Thursday, January 17, 2008

Vision: 21st Century Planning

Get out your reorg boots. Our Archdiocese of Milwaukee's latest round of downsizing is called "Vision: 21st Century Planning". The Archdiocese of Milwaukee Planning page explains,
After more than 15 years and three cycles of archdiocesan planning initiatives, we find ourselves at the dawn of a new millennium in need of a comprehensive plan for Mission and Ministry.

That is, it's time for the next turn in the widening gyre.

The project has Principles and Guidelines to Organize People and Activities in Service to the Mission of the Church. These pack a lot of newchurchspeak into one page. For example,
1. Living our faith, serving the mission of the Church, is integral to our baptism promises. ...

4. A visible and vibrant Eucharistic-based, Catholic presence that communicates the love of Jesus Christ for all people provides an identity to the community at large about who we Catholics are and what we are about. ...

5. ... Thus, our pastoral planning should utilize territorial considerations insofar as they further a certain aspect of the mission, while also allowing other aspects of the mission to flourish throughout the archdiocese without territorial considerations. ...

6. ... Thus, our pastoral planning should identify position specifications and qualifications for these leaders (at least the major ones), as well as policies for their formation, assignment, employment, or empowerment.

The Vicar for Planning elaborates in a four-part series called "Thoughts and Ponderings". Time permitting, I'll take a look at these in some later posts.

4 comments:

  1. All of this is nothing a good mission statement can't solve.

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  2. I'd suggest that you reserve that reading for insomniac periods...

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  3. Anonymous3:57 PM

    Looks like the VICAR loves his title, doesn't it ? Perhaps a bit of humility would work well in the planning "process"? How pompous---"Thought and Ponderings". And for this ,we're supposed to cough up more $, time and effort ? Pardon me while I vomit.

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  4. Anonymous, let's wait and see what the substance of T&P is.

    Now that you mention it, though, how can the Faith In Our Future fundraising effort promise that most of the money pledged will go to our parishes when Vision: 21st Century Planning might conclude our parishes should be closed?

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