Journey of Faith

**NEW***Template for Family Pastoral Planning Proposal

Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Pastoral Planning 

Family Pastoral Planning Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, November 2 at 6:30 pm at the St. Francis Church Basement 

In attendance were Fr. Olsen, Deacon Dennis Anderson, Rita Reichmuth, Ann Prokopec, Paul Schemek, Aaron Fehringer, Kristi Vering, Jennifer Dunn, Andy Bishop, Brandon Morfeld, Marcus Urban , Gary Wieseler, and Rose Wiese. Absent were Fr. Matthew Gutowski, Mike Podany, Jeremy Stoklasa, Ray Sueper, and Shelley Reichmuth.

The meeting began with prayer.

The Family Pastoral Planning Questions from the Archdiocese Template were reviewed and discussed. This is a plan to help guide the transition of combining our parishes of St. Francis Humphrey, Holy Family Lindsay, St. Mary’s Leigh, St. Michaels’s Tarnov, and Ss. Cyril and Methodius Clarkson. 

Discussions on Section 5

• What has already changed in your Family in terms of collaboration between the involved parishes, missions, and schools? A Family Pastoral Planning Team has been formed between parishes. Collaboration between schools: shared teachers, cooping One Act and Speech, shared retreats, and student led Youth Group.

• Broad Family Movement towards Missional Communities - Fr. Olsen discussed how we, as a parish family, can become signs of contradiction in the world in which people notice differences and ask themselves, “Why are they doing that?”. This opens the door for relationships and conversation in areas which can move them closer to God. By inviting our parish family to a “shared sacrifice” such as abstaining from meat on all Fridays throughout the year instead of just during lent, we are being a sign of contradiction and allowing the Holy Spirit to move lives through our sacrificial love and open hearts.

• Staff Changes (Simply thoughts and ideas at this point)

• PRE-Coordinator - Possibly would be one of the Deacons. They would oversee PRE classes from each parish so everyone would be on the same page.  Organize events between each parish such as Lent and Advent programs.

• Possible Sacramental-Coordinator - They would answer questions, set up dates for sacraments/preparation…possibly a deacon

• Family Maintenance Coordination – Coordinate bulk purchases for family.  Act as go between for parish finance councils and the pastor. 

• Web-site Coordinator/Volunteer

• Council Changes 

• St. Francis and Clarkson both have a separate Parish and Financial council. They will each merge their two councils into one finance council.

• “Family Pastoral Council” - the representative would be the President from each of the Parish Finance Council. 

• Clergy Residence Changes - The goal of the Archbishop is that all priests in the family live in one location in the hub of the family. The house across the street from the Church in Humphrey would be called the “Rectory” and the current rectory would be the “Offices”.

• Family Communications - Parishes each have their own unique and special events. These events can get missed in the bulletin and/or on the websites. Discussion was held on how best to improve the “Parish Family” communications. Looking into a “Parish Family” website so all events are in one centralized location. Discussion was held on reorganizing the bulletins with a page/two-week calendar that is strictly for “Parish Family Events” open to all. 

• Father asked for continued prayers for our schools and parish families.

The meeting closed at 7:50 pm and ended with prayer.

Next meeting is undecided.

Respectfully submitted,

Rose Wiese

Family Pastoral Planning Meeting Minutes

Monday, October 10th at 7pm at the St. Francis School Library

In attendance were Fr. Olsen, Fr. Matthew Gutowski, Deacon Dennis Anderson, Rita Reichmuth, Mike Podany, Ann Prokopec, Paul Schemek, Aaron Fehringer, Kristi Vering, Jennifer Dunn, Brandon Morfeld, Gary Wieseler, and Rose Wiese. Absent were Ray Sueper, and Shelley Reichmuth.

The meeting began with prayer.

The Archdiocese has reviewed comments from the two listening session which were held at Holy Family and St. Francis and the information has been placed in a report.  This report will be published soon. 

The Family Pastoral Planning Template Guidelines and Questions from the Archdiocese were reviewed and discussed. This is a plan to help guide the transition of combining our parishes of St. Francis, Humphrey; Holy Family, Lindsay; St. Mary’s, Leigh; St. Michaels’s, Tarnov; and Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Clarkson.

• Family of Parishes: Where will each priest and deacon serve and what ministries will they emphasize? Each priest and deacon have special gifts and are placed accordingly. Ex: Fr. Steve is a full-time teacher and there are not many priests who fit that role.  Deacons will assist with baptisms and other needs.

• Leadership Team: Who are the people who are currently serving in our Pastoral Family of Parishes? Each parish will have a representative chosen by the pastor.

• Centralized Parish Staff: Currently working on a flow chart and current staff of each parish. We will combine where we can and when there is a need and adjust

• PRE will take place in three pods: Humphrey/Tarnov, Leigh/Clarkson, and Lindsay.

