As the Advent season begins, Bishop Patrick Neary invites the faithful of the Diocese of St. Cloud to embrace the spirit of accompaniment and shared mission. In his recent reflections, the bishop emphasized that Advent is not only a time of waiting, but a journey we take together toward the light of Christ.
“Every wreath lit, every violet cloth draped, every hymn sung proclaims Advent as a season of hope,” Bishop Neary said. He encourages parish communities to use this sacred time to intentionally make the choice to walk with one another in faith, perhaps considering reaching out to someone outside normal peripheries.
Diocesan ministries, because of generous donors, play a vital role in this journey. From faith formation and Catholic education to pastoral outreach and social concerns to vocations and rural life, these ministries serve as instruments of accompaniment.
“Across our diocese, our ministries embody this mission: walking with families, forming disciples and extending Christ’s compassion to those on the margins,” he added. “May this season renew our hope, deepen our unity and strengthen our resolve to walk as one Church.”
Your dollars at work help ‘put families first’
How can our Area Catholic Communities help families pass the faith on to their children? Christine Pinto, diocesan director for faith formation for the St. Cloud Diocese, is determined to find out.
Pinto, whose work is supported by the Bishop’s Annual Appeal, is working with the National Community of Catechetical Leaders on a new project that aims to do just that.
“My first year in ministry was spent traveling throughout the diocese asking faith formation coordinators about their programs,” Pinto said. “What I learned was that many of them did not have a family or parent component.”
The NCCL’s Parents and Families at the Center of Faith Formation Project, funded by a $1.25 million Lilly Endowment grant, is exploring how to strengthen faith formation at home and help parishes — or in our case ACCs — accompany families through the process.
“When we were given the opportunity to jump on this project, it was a no-brainer,” Pinto said. “NCCL and John Roberto, their executive director, have decades of experience in working with parents and families in faith formation. Our people need experts to help them assess, plan, implement and evaluate how to best respond to the needs of families in our diocese.”
“National and local data tells us that if we don’t meet the needs of parents by walking with them as they raise their children, it is unlikely that their children will remain Catholic as adults,” Pinto added.
A cohort of 23 parishes from seven ACCs is piloting the project in the St. Cloud Diocese. The ACCs represented are: Four Pillars in Christ, Harvest of Hope, Come to the Water, One in Christ, One in Faith, Sherburne Area and Isanti Area Catholic Communities.
Beginning in the fall of 2024, coordinators from each of these faith communities gathered online for monthly preparation meetings and their teams have attended three in-person workshops so far. The workshops are facilitated by Denise Utter, a family consultant from the national project team assigned to our diocese.
“Because we’re doing it as a cohort model, they’re learning from each other along the way,” Pinto said.
“It is so helpful to hear the creativity that has been shared in our meetings by other ACCs as they try to achieve their goals,” said Scott Frieler, director of faith formation for Sacred Heart Parish in Sauk Rapids. “Having access to a facilitator like Denise Utter, with real life experience in family faith formation, and the NCCL resource library is so helpful. NCCL provides access to successful models that are happening across the United States, so teams do not feel like they have to create something from scratch. They also provide a ton of resources that can be easily adapted and implemented into the life of our parish.”
Rather than a program that provides materials and a strict plan, this project provides online resources that are customizable and always evolving, taking into account feedback from parents, faith formation directors and catechists.
“What I like about this process is that it’s really asking, ‘What do you need?’ Let us create it for you and walk with you,” Pinto said.
Karen Pundsack, pastoral associate for Harvest of Hope Area Catholic Community, said she appreciates learning alongside other ACC teams.
“Families in our community are seeking ways to connect with each other and live their faith with their children,” she said. “It has helped to have experiences from other ACCs to learn from and to be able to work with Denise Utter as a consultant to develop our next steps.”
Harvest of Hope gathered parent feedback through surveys they sent out last spring and decided to focus on connecting with parents after the baptism of their child, Pundsack said.
“We have an active committee of parents, catechists and staff working on a plan to better engage parents,” she said. “Young families often become disconnected with parish life with the demands of taking care of young children and we want to help them feel at home and welcome within our faith community whether it is at worship or at a parish event.”
“One of the best things about the process to this point is that it has started conversations about gaps in how we serve families, and particularly parents, in our ACC,” Frieler added. “All of the parishes in the ACC are offering amazing programming, but we also recognize that we still have work to do.”