Note From The Pastor
 
 “A goal without a plan is just a wish” ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery
 
Last week, I briefly wrote about the background and vision of Uniting in Heart.  As a vision, it is intentionally general since it is for the entire diocese.  A vision points in a direction, a general direction set by the bishop.  The specifics of how to implement the vision, the direction, are left to each pastorate.  This week, I want to share a little about what that process will look like for the St. John Vianney and Holy Spirit Pastorate as we work to make the general vision more specific to our particular parishes.
 
The Uniting in Heart diocesan plan calls for each pastorate to create a local Pastorate Vision Plan.  This is a three-year evolving plan, that identifies local goals and plans for achieving those goals.  This involves gathering data, seeking input, reflecting, and prayerfully discerning how God is calling us to respond.  It seeks to respond to the specific needs and what will help move each parish and the pastorate in the general direction.  The result is a Pastorate Vision Plan with goals and objectives.  The plan presumes goals and plans for the pastorate overall and each parish in particular. Like any plan, it will be evaluated each year and adapted as needed.  A Pastorate Vision Plan is the local plan to implement the Uniting in Heart vision.
 
Typically in the Church, the task of pastoral planning falls to a parish pastoral council.  This group advises the pastor on pastoral issues and helps plan to meet those needs (Canon law #536).  In the Holy Spirit and St. John Vianney Pastorate, the existing parish pastoral councils function differently with plenty on their plates.  So for the purposes of pastoral planning, I will appoint parishioners and staff from each parish to serve on a Pastoral Planning Committee.  Their task will be to advise and assist with the development a Pastorate Vision Plan.  There will also be outside assistance provided by our diocesan pastoral consultant, Missy Krockover, and a consultant from Our Sunday Visitor.  The Pastoral Planning Committee will be led through a process that has been used in other dioceses in the United States is being used with all pastorates in the Diocese of Lafayette.  Just to be clear, both St. John Vianney and Holy Spirit parishes will retain their existing parish pastoral councils (as well as separate finance councils).  
 
Pastorates are beginning this process at different times across the diocese.  For Holy Spirit and St. John Vianney, the work of developing a Pastorate Vision Plan will begin in late summer of this year.  One aspect of the data gathering is a survey of parishioners.  The survey will be administered by Our Sunday Visitor and is tentatively scheduled for September.  My understanding is that it may be completed online.  It is my hope that by September we will be able to have a greater number of parishioners back at Mass, and be better engaged with the parish.  Measuring engagement will be helpful in setting goals and establishing a plan.  We will also begin to assess how the pandemic has impacted the parishes in other ways. 
 
Of course our plan needs to reflect God’s plan.  Critical to any effective Pastoral Vision Plan is hearing the voice of God and discerning His will.  If we are in line with how Christ is calling us to follow Him, then we need not worry about our plan’s effectiveness.  The first step of discernment is prayer, prayerfully asking the Holy Spirit to guide the entire process.  Those most directly involved in creating the Pastoral Vision Plan will be spending significant time in prayer – especially me!
 
I will communicate to both parishes each step of the way.  While a Pastorate Vision Plan will not be completed until late 2021, I want all of you to know what it is and that it is on the horizon.  In the meantime, I ask us all to pray so we can all appreciate and embrace what God is doing among us. 
 
Things were in God’s plan which I had not planned at all. I am coming to the living faith and conviction that – from God’s point of view – there is no chance and that the whole of my life, down to every detail, has been mapped out in God’s divine providence and makes complete and perfect sense in God’s all-seeing eyes.   
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Dale