• Sacraments: Humphrey is the centralized area and will be the hub. The Sacramental Coordinator would be called to line up the date, time, and place of the sacrament such as a baptism or wedding. The necessary forms, certificates and/or any other information needed would be gathered and the sacrament would take place at the parish in which the family is registered. Leigh currently has Baptisms during the Mass which works well for them. We will re-evaluate when needed.

• 1st Holy Communion /Reconciliation: Preparation will be in PRE and school. There will be 2 parent meetings in Humphrey for all parishes. Reconciliation will take place two times in two locations for all parishes. 1st Communion will be at scheduled Sunday Mass in each parish.

• Confirmation: Preparation will be in PRE and school and will be held every year in Humphrey beginning in 2023. There will be two parent meetings.

• Centralizing Financial Management: There will be one business manager responsible for overseeing all finances.  This person will be located in Humphrey and also be responsible for the parishes and schools in Humphrey.  Each parish with a school will have their own, local bookkeeper that will be responsible for the finances of the parish, but report to the family business manager with issues/questions.  Each parish without a school will transition to having their bookkeeper be one of the three bookkeepers in the family.  The hope is to consolidate as much as possible through natural transition and actual workload.

•  Facilities Management: Hope is to have a deacon coordinate facility upkeep for all facilities in the family.

• Councils: Merge finance and parish councils for each parish.  School Boards.  May need a maintenance council meeting with facility manager.  The president from each council would be on the Family Pastoral Council and would report to pastor.  The Pastor would attend 1 meeting instead of multiple.

• Mass times: The schedule allows time for confession before Mass and meets the requirements. People from each parish have expressed concerns and there is no perfect answer. It is important that we rotate our lives around God instead of working God into our lives. There are many parishes who have had Masses taken away. We will try the new schedule and can re-evaluate it after a year. New Schedule:

Saturday                                                       Sunday

                     5pm – St. Francis, Humphrey                         8am – Holy Family, Lindsay

                     6pm – St. Michael, Tarnov                             8:30am – St. Mary’s, Leigh

                     7pm – Holy Family, Lindsay                            10am – St. Francis, Humphrey

                                                                                             10:30am – Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Clarkson

·       Daily Masses: Clarkson daily Mass schedule changes with the school year and they have a nursing home. New Schedule for Daily Masses: - Additional daily masses possible on an add basis.

M-Th at 8am – St. Francis, Humphrey (school)

T- Fr at 8am – Holy Family, Lindsay (school)

T,W,Fr at 2:30 – Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Clarkson (school)

·       Holy Day Masses: New Schedule:

Vigil at 7pm – Holy Family, Lindsay, and St. Mary’s, Leigh

Day at 8am – Holy Family, Lindsay and St. Francis, Humphrey

Day at 7pm – St. Francis, Humphrey and Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Clarkson

                     If School Day – All schools together 11am at Humphrey with Lunch provided afterwards

• Confessions: PRE will have confessions within the program. It is important to get the kids in front of the Sacraments. New Schedule:

1 hour before each first weekend Mass

30 minutes before second Mass of the day on the weekend.

30 minutes before daily Mass

·       Looking into getting information out to parishioners about our Parish Families and the Pastoral Plan through parish websites. A text would be sent through the school’s information system and the parish prayer chains informing parishioners of new and important information on the parish websites.

·       Father asked for continued prayers for our schools and parish families.

The meeting closed at 8:15 pm and ended with prayer.

Respectfully submitted,

Rose Wiese

Family Pastoral Planning Meeting Minutes

Thursday, August 4th at 6pm at the St. Francis School Library

In attendance were Fr. Matthew Gutowski, Fr. Steve Emanuel, Deacon Dennis Anderson, Ann Prokopec, Marcus Urban, Paul Schemek, Aaron Fehringer, Jeremy Stoklasa, Kristi Vering, Jennifer Dunn, Brandon

Morfeld, Gary Wieseler, and Rose Wiese. Excused were Fr. Olsen, Rita Reichmuth, Mike Podany, Ray Sueper, and Shelley Reichmuth.

Meeting began with a meditation and prayer.

Discussion Items:

• Continued discussion regarding Mass times and feedback received.  Reviewed governance models from the Archdiocese Family Pastoral Planning Template to see which best fit our needs.

• Determine common goals and working together to free up time for our priests. Continue to work towards centralizing youth ministry, sacramental prep, PRE and adult faith formation. The Parish Family would combine efforts in these areas when possible and have events/meetings/retreats at rotating parishes.

• With 5 parishes together, adult faith formation programs during Advent and Lent may overlap. Discussion was held on improved scheduling between the parishes so parishioners could attend programs at different times of the year at rotating or centralized locations. Discussed the possibility of a Pastoral Family App. for parishioners to receive text messages to better communicate where and when the programs would be held. Also talked about a facilitator to coordinate scheduling and maintain the app.

