Recently in Archdiocese KCK Category
I saw this car this morning in the parking lot of a parish in my neighborhood.
It's not fair to judge a parish by its parishoners, but I'd venture a guess that this person feels pretty comfortable here.
In the third part of this wandering series on the Archdiocese's Pastoral Plan for Johnson County, I'm going to focus on the "Key Findings" section. Please turn to page 6 of your packet.
It's no surprise to any Johnson Countian to learn that our county is growing on its Southern and Western boundaries while remaining fairly stable (or declining!) in its interior and Northern boundaries. The growth is uneven. Likewise, the infrastructure, neighborhoods and people of the county are aging unevenly. While I think I live in a nice and decent part of an older section of the county, you don't have to go very far from my house to find some really crummy apartments or a suffering neighborhood. But my job shows me the growth and decline in a fairly exaggerated way, so I have to be careful not to overstate the growth, stability decline or revitalization of neighborhoods--I may have too intense of focus on that topic.
Years ago, I remember hearing someone say that it is a hallmark of a healthy parish if they span a wide range of ages. A parish should have plenty of baby baptisms, kids in the schools, young adults getting married and parents acting as den mothers and troop masters, they should have professionals on the committees and retired folks in the organizations, and sadly, funerals for their lifelong parishoners. If a parish only has funerals, they're in trouble. If a parish only has baptisms, they're going to be unstable. If a parish doesn't have either, they're incomplete. You've got to have it all!
I am heartened to read that the Archdiocese wants greater cooperation between the parishes in terms of Mass times. I actually think that we've got a pretty good range of potential Masses in Kansas City. Have you seen MassTimes.org yet? If you accidentally overslept on Sunday morning and missed church, it'll help you find a service that you can attend--and it's good for just about everywhere in the USA. I even keep a listing of Masses at different times around the city saved on my cell phone that I can look at if I'm in a pickle. I wish that parishes had greater variation in time that daily Mass was offered (only a few happen before most of us have to be at work or after the workday is done) and I REALLY WISH that there was a wider array of times that Confession is offered (Saturday afternoon is THE WORST time to hold confession) around town in accessible places. But that is worth a post all of its own. In any matter, I'm glad that the Archdiocese is considering coordination. That is a good thing.
Of particular note is the statements about Spanish Masses--three County parishes offer the Mass in Spanish, each around the same time on Sunday afternoons. I mention this principally because I think that this is continuing the trend in how parishes will approach their Liturgies in the near future. 
Think about your own home parish--if there are 4 Sunday Masses, it'd be pretty common to have one of the Masses be "atypical"--the vestiges of the 70's, 80's and 90's are still hanging around in the 21st Century in the forms of the "folk Mass", the "children's Mass" and the "LifeTeen Mass". Who's still going to the folk Mass these days? The children's Masses are on the way out. The LifeTeen debacle seems to be going strong. But in how many parishes were these types of liturgies added into the roster of Sunday Masses, and in how many replaced Masses that were suffering for attendance? I don't know. It is my amateur opinion that some of the parishes offering a Spanish Mass would benefit from offering the Spanish liturgy in the place of one of its ordinary Masses--and thus give the Spanish liturgy a conventional churchgoing time somewhere in the County. And hey, since we're on the subject, consider this a formal request for a Tridentine Latin Mass in Johnson County and to have it at a typical churchgoing time. Thank you in advance, Archdiocese.
But one of my favorite lines in the whole report is section 22 on page 7:
Several parishes will soon start a new chapter in their life as a parish. The vision and drive of these parishes has been raising capital dollars to build new facilities. Within five or ten years, a group of parishes will retire their debts and facilities will be basically completed. A compelling new vision with new goals is needed for the next ten and twenty years.
This is good news indeed! I worry about parishes strapped with debt from construction-eager pastors and committees. Maybe it's the Dave Ramsey show rattling around in by brain? Still, it's good news--thank God!
This section of the report also introduces the findings on Catholic Elementary and High Schools. Not every parish in the County has a grade school, but most of them do. I think there are a number of challenges facing Catholic education in the near future, most of which focuses on defining the purpose and identity of Catholic Schools. I mean, Johnson County has pretty good schools in its four public school districts. There are other places in the city or the country which are not in this situation. If the public schools are garbage, then families that can afford private schools often put Catholic education on the table--even if they're not Catholic families. Catholic schools carry a reputation of academic excellence. But if the public schools also have that reputation, then Catholic schools need to bring something else to the table for families to pony out the burden of private tuition. Catholic Schools need to be Catholic schools. That means more than hanging a crucifix in each classroom and going to Mass once a week. I'll get further into Catholic Schools in future posts. The Archdiocesan Pastoral Plan covers them more in depth later--and Catholic schools are a particular interest to me.
