administrative tasks that burden them today and in exchange , to give them the time they need to minister directly to the faithful . We will find our parishioners better supported by their priests and we will be able to ramp up our efforts to help the laity to be more missionary . New staff and volunteer positions will be created within the Family , serving the entire Family rather than just one parish . These positions will be empowered to lead us forward in mission-direct activities like discipleship formation , engagement , evangelical charity , family ministries , and worship . Mission support activities like finance and maintenance will be led by one person for the entire Family as well .
Parish Pastoral Councils will make way for Family Pastoral Councils . Parish Leadership Teams will make way for Family Leadership Teams . And Family Intercessory Prayer Teams will be called upon to pray in ever-increasing ways for the clergy and laity of the whole Family .
Will this change be easy ? Of course not ! No change of consequence comes without effort . We will be challenged to rethink the ways we approach ministry and the ways we relate to one another as a Family . We will strive to find ways to be more efficient and effective in our efforts to be more missionary . As part of this effort , some people who work in parishes will be asked to take on new roles in support of the new missionary Family model .
Amid such change , it is natural to feel uncertain . But we cannot allow ourselves to fall victim to any fear we may have about moving into Families . Be not afraid ! We will move forward as joyful missionary disciples , steeped in trust that the Holy Spirit is guiding our efforts to be a more missionary diocese sharing Christ and the Gospel with those around us .
The idea of Families of Parishes is not new to the Church , worldwide or here at home . There are several dioceses across North America and the entire world that have embraced similar models . Taking advantage of this precedence , our archdiocese has done due diligence benchmarking the successes and failures of these other dioceses to inform us as we developed the plan for our Families .
From May through October of last year , a team of eight priests from the archdiocese studied different options for Family governance and settled on two possibilities for our parishes . They are the One Pastor Model and the In Solidum Model .
The One Pastor Model is closer to what most of us experience today . In this model , there is one single pastor charged with the care of two or more parishes . Depending on the number of parishes he is charged to lead , he may have one or more associate pastors ( also called parochial vicars ) to help him with his tasks . Ultimately , it is the pastor who takes responsibility for the care of his parishes .
The In Solidum Model is something known to the universal Church but new to us in southeast Michigan , and it will take some time for us to truly figure out how to make it work well . In this model , multiple parishes ( generally three to six but sometimes more ) are under the pastoral care of a team of family-pastors . The family-pastors are each responsible for the care of all parishes , so there is no longer any one pastor leading any one parish . One of the family-pastors is named by the archbishop as the Moderator of the Family , meaning he essentially becomes the first among equals . If there is an issue for which no consensus of the family-pastors is possible , the moderator will make the decision .
Deacons , much like priests , will be impacted by the move to Families . A deacon will no longer be assigned to an individual parish , but will instead be assigned to the Family of Parishes . As such , each deacon will be teamed up with one pastor or moderator and will find themselves carrying out their diaconal duties on any given day in the parish where they are needed most .
In both the One Pastor and In Solidum models , new director level positions will be created to serve the entire Family . These director positions were designed such that they will enable us to structure better for mission . In Families following the In Solidum model , these team members will be supervised by the Moderator but will support all familypastors . These directors are not intended to be added costs to the Family . Rather , it is hoped that they will be populated through reorganization of existing staff within the parishes of each Family .
If this new structure is permitted to operate as planned , family-pastors who are not moderators will be relieved of many of the administrative tasks that burden them today , leaving them free to be more missionary in their work . Moderators will be supported by the new director positions , empowering them to lead their Families forward in ways that in the past were done only by pastors . This is an important next step toward involving the laity in ways envisioned at Vatican II .
Unexpected ( but welcome ) support from Rome
In June of 2020 , the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy released a document that encouraged dioceses around the world to find ways to be more missionary and offered the example of what they called parish groupings , which are very similar to what we have called Families of Parishes . How providential that the Vatican would signal its support for a plan we had already begun to explore ! The document is titled The pastoral conversion of the Parish community in the service of the evangelising mission of the Church . While it is a bit lengthy , it offers tremendous support for our efforts to restructure with the goal of becoming a more missionary archdiocese .
12 Sacred Heart Major Seminary | Mosaic | Spring 2021