The St. John Fisher Pastoral Council held a monthly meeting on October 3, 2007. Council member Shirley Giltzow called the meeting to order at 7:15 pm.
Present: Monsignor Sork, Dave Kurt, Shirley Giltzow, Celeste Cummings, Viktor Rzeteljski, Christina Britt, Maxim Ofina, Sean O'Leary, Ann Armstrong, Pat Dahlberg, John Barbieri and Heather Cassano..
Absent: Billie Morgan, Mike Noble, Ian Counts, Michael Jules.
Viktor Rzeteljiski led the Council in the First Fifteen reflection.
The minutes of the August 25, 2007 meeting were approved as presented.
Pastors Report:
Update on capital campaign - Msgr. Sork reported that the Capital Campaign Committee has not met recently. They are making approaches to parishioners who have not yet made a commitment. $16 million has been pledged to date. $3.2 million has been collected. We have already donated over $303,000 to the Sagrado Corazon Parish in Cudahy. Sagrado Corazon has not started construction yet. They have recently purchased a lot near their present site.
Update on building project - The architect is going to the City of RPV to submit the conditional use permit later this week. A recent ordinance passed requiring us to have silhouettes, which are the verti-cal flags to indicate the height of all buildings. We asked for an exemption, but we were denied. They did say they would work with us. We will have to provide an outline, but only for approximately two weeks near in time to the public hearing phase.
Clergy Abuse Scandal - Msgr. Sork reported on the meeting with the Cardinal and passed out "Ques-tions About the Clergy Abuse Scandal." The Council discussed ways to reassure the parishioners that: 1. No parish funds will go to the lawsuit; 2. There has been no drop in new members joining the Catholic Church; 3. None of the abuse occurred during Cardinal Mahony's time. Msgr. Sork passed out a chart comparing incidents and reports to the Archdiocese by year. Msgr. Sork explained how the process works to distribute funds to victims, and that only names of the accused were reported. The Council decided to examine ways through the Impact and Sunday Bulletin to keep the parish aware of all that is going on. The Council also discussed the new laws that make reporting abuse now manda-tory for all church workers. This will be published in booklet format. Council discussed how to best distribute the booklet.
Parish Staff Report - Celeste Cummings
Youth Ministry - Rico resigned in June. We missed the hiring cycle because youth ministers begin looking for positions in the early spring. We will begin our search in February 2008. Because we are a "destination" parish (meaning we are a parish that most would want to work for) we may be able to get a youth minister before the hiring cycle. Some parishioners think we have abandoned the youth. The Search Committee wants youth and parishioners to be involved in the search. In a meeting with John Rinaldo, from the Archdiocese, he incorporated youth ministry with the Four Pillars.
Confirmation - Moving to a large group format because it is safer on campus and works well. We are moving teens from spectators to participants. There are 90 to 110 kids in each year 1 and 2. Year two has parents and sponsors involved. There is a retreat in year 1 and year 2 has a weekend retreat. There will be witness talks that include youth, as youth will respond to their peer group better than to adults. Service will include visiting senior homes and feeding the homeless. Also added for year 2 candidates is a requirement to participate in liturgy. Candidates are now bringing their friends which is creating an ecumenical experience. Council discussed many ways to get youth involved in the Four Pillars.
Website - We are working very hard to keep our website updated with no out of date material. Because we host our own website it is not overly sophisticated. We are moving toward a host company so that we can provide online forms and have more links. The Pastoral staff has reviewed their portion of the web and brought it up to date. The Council discussed ways to make the website more visible to parishioners.
Pastoral Plan Fulfillment Committee Report - Shirley Giltzow presented final draft of the revised plan. Explained that it had been brought to the Special Meeting. Discussion followed whether there were any sticky issues. The plan was approved with only slight tweaking.
Shirley then asked for volunteers to chair The Four Pillars. John Barbieri and Pat Dahlberg took Wor-ship, Ann Armstrong and Maxim Ofina took Community, and Heather Cassano and Sean O'Leary took Service, Christina Britt took Community with youth especially, and Viktor Rzeteljski took Worship and Youth Ministry. A discussion followed on the best way to distribute the Plan to the parish. No decision was reached.
Other Topics
Recognition of Retiring Members - A nice touch would be for them to receive a certificate of recog-nition, have a powerpoint of accomplishments from friends and coworkers, have a party, give a me-mento like a cross or bookmark. No decision was reached.
Formation of an Ad Hoc Committee on PC Nomination Process - After some discussion Viktor and Heather will be the leaders of the ad hoc committee. The operational guidelines then call for the Pastor and the Secretary (Dave Kurt), and one Pastoral Staff member to be named at a future time to fill out the Committee. As soon as the staff member position is filled, the Ad Hoc Committee will be fully operational. This is well in advance of the operational timing guidelines calling for the Commit-tee to become operational in February. This early start should ensure a smoother process for nomina-tions and voting.
Other - Sean suggested we have a small group of actors from his high school, Bishop Montgomery along with small parts given to SJF students, give plays here. Funds raised would go to SJF service projects. Maybe have a church member or ministry sponsor tickets for orphans or underprivileged children. Celeste and Sean will explore the possibility.
Picture Directory - Maxim had good news-Directory will be here in December.
Msgr. Sork led the council in a closing prayer and the meeting was adjourned at 10:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Teddy Sparrman