The Key Findings section of the Pastoral Plan wraps up with a subsection called "Pastoral Concerns" that briefly notes that parishes need to make sure that they are doing an adequate job of reaching out in their ministry to parishioners (agreed) and a further note that there is a greater need for "collaboration instead of competition". Perhaps there is some unfriendly rivalry between parishes? Perhaps. I know I'm guilty in pushing that too--I know that there are some parishes where I will decline to attend. But I'd say that it is not a matter of parishes as much as it is a matter of pastors--pastors are like little dukes in their duchies and build liturgies that appeal to different parishes (and I'm sure that newly re-assigned pastors take the opposite view). In short, the ordinary Mass is so customizable that there is a lot of variation between different parishes and different priests. It results in good liturgies and bad liturgies. I'll steer clear of the bad ones, thankyouverymuch. Is that parochialism? If so, then I am parochial. Confiteor!
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.
In the time while I was hiat'in, the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas released an overview and plan for its Johnson County region, available on the Archdiocesean website. I'm going to go over this document over the next few posts. I live in Johnson County and think that are in a happily and sadly average part of an average diocese in the United States.
First, a primer: the entire globe is divided into territories, called Dioceses. The head person of a diocese is the Bishop-- he is (oversimplification alert) the spiritual and secular CEO of that geographic area. The Bishop's boss is the Pope, though there are other groups and organizations who have influence on him, including other Bishops (in the USA, all Bishops belong to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops which operates like a loose coalition. The USSCB does not speak for any particular Bishop, but makes advisements and creates a single-ish voice for all American Bishops. Suffice it to say that the group has it's share of internal politics, for better and worse.) and a Vatican committee called the Congregation for Bishops, which is (again, oversimplification) the HR department for Bishops.
Important dioceses are given the title of Archdiocese and their Bishops are called Archbishops. In the United States, basically the biggest Diocese in a state is called the Archdiocese. Off the top of my head, the only state that I can think of with two Archdioceses is California, with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Archdiocese of San Francisco. It is important to note that in practice, there is no material difference between a Diocese and an Archdiocese or a Bishop and an Archbishop. One is as good as another. In the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, our Ordinary (another name for bishop) is Archbishop Naumann.
There are some Archbishops who do not serve an Archdiocese. Rather, they serve the Vatican itself and usually have some role that affects people spanning a lot of Dioceses or perform some particular function not related to operating a diocese. These Bishops are called Titular Archbishops. Some Dioceses have Auxiliary Bishops, who are like "assistant Bishops". It is particularly common if a Diocese covers a big geographical area or has a lot of Catholics in the Diocese; not all Dioceses have Auxillaries. When Bishops retire, they are given the title of Bishop Emiritus. These Bishops retain all the spiritual faculties of a Bishop, but they're retired from the operations of a Diocese. Some Bishops carry the rank of Cardinal. The most significant duty of a Cardinal is that he elects a new Pope. Not all Cardinals are bishops-- a fact that surprises even many lifelong Catholics. We could go on about this for a long time, but there is a good website that explains every office, role and officeholder in the church at http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/. The site in encyclopedic and is maintained by a Kansas City area man. It's his hobby. Wow. He's also a nice guy. (plaid shirt, fourth picture) But I digress.
I live in Kansas, which has 4 dioceses (Kansas City, Dodge City, Salina, Wichita). The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas covers 21 counties and a big chunk of the state. For administrative purposes, it is further broken down into a number of regions. The Archdiocese, with the help of consultants, has been developing a "Pastoral Plan" for each region. The goal is to make sure they are meeting the needs of the Church now and in the future.
This is a good idea. I hope every diocese is doing it, and I hope that they continue to develop these plans over time. Populations are shifting, country churches are having a hard time keeping parishoners as the rural towns are slowly disappearing-- but the remaining Catholics in the area need to still be served. And like they're changing politics and business and schools and everything else, the growing Hispanic population is changing things. A significant number of Hispanics are Catholic; the Church needs to be ministering to them. And though there's some evidence that the number of men applying to the priesthood is on the upswing, the hemmoraging has been so significant since the Second Vatican Council that they've got a long way to go to replace them all. (Aside: earlier this year, I bought a concise book called The Index of Leading Catholic Indicators that cataloged what has happened to the Church in America since the 60's. It's truly stunning. The introduction to the book was written by Pat Buchanan, reprinted here. Some of Buchanan's rhetoric is over the top-- pure PJB. But the facts are inarguable. Read it. It'll make your jaw drop. I had no idea how far we've fallen.) It's good to have a plan to make sure that you're covering all the bases.
The Johnson County Pastoral Plan is notable for its comprehensive look at parishes and schools. And though the report is fair, it does not pull punches. Some of our parishes are in trouble, some are coming out of the woods and some are in good shape. I am particularly interested in the information on the Catholic schools-- both grade school and high school.
So read the Johnson County Pastoral Plan. It's important to know what's going on in your neighborhood.
