Pastoral Plan to be presented at Pastoral Congress

IC photo/Marie Mischel

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Bishop Oscar A. Solis, priests of the diocese and members of the Pastoral Plan steering committee met Aug. 8 to review the proposed Pastoral Plan. Dominican Fr. Wayne Cavalier (left) has facilitated the Pastoral Plan process.

SALT LAKE CITY — A process that began four years ago is nearing fruition.

The Diocese of Salt Lake City’s Pastoral Plan, which started in 2014 under the direction of the Most Rev. John C. Wester, ninth Bishop of Salt Lake City, is in its final stages. The initial stages of the plan, which included gathering data and holding listening sessions to hear from Catholics in all parts of the diocese, were completed before the appointment of Archbishop Wester to Santa Fe in 2016. The plan was then put on hold, awaiting the diocese’s new bishop.

When Bishop Oscar A. Solis was appointed as the 10th Bishop of Salt Lake City, he was presented with the Pastoral Plan documents. Being able to capitalize on the work that had already been done before he arrived was a tremendous blessing, he said Aug. 8 at a gathering to finalize the Pastoral Plan.

Attending the gathering were most of the priests of the diocese as well as members of the plan’s steering committee.

The Pastoral Plan “will be our map that will help us and guide us in our ministry in order to carry out the mission of evangelization in our Church,” Bishop Solis said. “This plan is something that we can say, ‘It is our own.’ It is not the bishop’s plan. It is the diocesan plan that everybody worked on and approved.”

The plan is intended to formulate the mission and vision of the Diocese of Salt Lake City for the next five years. Its top five priorities are faith formation, vocations, stewardship, the Eucharistic and Catholic identity with unity in diversity, and dignity of human life. Several of these priorities were identified in the listening sessions, others were brought forward by the priests, and all were included in Bishop Solis’ 2017 Pastoral Letter, “A Springtime of the New Evangelization.”

Those present at the Aug. 8 gathering reviewed the five objectives, and commented on the goals and objectives associated with each.  

The plan “isn’t merely about how we use our resources to do better than we have been, it’s a question of how do we understand God is speaking to us and calling us forward, at least in the next five years,  and what does that say about where we are now? And, finally, the plan is a conviction that, based on that call from God, there are certain things we must do … to get closer to where God is calling us to be,” said Dominican Father Wayne Cavalier, director of the Congar Institute for Ministry Development, who has been involved with the plan since its initial stages.

The next step in the Pastoral Plan process is for it to be presented to the laity at the Sept. 15 Pastoral Congress. Following that will be the implementation, “and that’s when the fruits of this work will really be seen,” Fr. Wayne said. “It’s very important to remember that a Pastoral Plan doesn’t address everything that is going on. … The Pastoral Plan is focused on change – what needs to be changed so that we move closer to the vision that we have for the diocese that we believe we’re called to.”