Our Paulist Strategic Planning process, which had a major concentration of energy in 2004-2005, with the Paulist Albuquerque Meeting and our subsequent decisions, has continued. Four businessmen in New York have generously volunteered their time to help guide us through some of the other implications of strategic planning – finances and manpower.

The “manpower” angle has taken on two threads: one is called “branding” – namely, how we better show who the Paulists are to people who know us and people who might get to know us. The other is “vocations.” With some graphic charts, the committee had laid out the inevitable as more Paulists get into retirement age. Surely many Paulists do not completely retire at “70” – some don’t retire at all – but we have to plan for it anyhow. The upshot is that Paulists will need twenty “as yet unknown” vocations in the next ten years just to stay at our present numbers of active Paulists. This is in addition to the ten seminarians already in our formation system.

To bring about 20 additional ordinations in the next ten years will take enormous leaps of faith, prayer and energy. Paulists have long been concerned about vocations – four of our last Assemblies have talked about vocations – but we realize this will take a revolution in our attention and efforts if we want to sustain our present commitments, if not expand them.

Lots of conversation is taking place – and will continue – including the idea that perhaps the Paulists need a “Latino plank,” i.e., Latinos from other countries who are willing to become acculturated to the United States and work among Latinos, Latino-Americans and even some of us “gringos” as part of evangelizing our culture. This would, of course, mean doing Latino ministry very differently than we did it before – we might even have bi-lingual houses where Spanish is the main spoken language. But other ideas will also be thrown into the hopper beyond this – reaching out to people who might seem more traditional than many Paulists seem at this point, or reaching out in a special way to men coming from the Charismatic movement.

Perhaps Associates can help here by becoming an auxiliary “vocation committee” in our local foundations. What might be things that Associates can do? Here are some initial ideas:

• Make sure a steady (and attractive) supply of vocation material about the Paulists is always displayed.
• Select quotations from Fr. Hecker or other Paulist literature to be included in the bulletin – making sure the bulletin editor gets it on a regular basis.
• Sponsoring a luncheon for young people who might want to hear about vocations to the religious life, priesthood and Paulists.
• Placing ads about the Paulists in local media.
• Distributing the Paulist Video (a new one will be out in January, 2008) to various people, especially men in their 20s and 30s.
• Praying for vocations; offering to sponsor “holy hours” or “bible services” around the theme of vocations for the local worshipping community.
• Facilitating speaking engagements for Paulists and younger people on religious themes (i.e., a little “theology on tap” kind of thing).
• Communicating with the Paulist Vocation Director for other ideas (Fr. Ed Nowak, 212-757-4261)

This is only a little menu of things that might be possible. Depending on the Paulist ministry site, there might be other and better ideas, particularly on campuses. While some data suggests that college-age people are thinking about vocations once again, by and large Paulists have attracted people in their 30s in recent years.

The Paulists are doing many things right. Data suggests that we get as many vocations, in proportion to our size, as the Jesuits and Dominicans. We certainly do far better than other congregations. But this is not good enough. We NEED to do better.

If we could get to where we are accepting six men a year and ordaining two a year, that would be a dramatic move in the vitality of the Paulists. Perhaps the groups of Associates that exist now might be a factor in helping to boost our numbers.

FORMAT FOR THE NEXT MEETING

1. Check-in, particularly events and activities during the previous month.
2. Reading from “The Paulist Vocation” – p.118 (the marks) -119 (emperors without it).
3. Reaction to the reading and newsletter; discussion questions below.
4. New Business
5. Report of any apostolic involvement, any opportunities to use or spread the Paulist charisms in daily life.
6. Prayer for Vocations and other prayers (See Paulist Prayer Book, p. 411).
7. Announcements and plans about the next meeting
8. Refreshments

Questions for Discussion:

1. What is your “take” on the vocation crisis today?
2. Do you think the Paulists have something different to offer young men in terms of vocations? What?
3. What might attract more men to the Paulists? What can your Associates group do?

CHRONOLOGY:

Dec. 2nd: Candidates in Grand Rapids make first promise
Dec. 3rd: Strategic Planning Meeting NYC
Dec. 4-6: General Council Meeting, NYC

Look for articles on St. Paul in the newsletter in future issues; 2008 is the Year of St. Paul.

March 1-8, Hecker Trip to Rome. Detailed information available on the 150th Anniversary pages of this Web site.

Make preparations for being with the Paulists at our Gala 150th Anniversary Events, June 19-21, 2008 in Washington, DC. .

CONTACT:

PAULIST ASSOCIATES
8611 MIDLAND PARKWAY
JAMAICA ESTATES, NY 11423

718-291-5995
(Rev. Frank DeSiano)