Meeting was ended with prayer.

Next meeting is undecided.

Respectfully submitted,

Rose Wiese

Family Pastoral Planning Meeting Minutes

Thursday, July 22 at 6pm at the St. Francis School Cafeteria

In attendance were Fr. Olsen, Fr. Matthew Gutowski, Deacon Dennis Anderson, Marcus Urban, Paul

Schemek, Aaron Fehringer, Mike Podany, Jeremy Stoklasa, Shelley Reichmuth, Gary Weisler, Ray Sueper,

and Jennifer Dunn. Excused were Fr. Steve, Ann Pokopec, Rita Reichmuth, Rose Wiese, Kristi Vering, and

Brandon Morfeld.

Meeting began with a meditation and prayer.

Reviewed subcommittee members. The school subcommittee will consist of Family Pastoral Planning

Team members from St. John Neumann, Holy Family, and St. Francis. A subcommittee for

evangelization is being formed.

A lengthy discussion was held regarding Mass times. All parish representatives shared strengths and

concerns with current and proposed mass times. Keeping in mind the shear fact this discussion is a first-

world discussion, all understood some changes will have to be made. Mass times agreed upon were:

Saturday Location Sunday Location

5 pm Humphrey 8 am Lindsay

6 pm Tarnov 8:30 am Leigh

7 pm Lindsay 10 am Humphrey

10:30 am Clarkson

Discussion was held regarding special mass schedules that would be used for holy days/Ash

Wednesday/Christmas/Easter. It was determined that not all locations will have mass on these special

occasions. A special mass schedule has not been developed yet.

It was decided to move toward centralizing youth ministry and adult faith formation. The Parish Family

would combine efforts in these areas and have events/meetings/etc. rotate parishes.

In an effort to centralize councils, it was decided to move to a one-council model for each parish. The

one council for each parish will encompass both duties of the Finance Board and Parish Council and will

be referred to as the Finance Board. A new Family Parish Council will be created to address Family

concerns and representatives from parish Finance Boards will make up the Family Parish Council.

Meeting was ended with prayer.

Next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, August 4th at 6pm in the St. Francis School Cafeteria.

To all parishioners:

As many of you are aware, the Archdiocese of Omaha is in the midst of a pastoral planning process that will affect every parish and school in the archdiocese. This is necessary, not simply because of the shortage of priests, but also the changing demographics of the archdiocese.

Populations of Catholics continue to increase in certain, urban areas of the archdiocese while simultaneously decreasing in rural, non-Hispanic areas. This is a long-term trend that shows very little hope of reversing.

Most importantly of all, however, change is necessary because our parishes and schools, whether urban or rural, large or small, are dying. Fewer and fewer Catholics are attending mass or Catholic schools. It’s harder and harder to get volunteers for anything from teaching PRE, to helping at bazaars/fundraisers, to serving on councils, to ministering at mass. Those that do get burned out because they never get replaced, which makes people even more hesitant to volunteer. It is a vicious cycle that must be broken, which is why the archdiocese is looking at different models.

As has already been announced, our own parish cluster is expanding to a family that will also include Ss. Cyril & Methodius in Clarkson as well as the Catholic grade school it supports.

There is a committee that has been formed to work on finding efficiencies in the way we do things. Everything from mass times to PRE to councils to finances is being reviewed to find efficiencies. Things will change, and, like all change, it will be challenging.

For our family, the most difficult of these challenges will be our Catholic schools. The rchdiocese will be spearheading an evaluation of the Catholic Schools in our family to give some direction about how to proceed. They will be trying to discern what is necessary for us in our family to move from Catholic schools that are merely trying to survive to Catholic schools that are flourishing by bringing others to Jesus Christ, most especially, the students under their

roofs.

To this end, a series of opportunities for us to hear from them and for them to hear from us have been scheduled during August.

The first two of these opportunities will be held on August 10. One will be at the Holy Family gym in Lindsay at 5:30pm. The other will be in the parish hall in Humphrey at 7:30pm. At these meetings, the archdiocese will give a report on the present reality in our archdiocese and why this pastoral planning is necessary, especially for our schools.

The next opportunities will be listening sessions for the archdiocese to hear what Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Holy Family and St. Francis schools think would be the best path forward. The first

of these listening sessions will be on August 17 at the Holy Family gym in Lindsay at 7:00pm.

The second will at 7pm on August 24 at the parish hall in Humphrey. More specific details about the format of these meetings will be provided. Once the archdiocese has heard from our family, they will provide direction on what the path forward looks like for the schools in our family.

