‘The parish is where it’s at’

Some 300 parishioners, representing 50 parishes from throughout the Diocese of Corpus Christi, gathered at the Omni Hotel in Corpus Christi on March 19 to seek ways to become an “amazing” parish. Bishop Michael Mulvey said to them, “I want to assure you that I support this effort.”

The bishop said that ever since he became bishop five years ago, he has been looking for ways to serve parishes. “To bring the beauty of parishes to life,” has been a goal of his ever since he heard St. John Paul II say in his 2001 Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte that the Church must be made “the home and the school of communion.”

“What is unique about Catholics is that we are a community, we do not operate as individuals,” Bishop Mulvey said. It is in the home and in the schools that young people are nurtured and so the Church, in the form of the parish, should exhibit the qualities of the home, the family and the schools in educating and nurturing the faithful.

“We’re not where we should be and can be,” the bishop said, noting that he did not mean that in a critical way.

Building communion was one of his goals in inviting the Amazing Parish movement—a group of committed Catholics from around the United States who help parishes by connecting them to resources—to come to the diocese and help build up its parishes.
“The parishes is where it’s at,” Dominic Perri, with Amazing Parish, said.

The second goal for the gathering was “mission,” the bishop said. Pope Francis, Bishop Mulvey said, often pronounces two words, “the poor and periphery.” The mission of the Church is to identify and serve the marginalized in society.

“Communion and mission is what we are aiming for,” Bishop Mulvey said. “The two go together. The more we are on mission, the more we become community. The more we are community, the more we are compelled to go reach out to others.”

He urged parish leaders to “discern” their mission as a community. It can be a challenge since “we often hear it’s the same people.” But, the bishop said, the Amazing Parish movement offered parishes an “opportunity to come together, to assist one another, to discover the beauty of parish life.”

Perri reminded participants that what they do in their parishes “matters deeply.” The parish is the place where most Catholics encounter their faith.

The model the Amazing Parish promotes, Perri said, is “very simple” and is not meant as one that fits all parishes.

The model is based on seven traits, three that are considered the foundation of the movement and four that are considered the building blocks. The foundational pillars include relying on prayer, developing a leadership team and a adopting a clear vision.
Prayer must be central to running a parish, Perri said. In the course of the details and procedures involved in running a parish day in and day out, prayer is often forgotten or ignored. A parish should organize regular and intentional prayer efforts.

“Prayer is number one. You can say that but not mean it,” Father Tony Blount, SOLT, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in Robstown said. As a result of the conference, Father Blount said his team made the commitment to hold Holy Hour once a week. He would announce to the parish to enter names of people that need prayer in a book held at the parish office and the staff would pray for them once a week.

“We don’t pray enough,” Father Blount said.

The second foundational pillar is for the pastor to identify a leadership team he can rely on. It is essential to surround the pastor—who is very often overwhelmed with the demands on his time—with support.

Msgr. Lawrence White said that even after being a pastor for 36 years there was a lot he could learn about how to bring a parish staff together, to form more of a family, community atmosphere.

“We really need to start having staff meetings…branching out to organizations and get the parish more united than what it already is,” Msgr. White, pastor at Ss. Cyril & Methodius, said.

Given all the demands a parish faces daily, most parishes are operating in a “maintenance” mode, Perri said. They are just trying to keep their heads above water. As the third pillar, the leadership team must develop a clear vision of where they want to take their parish.

Father Richard Gonzales, pastor of St. Joseph in Beeville, said his team was already having a lot of open discussions at the conference about ideas to take back to the parish. “We need to set goals, not just for projects, but spiritually and as a community,” Father Gonzales said.

The four building blocks are forming a good Sunday experience, providing opportunities for compelling formation, building small groups for discipleship and adopting a missionary zeal.

The Sunday experience is where most Catholics encounter their faith. The elements that surround the Mass—the music, message (homily) and ministers—must inspire.

God calls Catholics to be formed like Jesus. The parish must offer opportunities for formation.

The idea of small groups is as old as the Church. From its earliest times, the Church formed around small groups. These groups are important to help the pastor who is often overwhelmed and cannot take on all the demands made on him.

Finally, the parish must perform its work of evangelization with missionary zeal. It must joyfully go about “changing the world.”

“We need to have a new zeal,” the bishop said. “We want people to love the Eucharist and the Word of God. All this is in the spirit of the New Evangelization.

“Although we have a very vibrant parish, there is always room for improvement, there are areas that could use revitalization” Father Paul Hesse, pastor at St. Pius X in Corpus Christi said. He said the conference afforded him and his team an opportunity to learn and implement some new ideas.

“I really believe in parishes and its structure for evangelization,” Bishop Mulvey said.