Unique and changing

Many parishes have remained the same size for a number of years, while some of the parishes are either growing or slowly diminishing in size. We know that the population of the counties of the diocese covering some 23,000 square miles continues to shift. Much of the growth in the area is due to our immigrant Hispanic/Latino people who have come to the area, attracted by the opportunities that our agriculturally-based economy offers. Some parishes, while constant over all these years in the number of families, are now experiencing an aging parish, or a much younger group.

These dynamics necessitate changes in the way we go about doing practically everything, including parish ministry. Community leaders have also been affected by these realities and have been forced to deal with these changes. As leaders and involved community members, each of us has dealt with the realities of the pain of having to consolidate the school district, while down the road others are struggling with how to pay for a new school desperately needed due to an increased population.

I have also concluded that the diocese itself is very unique after speaking to other fiscal officers throughout the country. My friends will ask questions about the size of the cities in the diocese, corporations with headquarters in the area, colleges and universities, and military bases. Even in many of the other rural and vast dioceses throughout the country with comparable Catholic populations, they boast of military bases, cities over 50,000 population and colleges and universities. Our strengths, I boast, are not in these various statistics, but rather are in the people themselves. Our diverse characteristics allow us opportunities to capitalize on our uniqueness, yet minister to all of the richly diverse people in our dioceses.

It is the same way at the parish level. For all that is unique, all 50 of our parishes are still very much alike, too. As parish leaders, we are called to continue to minister to each of our parishioners, and to expand our thought processes to make ministry possible for everyone. We are also very much alike in that parish leadership is always attempting to prioritize those ministries that will have the most impact on the parishioners with the limited funding and personnel resources available.

This stewardship journey that each of us is now on is about uniqueness, about change, and about being similar. Stewardship is about each of us growing in our relationship with Jesus and in being open to how God is calling each of us to minister to our brothers and sisters. This process will be unique, it will be constantly changing, but it will also be about the same message that each of us is called through our Baptism to hear and to respond to.

Change is all around us. I invite each of you to embrace this changing world and to reflect back on how you’ve done things in the past. Take time to thank God for His many blessings during this Thanksgiving time of year, and finally, ask God to help you change to be more like Jesus, to be his messengers here on Earth.