Leading Your Family of Parishes on the Pathway

With over two years of learning, listening, and planning, our Families of Parishes will be implemented on July 1. As we have said at meetings of pastors and parish leaders often in the past few months, July 1 is only the beginning! We have much prayer, collaboration, and work to do to begin to bring our parishes together as vital, mission-driven communities of faith. And doing so requires all of us as leaders to be committed to the path that lies ahead - the pathway that will result in Families of Parishes that are beacons of light.

I wish to thank all who have been part of the leadership of Beacons to date. You will see a list of those people linked below. Their contributions will have a lasting impact on the pastoral life of our archdiocese, as will yours. Thank you to all of you who lead and serve in our parishes, schools, and Catholic organizations. Your commitment is inspiring.

We recently announced the launch of the Center for Parish Vitality. The Center will support and serve pastors and parish leaders in pastoral planning, strategic planning, worship & sacraments, parish leadership formation, all to foster health and growth, building vital and vibrant faith communities. The launch has been timed to coincide with the implementation of Families of Parishes, recognizing the leadership and support you will need in the coming months and years. It is our great hope that together we will lead our parishes to radiate Christ in all we do!

Family of Parishes Leadership Team

A Family of Parishes is best served when the pastor and key collaborators (clergy and lay staff) work together as a team. While there are many groups of people who participate in leadership and governance of a parish or Family of Parishes (e.g. Pastoral Council, full staff, Finance Council, commissions, etc.), the leadership team has the greatest potential to effectively assist the pastor in implementing the mission of the parish.

This model has already been employed by many parishes throughout the Archdiocese of Cincinnati subsequent to the Amazing Parish conference of 2019.

The challenge now will be to take this successful model and apply it to a Family of Parishes, not simply a single parish.

Leaders listen! Good leaders are constantly listening to gain more information, more understanding, to help make better decisions, to achieve better outcomes. Pope Francis has called the Church to be better listeners, and that will require leaders throughout the Church – diocesan, parish, school – to listen more and to listen better. Do we listen to truly HEAR another, or are we formulating our response while not really listening?

The global Synod on Synodality is a concrete opportunity for parish leaders to reflect on the importance of listening in the life of the Church. The Holy Father says: “The Synod offers us the opportunity to become a listening Church, to break out of our routine in order to stop and listen, firstly to the Spirit in adoration and prayer, and then to our brothers and sisters, their hopes, the crises of faith around the world, the need for renewed pastoral life.”

Our challenge as leaders is to indeed let the Holy Spirit guide our work of bringing about the mission of the Church: making disciples of Jesus and renewing the face of the Earth!