Anyone from any of the five parishes in our new family is welcome to attend these opportunities. However, since the meetings on August 10 are the same, there is no benefit to attending both.

Additionally, please only attend one listening session. Finally, since space could be an issue, those with a demonstrated commitment to our Catholic schools will have priority in seating.

Convener,

Fr. Eric Olsen

Family Pastoral Planning Meeting

July 7nd 2022 at 6:00 pm at St. Francis School Cafeteria.

Fr. Eric Olsen opened the meeting with prayer and a meditation from Luke 10: 1-12, 17-20. Members present were: Ann Prokopec, Aaron Fehringer, Rita Reichmuth, Gary Wieseler, Marcus Urban, Brandon Morfeld, Jennifer Dunn, Deacon Dennis Anderson, Paul Schemek, Kristi Jarecki-Vering, Rose Wiese, Fr. Matthew Gutowski, Fr. Steve Emanuel, Fr. Eric Olsen. Not present: Shelley Reichmuth, Ray Sueper.

Discussion Items:

• The Archdiocese has prepared governance models and a template to aid us in setting up an acceptable plan for our future Parish Family. Plans will be submitted to Archbishop Lucas in November of 2022 for approval.

• Regarding Catholic Schools… The Archdiocese recognizes the unique situation of our family with three grade schools and two high schools. Members of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Planning office as well as the Superintendent of Catholic Schools will be setting up meetings in August to help us move forward with the Archdiocesan vision.

·       Formation of subcommittees to deal with challenges.

Ø  School Committee

Ø  Financial and Facilities Management Committee

Ø  Evangelization Committee

·       Ideas for Centralizing Parish Staff: It is important to recognize a foundational problem in today’s society. We would like Masses, Sacrament Prep, etc. to work around our lives, but we need to work our lives around Jesus Christ. Ongoing Adult Faith Formation is an important priority. 

Ø  PRE/CCD: Possibly forming 3 groups or locations with each group reporting to an overseer: Lindsay/Newman Grove, Humphrey/Tarnov, and Leigh/Clarkson. It is helpful to agree on the structure and the centralize locations now as much as possible. We can work out the details later. Discussion was held on the possibility of having a Family PRE-Coordinator.

Ø  Baptisms: The Parish Deacons will handle Baptisms and Parent Classes with set times and set locations.

Ø  Sacramental Prep: 1st Holy Communion and Reconciliation will also have centralized Parent Meetings with times and locations set in advance.

Ø  Confirmation: Possibly Confirm once a year with 8th graders from all 5 parishes together. Classes could be separate in the three groupings with some meeting/retreat held together.

• Weekend Masses: Discussion on whether to move a Mass to Saturday evening on the east side of our Parish Family. We need to take in to consideration, weddings, funerals, confession times and distance traveling. Two hours are needed in-between Masses in order to offer confession prior. It is important to note that Mass times may change with 5 parishes soon to be in our family and everyone will need to make an effort to adjust.

• Daily Masses: It is vital that Catholic school children attend Mass as much as possible. The hope is they will continue to attend 4 times a week. Discussion was held on the possibility of some afternoon Masses.

Meeting was adjourned around 7:40 pm and closed with prayer. Next meeting will be July 21, 2022 at        6 pm in the St. Francis Cafeteria.

Respectively Submitted by Rose Wiese

Family Pastoral Planning Meeting

June 2nd 2022 at 6:00 pm St. Francis School cafeteria.

Fr. Eric Olsen opened the meeting with prayer and a meditation from John 17:20-26. Members present were: Ann Prokopec, Aaron Fehringer, Rita Reichmuth, Myles Kabes, Gary Wieseler, Marcus Urban, Brandon Morfeld, Jennifer Dunn, Deacon Dennis Anderson, Paul Schemek, Kristi Jarecki, Deacon Louis Dohmen, Shelley Reichmuth, Rose Wiese, Fr. Matthew Gutowski, Fr. Steve Emmanuel, Fr. Eric Olsen. Not present: Ray Sueper.

Introductions

Discussion Items:

• Each parish will be taking counts of parishioners to find an average number for weekend Mass attendances at their parishes.

• Discussed strengths, challenges, vision, and fears of each parish.

Ø  Masses / weekend and weekdays / schedules and times

Ø  Priest shortage / health of priests

Ø  Catholic schools / numbers

Ø  Teacher shortage / housing

• Members will study the Governance Models which have been given by the Archdiocese to aid us in setting up an acceptable plan for our future Parish Family. Upcoming template may also be helpful.

• Some Parish Families have 10 to 12 parishes with 2 priests. The Parish Family of Clarkson, Leigh, Humphrey, Tarnov, and Lindsay will be fortunate to have Masses on the weekends with just 5 parishes combining.

Meeting was adjourned around 7:20 pm and closed with prayer.

Next meeting will be in late June.