I live in a somewhat older part of Johnson County--my house is in its 6th decade. My work often takes me out to the fringes of the county where large tracts of soybean fields are being turned under to put brown houses on Cul de Sac lots. At one of the Southerly parts of my work territory, there's a large green sign on the edge of a subdivision that reads "Proposed Catholic Church & School" that interests me. It sets my mind to wander as to what it portends for the future of Catholic life in Johnson County.

There are other parts of town that are not building big new facilities, there are some Catholic churches struggling to retain parishioners, struggling to attract new parishioners, facing the changing realities of keeping the Faith in the 21st Century... these are hard days to be Catholic. They are hard days for the Church.

The Archdiocese evaluates each parish on a fixed rubric called the "Signs of Parish Vitality". (Please turn to page 2 in your Pastoral Plan for the Johnson County Region.) These "Signs of Life" are seven items to point to a healthy parish: Mission, Community, Liturgy and Prayer, Evangelization & Catechesis, Service, Finances and Facilities, and Collaboration. That's a pretty comprehensive lens!

1. Mission It has always seemed strange to me that individual Catholic parishes have their own mission statement. It seems like they should all be on the same page: to offer the Mass and to make more & better Catholics. Am I being too simple here? At least the Archdiocese asks that the parish mission statement is "Christ-centered and in solidarity with the mission of the Church". While Johnson County doesn't have any blatantly renegade parishes like so many other Dioceses in the United States (Google "Most Holy Redeemer" "San Francisco" to see what I mean by "blatantly renegade"), there is a notable difference in character between parishes, maybe some are tempted to stray from the party line.

2. Community There's two parts here: butts in the seats and names on the sign-up list. The former is a measure of support: are there enough people to justify having all the expense of a full-service parish? It is a harsh reality that sometimes the answer is no. Sadly, as some parts of town are atrophying, they're taking their community services with them. The latter part of "Community" is making sure that while there's enough Catholics in the area to justify a church, they're actually building a community in that parish. This is hard. The church in which my lovely wife and I were married is (in my humble opinion) one of the neatest churches in Kansas City; it was remodeled in 2000 and the diocese spared no expense to make it spectacular. I'm also confident in say that this church also has one of the best Novus Ordo liturgies in Kansas City. Really. It's great worship. But I'll be danged if I could find any shred of "community" there at all. I signed up for some adult education and even attended a social event or two, but nothing stuck on me. Being a parishioner there often felt pretty darned lonely. Maybe it was just me. In any event, it was a strong lesson to me that community matters and is really hard to foster for itself.

3. Liturgy and Prayer Aha. The Piece de Resistance. This is the thing that gets tradition-minded cranks like myself all aflutter. I am having a hard time thinking of intelligent yet charitable things to say about this point. The Archdiocese strives for parishes to have "high quality liturgies, especially homilies and music." Indeed. In fairness, I should say that aside from the hours of dull rambling from a few notable priests in my churchgoing history, I think that the Archdiocese does have high-quality sermons from its priests. At least they are recognizably Catholic. Other dioceses are not so lucky. Music? If only. These things are hard to explain in a few pithy sentences, but let it suffice to say that I'm not sure that too many Catholic hymnals could survive an inquisition. I will let J. A. Turner do the talking here, there's no reason to repeat what has been said better in other places. Finally, please let the record show that the measure of a good Mass is not summed up by a non-heretical homily with a rousing rendition of "Lord of the Dance" during Holy Communion.

4. Evangelization & Catechesis For many years, my parents helped with the classes for non-Catholics who might be interested in learning more about Catholicism. They also spent a lot of time in various scriptural studies and have put a lot of time into developing their Faith on spiritual, emotional and intellectual levels. They were good models for me in this regard and I am quite grateful for their example. Rarely but occasionally, I'd tag along with them in these classes. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I got to see the same two-to-three dozen people sitting in the same seats year after year--the crowd really never changed. And I was usually the youngest person in the room by three decades. Who's teaching people my age? It's hard to say. No one, I guess. (Aside: the neighboring diocese, the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, has a marvelous program called the Bishop Helmsing Institute to help in adult education. My schedule hasn't permitted me to sign up for any of their classes yet, but I will as soon as I can.) The school-age kids usually have it better, most parishes have a grade school and a program for young kids who don't go to Catholic school. I really can't talk enough about Catholic education, and I don't just mean a school system. For the future of Catholicism in America, all parishes have to focus on making more and better Catholics.

5. Service Can I tell you something? I am not very good at this part. Strange, I know--considering that I was an Eagle Scout and that my parents are volunteering-machines and that I went to Catholicy school more focused on teaching kids to be good people than on good Catholics. Maybe I'm rebelling? Maybe it's just neglect. But I digress. Parishes have to serve their world, not just themselves. Love thy neighbor is an action, not a state of being. I think most parishes are good at feeding lambs and tending sheep. Catholic schools, kitchens, clinics, shelters, counselors, ministers, hospitals--Catholics are good at service. There is obviously a lot of work left to do. (Have you seen Catholics Come Home yet? Click on the video "Epic" to see what I mean.) Parishes are the "local arm" of the entire Church, they need to be in the world.

6. Finances and Facilities This is the part that no one wants to talk about. Any priest can tell you about the outraged letters and emails he receives when "Stewardship Sunday" rolls around! But those big buildings don't pay for themselves. And what happens when the buildings start to fall apart? Eek. I had an old coworker of mine complaining one time about how much his parents' church was spending on building some fancy new church building, saying that they should be spending that money on the poor instead. On the face of the matter, he makes a compelling case. Catholics view their churches as temples to God, not buildings for Man; our church buildings need to be fitting areas to be called "God's House". Parishes need good staff, they need to make their budgets work and they need to be planning for the future. In Johnson County, there are some very strong parishes in this regard and some very weak ones--and it's in all the predictable places.

7. Collaboration Parishes should work together in the Archdiocese and get along with their neighbors. How nice! My only point here is anecdotal: I am a parishioner at St. Joseph in Shawnee--I grew up there and still just live up the road. I love the parish and the parish drives me crazy; our relationship is complicated. There are two other Catholic parishes in Shawnee: Sacred Heart, which is pretty far West for me, and Good Shepherd, which is practically in walking distance from my front door. A couple years ago, I was talking to a friend of mine about different Catholic parishes around town. He said that he went to Mass at Good Shepherd, but that he wasn't going to ever go there again. I asked why. His response: Because I'm not Methodist. I snickered. Maybe I'm not good at this part either.

The report continues to give a stronger overview of the Church in Johnson County and to get specific about some parishes and some schools. All material for future posts, probably sometime next week. I've learned to not make too many specific predictions about when I'm going to do some future posts. But in my opinion, this document is so important to Catholics in the county that it merits discussion.