Pastoral Planning - St. Isidore

Parish Open Meeting: April 25, 2012 - 7-9PM in the Church Hall

Our parish open meeting will be held in the Church Hall on Wednesday evening, April 25th. We will start by outlining the history and main points of the proposal for strengthening the Church's mission in Boston.

This proposal was developed for the whole Archdiocese by the Archdiocesan Pastoral Planning Commission (APPC) under the direction of Fr. David Couturier, OFM who heads the Office of Pastoral Planning for the Archdiocese of Boston.

We will poll all present on these main points. We will then present the proposed collaboration of St. Isidore with St. Elizabeth of Hungary and poll all present on a few aspects of that proposal. Then there will be a time for open questions and comments.

To prepare yourself for the meeting you can see the one page outline of the proposal here.

More detailed information is on the Pastoral Planning website http://www.planning2012.com

There is a lot of information on that website. We would recommend, in particular:

Detailed discussion of the proposed plan
http://www.planning2012.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/StrengtheningParishesAsPrimaryCommunitiesofFaith1.pdf

Cardinal Seán’s Pastoral Letter on Evangelization:
http://www.planning2012.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/a_new_pentecost_english8.pdf

Every Catholic in the Archdiocese is invited to complete the survey at
http://www.bostoncatholic.org/Offices-And-Services/Office-Form.aspx?ekfrm=22718&pid=22430

APPC guidelines for forming the proposed collaborations:
http://www.planning2012.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Criteria.pdf

All of these links and many more are on the consultation page:

http://www.planning2012.com/2012-consultation/

If you have specific questions about St. Isidore's with regard to the APPC plan, please email us at info@stisidorestow.org

January 28, 2012

As was mentioned at the end of the masses this weekend, what is being reported on in the media starting back in December and most recently this past week is a proposal that is in the process of being reviewed and commented on by a wide circle of Catholics in the Archdiocese.

First of all here is what this is NOT:

1. It is not a finished plan.
2. It is not an implementation plan. (It speaks of what, not how).
3. It is not a proposal to impose something from the top down but a framework to help parishes determine what works best for them.
4. It is not a disguised way to close parishes. A clearly stated parameter of this proposal (which will not be modified by the consultation process) is that the final plan will not close any of the existing parishes.

It IS a proposal that came from a process that started in this form back in 2006. At that time, the Cardinal commissioned a group to study how to strengthen the Archdiocese. They produced a report in May 2007 that identified 10 or so models and recommended that these be studied and a proposal crafted. In 2009 the Cardinal hired Fr. David Couturier to head up this effort in the office of Pastoral Planning. After much research and study by the Pastoral Planning Office, the Cardinal convened the Archdiocesan Pastoral Planning Commission (APPC) to propose a plan for review at all levels of the Archdiocese.

What is being reviewed at the current time (and what papers are reporting on) is this proposed plan.

• This consultation started with the priests December 5 and will continue through April.
• It is being reviewed at more the 30 meetings of which only 1/3 have happened.
• Feedback is being sought at these meetings which will encompass priests, deacons, religious, pastoral associates, religious ed people, schools, youth ministers and parish finance and pastoral council members.
• Later in the spring feedback will be taken from in parish meetings and an online form that any Catholic is invited to fill out
  (http://www.bostoncatholic.org/Offices-And-Services/Office-Form.aspx?ekfrm=22718&pid=22430).
• Once that feedback has been gathered, the Archdiocesan Pastoral Planning Commission will modify the proposed plan and present it to the Cardinal.
• If the Cardinal accepts that plan then we will move into an implementation planning phase.

If you have questions or comments, please email the parish at info@stisidorestow.org.

If you are interested in the progress of the process, please keep checking planning2012.com periodically. You should especially check it when you read something or someone tells you something about the process to make sure you are getting the correct story.