Face-to-face talks will address questions raised by written women leadership survey

By Patrick Downes

Why do so many “satisfied” parish workers want some things changed? Why is the largest majority of women in parish ministry over age of 60? Why aren’t more single women working in parishes? Why are so few parish women in real decision-making positions?

Last year’s survey of women in parish leadership positions in Hawaii has raised some intriguing questions, according to those who conducted it. They hope to find the answers to these questions, and perhaps others, in the project’s “phase two” — face-to-face interview sessions to be conducted over the next two months.

“Phase one” was a written questionnaire, requested by Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo two years ago, sent to women in parish leadership positions in Hawaii.

The project, entitled “Abundant Gifts: Women in Parish Leadership,” was conducted by a committee of representatives from the Presbyteral Council, the Diocesan Pastoral Council, the Diocesan Women’s Concerns Committee and the Office for the Welcoming Parish.

More than 800 surveys — containing 33 questions about responsibilities, job satisfaction, education, pay, ethnicity and more — were distributed in October 2003 to women identified by pastors as paid and voluntary parish leaders.

Forty-eight percent responded.

The responses were mostly positive.

These women “help make our parishes run smoothly, effectively and efficiently and they do it joyfully,” stated the introduction summing up the survey’s results, which were published and sent to parishes last November.

They are “basically very satisfied with their ministry,” the summary said.

However, digging deeper, the survey’s organizers saw inconsistencies in some of the answers.

For example, while 90 percent of respondents said they wanted to continue what they were doing, about 38 percent expressed the desire for some kind of change.

And while about 80 percent felt supported by their pastor and spiritually nourished by their ministry, only 28 percent were “very satisfied” that their ideas were sought when parish decisions are made.

Some of the answers show a “completely different contradictory picture,” said committee member Kathy Busick during a discussion with the Hawaii Catholic Herald last December.

The survey raised other questions for other committee members.

Committee member Sister Brenda Lau, a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet, wondered why so few parish directors of religious education got paid. “It’s a key service,” she said. “Why are they so heavily dependent on volunteers. What’s behind that?”

Sharon Chiarucci, director of the Office of Welcoming Parish, said she was surprised at the number of women who disagreed with their pastor when they said that they did not consider themselves to be “leaders.”

She was also amazed at the overwhelming number of parish workers who are married — 91 percent.

Busick said she was surprised see the age of the women leadership “skewed toward the senior citizen.”

“Are we losing young women?” she asked. “There are so few young leaders. What do pastors look for?”

Committee member Jayne Mondoy, former chairwomen of the Diocesan Pastoral Council, noted that when it came to decisions involving money and resources, very few women participated.

Busick said that many of their insights came from the survey’s final question: “If you could change anything what would you change?”

Half of the respondents answered that question and, of them, 75 percent offered suggestions for change.

Busick said she sensed a “real hunger to talk.”

And that’s “phase two” of the survey — face-to-face talking sessions.

Postcard invitations have already gone out to the 180 women who indicated they wanted to join a follow-up discussion.

The committee will conduct six two-hour “listening/sharing” sessions around the diocese between now and mid-March.

The first hour will focus on two questions that emerged from the data:

-- What is your understanding of leadership in a parish?

-- What does a true picture of collaboration in the parish look like to you?

The second hour will have an open agenda. Participants will be able to talk about any issue of their choice. Persons with like topics will then discuss them in small groups.

The women will then be asked to make recommendations for their parish or diocese to address some of their concerns.

The listening sessions are not meant to be judgmental, Mondoy said.

“This is really in the spirit of cooperation,” she said. “We hope to discover healthy recommendations to help the diocese move foreword.”

Chiarucci hopes the process will contribute to the future health and viability of Hawaii’s parishes.

“It will help us surface what it means to be a leader,” she said, “what gifts the Holy Spirit gives to the parish to assure the viability of the church.”

Mondoy agreed. “The parish needs experienced and confident leaders,” she said.

The committee will publish a final report for both the survey and the listening sessions, and offer its own recommendations.

Chiarucci corrected a calculation error in an earlier report on the survey that stated, in an answer to one question, that only 30 percent of the women perceived themselves “as having a  leadership role” in their parishes. The correct percentage is 79, she said.