  3. In your parish, has membership increased, declined, or remained steady? We are seeing the same less than 300 people at my mass ( one of 5 ) as during the height of the pandemic. Very few new/old faces weekly.

    Are parishioners more or less likely to become or remain involved in volunteering / ministries, or the same as previously? We are struggling with volunteers especially with EMHC. We had an edict from our pastor that everyone who served in this ministry had to attend a retraining in order to get certified. 4 sessions in a parish with 10,000+ people ???? Really. No certification, no serving. So we struggle.

    Are parishioners contributing financially less, more, or the same? Numbers are down mostly, occasionally up,, not often.

    Is communication with the priests or staff easier, more difficult, or the same as before? there can be no communication with a pastor who does not acknowledge you, even if he passes you 10 times before mass!!

    Are educational, liturgical, or devotional opportunities better, worse, or the same as before?
    Is your parish better equipped to evangelize? I think no in to both questions. Every learning opportunity was on line, so there was no opportunity to invite people to participate and to interact with them.

    What have been your main concerns, and do you believe you have a forum to address them? Pastor is very distant, there is little to no interaction. If he is the head of the parish, where else do you go to have your concerns addressed?? I believe the Bishop has instructed them to change the culture of our parish. That has left us like a ship without a rudder.

    Have you seen positive improvements?
    No I cannot say I have. We are so busy trying to co ordinate between parishes and get our servers and EMHC all on the same page, that is is not perceived as positive at all.

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  4. In your parish, has membership increased, declined, or remained steady? Membership who knows…participation down considerably!
    Are parishioners contributing financially less, more, or the same? Weekly need v contributions are published weekly in bulletin….more weeks we miss that goal by a considerable amount. the fact that our contribution to the Bishop’s appeal was less than 60% is also a telling tale. In the past we have always exceeded our goal. Of course, we also got a portion of that back for our outreach and that’s not happening since UIH.
    Are educational, liturgical, or devotional opportunities better, worse, or the same as before? Worse. In fairness, that may be affected by the pandemic that has people scared of their shadows. But there has been little to no parish-wide liturgical and devotional and educational opportunities. And as Jaded said, this means less opportunities to invite non parishioners and evangelize.
    What have been your main concerns, and do you believe you have a forum to address them? The corporatization of my parish. We are not a corporation and should not be run like one. And NO, noone is listening. Letters to the bishop have put me on the naughty list, so I did not get his survey! Nor did I get a response to my letters.
    Have you seen positive improvements? NO in fact, we have a pastor and a bishop who hides from his flock, but admonishes them in his letters to be kind and welcome one another! What a sham!!

    On a positive note; though I no longer want to be a part of this diocese, I have searched and found very worthwhile causes to send my money to!

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    1. I started to do the same with our tithe. It’s a sizable amount, so it’s been a bit of a chore to decide which worthy charities get it each month. However, it’s been fun spreading it around to organizations that are likely making much better use of it putting Jesus’ Word to action.

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  5. I was on the Parrish Council and all of the sudden there is a new pastoral council and I guess I’m not on it anymore. Where do I belong?

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    1. It appears you belong under the steamroller called “Uniting in Heart”. Don’t worry, you’re in good company. There’s lots of us discarded faithful down here that have been nearly flattened by this monster and there will be more to come before eventually the steamroller runs out of gas. And what a happy day that will be.

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  6. – In your parish, has membership increased, declined, or remained steady? (Make some allowance for the impact of the Covid-19 shutdowns.)
    I think it has grown slightly actually. It seems like we lost a lot of parishioners that I have not seen since COVID, but I have noticed an increase in a younger crowd that I do not recognize. They seem be college age, maybe students. Overall numbers I would guess are similar to what they were pre-UiH, but completely different demographic. Lots of souls I believe left the church and have either gone to another parish, or are not going to any parish anymore. Maybe they are still watching the high definition live stream and believing they are fulfilling their Sunday obligation that way.

    – Are parishioners more or less likely to become or remain involved in volunteering / ministries, or the same as previously?
    There are less events and ministries going on now. Our parish has cancelled many of our beloved traditions. Everything feels stagnant.

    – Are parishioners contributing financially less, more, or the same?
    I do not know for sure, but it seems like less based on the fact that we are only halfway to diocesan tax fund goal.

    – Is communication with the priests or staff easier, more difficult, or the same as before?
    Much more difficult. I don’t think the priests are ever at my parish except for Mass. They spend most of their time at the other parish as far as I can tell, but then it’s hard to know, our parish only has a few office hours a week now, so it’s difficult to get a hold of anyone.

    – Are educational, liturgical, or devotional opportunities better, worse, or the same as before?
    Less. We don’t have a choir anymore, we aren’t allowed to have procession or take part in traditions that we used to have.

    – Is your parish better equipped to evangelize?
    Less. Our church functions, such as processions and dances were always a wonderful time to invite friends from outside the faith. I know more than one conversion story because of events our parish used to hold.

    – What have been your main concerns, and do you believe you have a forum to address them?
    My main concerns is that UiH is just a bunch of buzzwords that don’t actually mean anything, and that UiH is actually just a corporate restructuring plan that has nothing to do with evangelization. My parish was thriving a couple years ago and people were giving money and we were meeting our goals, and now we are not, and our opportunities to evangelize have decreased, not increased. I do not have a forum to address this anywhere except here at The Red Wolf Report I’ve tried to emailing and writing to the bishop, leaving message by phone, and on the diocese FB page. I have haven’t had a single response. Oh, and just a few years ago, our seminarian poster was filled with lots of small pictures of seminarians to fit on the page. Now the page is small, and pictures are large to hide that fact that there are only a couple seminarians left in the diocese.

    – Have you seen positive improvements?
    No.

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    1. You are correct. The plan isn’t for evangelization. The church is working with the UN and it’s AGENDA 2030 plan which the pope signed on to. It enables the destruction of our country for a new world order. They have ‘buzzwords’ to control us. Control the language and you control the people. They control the narrative and ignore real issues plaguing their people. But don’t get angry or it is you with the problem. HA!

      We are at war with a Marxist cultural revolution within our schools, media, government and church and we the people are losing our freedoms. Gramsci’s Marxist plan for the long march through the institutions is complete. Our leaders control the messaging. We must all realize our freedoms are being taken away while our leaders allow it. Yes, pray but demand more out of those with a microphone. Demand they call out the evil instead of ignoring it. The fact our church leaders speak the same language as the left. Orwell’s quote, “In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” is true for our days. Our leaders are lying to us as they sing Kumbaya. We must pray and act to hold them accountable. Our bishops have the authority to speak out but refuse to use it unless it’s for their poverty industry or the NWO narrative of systemic racism, open borders, and the environment. That is their true evangelization.

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