Bishop begins strategic planning for the diocese

Father Marc Alexander put in charge of the 18-month effort to set the foundation for ‘vibrant’ future parishes

By Lisa Dahm

What will Hawaii’s Catholic parishes look like four years from now? Or 14 years from now, in the year 2020? How about in the year 2050? Already, parish needs and demographics have changed from just a decade ago — some sleepier parishes are now bursting at the seams, others in more affluent communities are now main service areas for people with low incomes or who are homeless. Growing ethnic groups are condensed within some parish boundaries requiring extra services, more personnel or updated facilities.

Bishop Larry Silva’s strategic planning process for the Diocese of Honolulu, introduced in this edition of the Hawaii Catholic Herald (see statement above) is designed to prepare the church in Hawaii for the future.

“Our planning will help us identify needs for pastoral and lay staffing, facilities and services, and develop ways to meet those needs,” the bishop writes in his “Statement Regarding Planning for the Diocese of Honolulu.”

He has put his vicar general, Father Marc R. Alexander, in charge of the planning process.

“Our goal is to have very vibrant and alive parishes,” Father Alexander told the Hawaii Catholic Herald in an interview last month. “We want to put in place programs that will allow that to happen now.”

The planning process, which has already started, will take place in four phases and is scheduled to be completed by the fall of 2007. The estimated cost of the study, approximately $250,000, includes the hiring of a full-time director of planning, Tom Papandrew, who started in July.

The first step is to survey the diocese’s present resources and needs. Among the issues to be taken into account are spiritual formation and pastoral needs, social justice programs, schools, charitable services, health care and hospices, places of worship, parish demographics, human resources and staffing, land and facilities and communications and technology.

“The process is going to be very labor intensive and grassroots,” the vicar general said. “The bishop wants transparency and wants people to know what is happening.”

The data collected will be computerized for easy transmission, review and finalization and for future analysis.

Father Alexander will involve parish staffs in the data collection, criteria development and decision-making as well as in preparation of the final plan.

“This is the bishop’s directive that we are working on,” Father Alexander said. “He wants this to happen because he sees that there are a lot of riches and a lot of needs (in the diocese) and the only way of really making things work better is if we get it together. The goal of this process is to see what we have and what we need.”

The study will project the needs of the diocese for pastoral and lay professional staffing, facilities and services for the years 2010, 2020 and 2050. It will then rate the needs by priority, prepare ways to meet the needs, and identify ways to pay for them.

One of the bishop’s hopes, according to Father Alexander, is that his plan will result in the continuing education of pastoral and lay professional staff.

“I hope that we see more and better trained lay people involved in the parish,” Father Alexander said. “I hope that we have a creative system in place that will address the educational spirit.”

“Our primary task is to serve parishes,” he said, and build an “evangelizing community.”

Preparatory planning committee

The preparatory strategic planning committee is made up of Father Alexander, Papandrew, Sharon Chiarucci, Colleen Sathre and Jim Bell.

Chiarucci is director of the diocesan Office for Welcoming Parish. Sathre is the former vice president of academic planning and policy for the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Bell is the principal planner for Belt Collins, an international architectural planning firm.

The committee has been meeting since March.

“We really needed good consultants that know the field and have the experience of working in parishes,” Father Alexander said.

The planning information will also be assessed by diocesan department heads, the Presbyteral Council, and the new Diocesan Pastoral Council (see story on page 1).

According to Father Alexander, the first step in the process began in April, with “gathering data to build an accurate picture of the diocese as a whole.” The information, which has been compiled into a computer database, was gathered from a variety of sources including annual parish reports, Welcoming Parish data, Catholic school records, and information collected for the diocesan synod in 2000.

Chiarucci has also been researching the planning processes of other dioceses.

Over the next 18 months, Father Alexander and Papandrew will visit every parish in the diocese and meet with at least 15 members of each parish community to verify information and make changes and additions.

The two have already gone to Kauai’s five parishes and five missions. Father Alexander said the meetings at each location have been attended by 15 to 30 people, including parish council and finance committee members, priests and school representatives.

“We had excellent turnout with very good interaction,” he said.

Papandrew conducts the meetings, while Father Alexander takes notes that will be compiled and sent back to the parish for review.

“We want people to know what is being said and we want them to feel free to share their thoughts with us,” he said.

He said that one of the questions he and Papandrew ask is, “From your perspective, not just looking from your parish, what do you consider the pastoral priorities of the diocese and the parish?”

The vicar general said that he was pleased that parishioners were “not shy” and “very responsive.”

“People tell us what they feel and what they are thinking,” he said.

Father Alexander said that one of the main concerns on Kauai was the island’s rapid growth. He expects to find the same results on parts of the Big Island and Oahu.

Father Alexander said that they are “starting heavily” with neighbor islands on purpose.

“We felt that the neighbor islands don’t get the kind of attention that they should be getting,” he said. “We wanted to make it clear that they do and that is one reason we started with Kauai.”

After the data gathering, a larger review committee will analyze the results. Included in the assessment will be a complete review of parish and diocesan property.

“There are a lot of people with expertise in our Catholic community, and even people outside the Catholic community,” Father Alexander said. “They are willing to help us, though they don’t have the time to devote to the regularity of the meetings that the core committee has to do. We want their input and their wisdom.”

One of the hopes, after examining the diocesan assets, Father Alexander said, is to find creative ways to “address some of these key issues,” such as homelessness, by using some of the land for things such as affordable housing projects.

“The bishop is open to that,” he said. “If he finds there is a need for a new school, it is something that we need to address. Whatever it is, we need to set priorities and work together.”