PROVIDENCE — “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” is an ancient Chinese philosophical proverb meant to show that tremendous changes result from small ones taken steadily.
Since he was installed as the tenth Bishop of Providence last spring, The Most Rev. Bruce A. Lewandowski, C.Ss.R., has taken the time to learn where the diocese has been and where he would like to see the faithful go as the Catholic Church in Rhode Island.
He enlisted the support of many with whom he engaged on this topic with much prayer, consultation and reflection over the course of his yearlong journey, including a group of representatives of various parishes and ministries who have been meeting regularly since January to help the bishop develop the renewal infrastructure.
The bishop said members represented youth, seniors, different cultures, religious, priests and deacons.
“I am grateful for the 25 lay people and priests of this diocese who contributed to this document and the process,” Bishop Lewandowski said of “Three Pathways, One Mission: An Invitation to Renewal,” which was released last Friday.
“This is the fruit of a lot of hard work of people. A good representation of the diocese helped in consultation to put this together.”
The pathways—Living the Mission, Forming for Mission and Planning for Mission—are designed to be the incubators of ideas that germinate during the shared discussions at the Assembly level of the process.
Bishop Lewandowski intended this symbiotic relationship between the assemblies at the parish and diocesan level because they are so inextricably linked.
“The listening is very important to the renewal, because it helps to shape how we live the mission, form for the mission and plan for the mission,” Bishop Lewandowski said.
“The assemblies give us the content to fill up the pathway discussions,” he added, noting how listening helps determine what kind of formation and planning are needed in parishes, for example.
“When Bishop Bruce came in, he spent a large amount of time listening to what we had done and planning for what would come next,” said Dennis Sousa, M.A., diocesan director of the Office of Family, Youth, and Young Adult Evangelization.
Sousa described a very thorough listening process sought by Bishop Lewandowski in which he participated in two rounds of deanery meetings with pastors and other clergy across the diocese to obtain feedback.
Feedback was categorized after going through a refinement and reorganization process. Prayerful discernment for what the final version of the renewal plan also took place during a two-day retreat.
“We knew the pastoral needs we had,” Sousa said. “We wanted to take a fresh look at evangelization and forming disciples for this moment in the diocese. We wanted to know what God was asking of us in this moment.”
Edward Trendowski, Ph.D., diocesan director of Faith Formation, said the time has come to take stock of what the Church provides its faithful through available resources.
“Now, we are taking a look at our structures,” he said, of the local Church’s organizational frameworks, such as leadership and ministries. “Were they built for the 21st century or were they built around a time when we had a sort of Village Catholicism. That’s part of the prayerful process—are our structures suited for the mission of the church today?”
In “The Three Pathways” Bishop Lewandowski is calling for a Christ-centered pastoral vision that integrates the movements of the mystery of our salvation directly into the strategic renewal of our diocese.
“Jesus’ life, death and ongoing presence provide the theological underpinnings for planning, forming and living out his missionary mandate to ‘Go and Make Disciples,’” the bishop explained of the message of the Gospel (Matthew 28:19).
The bishop defined this renewal as neither a temporary initiative or a single plan with an end date, but rather as a prayerful process of personal, pastoral and missionary conversion.
“This process will inform pastoral planning and the setting of pastoral priorities for the diocese, parishes, schools and ministries for the next three to five years and beyond. The goal is for every parish, school and ministry to form disciples, lead all people to salvation and live the call to evangelize,” Bishop Lewandowski said.
action across key pastoral areas which may include sacramental preparation, initiatives to share the kerygma, the basic truth for God’s love for us in Christ, marriage and family life, vocations to the priesthood, diaconate and consecrated life and charitable outreach.
Living the mission means more than maintaining day-to-day activities at the parish level. It means cultivating a missionary culture that listens attentively to the Holy Spirit, responds to the needs of the people and continually seeks to proclaim the Gospel more effectively.
All the baptized will be called upon to pray, listen, reflect and act together for the sake of the shared mission.
Michael M. Lavigne, diocesan secretary for evangelization and pastoral planning, said one of the most tangible aspects of this pathway for people will be the assemblies they will be invited to participate in, both at the parish and diocesan levels, beginning this fall.
In Forming the Mission, this pathway invites all to seek a shared vocabulary and acquire the competencies needed for missionary discipleship and evangelization. It focuses on three areas: Leadership and Formation, Nurturing Future leaders and parish Renewal Support.
“We’ve started a certificate in Catholic Leadership, which supplements the Certificate in Catholic Theology the Office of Evangelization currently offers and supplements our already existing support for parishes in terms of training for mission,” Lavigne said.
In Planning for Mission, this pathway is designed for parishes with a genuine pastoral planning need.
It brings pastors together with two to three parishioners from each parish within a defined geographic or pastoral grouping for a period of descernment.
“The goal is not restructuring for its own sake, but to ignite a missionary dynamism grounded in pastoral realities, sacramental life and the hope of salvation,” Bishop Lewandowski said in the document.
For parishes that do have to engage in pastoral planning, there’s going to be a more proactive process to arrive at whatever solutions are deemed necessary.
“We’re striving to not be as reactive,” Lavigne said. “We’re trying to get ahead of it, to be stronger for mission, asking ourselves what God is calling us to look like so we can be stronger for the gospel.”
The bishop is asking for the faithful to gather in both parishes (the clergy and all baptized members of a parish), and diocesan assemblies (the clergy and four to five representatives chosen from each parish), beginning in the coming weeks for seasonal parishes, and in September for most others. The Diocesan Assembly will be held on November 14 at La Salle Academy.
Parish ocal assemblies will be guided by some questions about their needs as a parish and what they can do better or strengthen.
“Let the Eucharist be the beating heart of our planning, our formation and our witness,” Bishop Lewandowski said in issuing his call to action in the three pathways.
“United as one body, nourished by God’s grace, and burning with missionary zeal. Let us be renewed so that we can go forward together to live, proclaim and manifest the saving mission of Jesus Christ on every corner of the Ocean State.”
Learn more about Bishop Bruce’ s invitation to renewal at https://evangelizeri.org/3pathways.
