Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:
As I marked my second anniversary as the bishop of the Diocese of St. Cloud in February, I can honestly say how blessed I feel to serve in this role as your spiritual shepherd. I never dreamt that the Lord would ever call me to be a bishop, but my desire is to do whatever he asks me to do, knowing that he alone can provide the grace and strength to fulfill his will.
One of the first things I was invited to do by the diocesan staff when I first began serving as bishop was to take a CliftonStrengths inventory. The diocesan staff has been using this tool to foster teamwork for years and they wanted to see where my strengths lie. If you’re not familiar with this program, there are 34 strengths and, after completing an intense questionnaire, it lists them in order. It turns out that my number one strength is positivity!
The description Clifton gives is that people with this strength have contagious enthusiasm, and that they are upbeat and can get others excited about what they are going to do.
I feel deep down, however, that positivity, while a Clifton strength, must be rooted in the theological virtue of hope, or it remains a shallow strength. It means placing our sole hope in Christ no matter what challenges or crosses present themselves to us as the body of Christ. The theme for this Jubilee Year proclaimed by Pope Francis is “Pilgrims of Hope,” which emphasizes the role of hope in navigating life’s challenges. As part of this theme, Catholics are encouraged to trust in God’s providence and extend that hope to others.
Well, here is where the rubber meets the road. It became clear to me early on in my tenure as bishop that our beloved diocese, like many other dioceses in the United States, would need to initiate a pastoral planning process. Over the past year, data was collected and developed into a current reality report identifying the significant challenges our diocese is facing. To name a few, since 2010, Mass attendance has declined by 33%, weddings have declined by 45%, baptisms by 45% and confirmations by 35%.
The average occupancy of our churches for Sunday Mass is at 39%.
Four out of five parishes in our diocese are unable to meet ministry and operations budgets through Sunday offerings alone. Our priests are shepherding, on average, 2.4 parishes, which is more than double the national average per priest in the United States. I worry greatly about the growing fatigue being experienced by our priests.
As you’ve heard, the theme for our pastoral planning process, “All Things New: Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future,” is centered on the virtue of hope as we begin a process that will undoubtedly not be an easy one. As a diocese, we will pass through moments of grieving together, and grief often involves intense sadness, feelings of shock and numbness, as well as feelings of denial and anger.
What I would like to place before us is a broader sense of what it means to be the Church. When St. Teresa of Calcutta was asked how she would define the Church, she said, “But who is the Church? You and I…The Church are those who follow him.” The Church is not primarily a church building but people who are disciples of Jesus Christ.
I’m reminded of a time when Cardinal Francis George talked about the early Christians and how they had neither church buildings, school buildings nor hospital buildings, yet they managed to convert half of the Roman Empire to the Christian faith before Christianity was at last made legal in 313 AD.
What I hope for is a vision that enables us to feel that no matter how many church buildings we have, we are welcome in all of them. I want us to see that we are blessed with just over 100,000 Catholics in our diocese and that we are all one family in faith. We all know that in our families, there are times when we disagree, times we hurt each other’s feelings and times where we have to lay down our own wants for the good of those we love. Our church family is no different. As a family of faith, we will all have to make some changes, some sacrifices, to build healthy communities, healthy priests and pastoral teams, healthy budgets and healthy liturgies.
We may have to drive a little farther or get up a little earlier to encounter Jesus in the Eucharist and in our neighbors gathered there. We may have to say goodbye to a building or place we have grown to love. But we will do this together. We will do this in love. We will do this with each other’s support, and we will do this because we are asked by God to build his Church wherever we
are gathered.
In this Jubilee Year 2025, we are invited to be pilgrims of hope, no matter the challenges that may lie before us. Some may say it is my gift of positivity that makes me always on the lookout for ways to make sure our glass is half full, but I’d say it is my hope in the Lord to make sure that our cup more than runneth over.
Yours in Christ,
Bishop Patrick M. Neary, CSC
The planning process continues to move forward this month:
Diocesan Level:
- Formation and training for facilitator teams
- Guidebook completed, edited and ready to be printed
ACC Level:
- All Things New committee members appointed by the pastor are submitted to the Planning Office
Deanery Level:
- First meeting with the All Things New committee and facilitator team