National Organization for Continuing Education of Roman Catholic Clergy

1337 West Ohio Street, Chicago, Illinois 60622-6490; 312/226-1890; Fax 312/829-8915; NOCERCC@cmnonline.com

Rev. Francis S. Tebbe, O.F.M., President; Rev. Michael J. Cronin, Executive Director

From the National Office

I pray the Easter season continues to give joy to you all.

«»

As usual, the office is keeping busy. We sent out the Summer Listings. I hope they were helpful and in a form that you could use with your presbyterates and religious congregations. Right now we are preparing the Convention Presentations, a resource that contains the talks given at the New Orleans convention. We’ll probably send that out in the next few weeks.

You can also look forward to receiving the newly updated version of Sabbatical Programs. As I mentioned before, this year we will be including a compact disk with all the information about the programs as well as photos and video and audio clips. We hope that this will make this particular resource even more interesting and useable.

«»

A number of directors have called to schedule our Renewing Priestly Identity convocation for the priests and bishop of their diocese in the fall of 2000 and the winter/spring of 2001. It continues to be a popular resource. Call the National Office for more information or to schedule the event for your presbyterate or religious province.

«»

This issue includes Steve Feehan’s look back on his time with NOCERCC. Steve was this year’s convention chairman. He has also served as a valued board member for several years. He is finishing his time as the director of priests’ continuing formation for the Archdiocese of Newark. We will miss him. And we appreciate his thoughtful reflection for us.

«»

Mike Cronin

 

From The President

Advisory Council and Board of Directors. Once again, Techny Towers Conference Center in Techny, Illinois, will host the June 24-25 meeting of the NOCERCC Advisory Council and the June 25-28 meeting of the NOCERCC Board of Directors. The Board and the Advisory Council will meet in a joint session on June 25. Details will be sent to all in May.

Preaching Task Force Update. NOCERCC Task Force on Preaching (Michael Cronin, Steve DeLeers, Ed Estok, Francis Tebbe and Gregory Heille, O.P.) enjoyed a productive meeting at the National Office on March 27 to continue our planning of a convocation/assembly for directors to use in the continuing formation of priests in Sunday homiletic preaching.

At this point in the planning process, we envision a two or three day event, which would consist of four components in four sessions of two hours each. The components would include an introductory session with a reflection by the local bishop, a presentation on the Catholic Theology of Preaching, a session on characteristics or abilities of and ways to assess oneself as a preacher, and a final session on planning for the future (what to do next for the presbyterate/province?). We plan to identify three teams of two persons each to guide this convocation/assembly. Each team would consist of a homiletic presenter and a NOCERCC member as the process facilitator.

We plan a "training session" for the teams and will pilot the convocation/assembly in one or two dioceses in the winter or spring of 2000.

We invite your thoughts and suggestions about this project by contacting any member of the Task Force. The Task Force on Preaching meets again on June 28.

Research Study Update. Four NOCERCC members read and wrote a response to Dr. Dean Hoge’s paper, Expressed Needs and Attitude of Newly Ordained Priests. His paper summarizes five surveys of American Catholic priests that depict available information on the lives of recently ordained priests.

The four NOCERCC members were asked to write a response that would address two questions: (1) how does and/or how might the information presented in the Hoge paper affect your continuing education/formation ministry, and (2) how might NOCERCC as a national organization respond to the challenges and opportunities reflected in the data.

We will publish and distribute these papers in May as a resource for our conversations with colleagues in the continuing education/formation ministry with recently ordained priests.

Priestly Life and Ministry Committee. At the March 21-22 meeting of the Bishops’ Committee on Priestly Life and Ministry at St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore, I presented a report on the activities of NOCERCC and the Catholic Coalition on Preaching. Likewise, I updated the committee on the work of the NOCERCC Task Force on Preaching.

The agenda for this meeting also included: reports from CMSM, NACPA, and NFPC; a review of the scope, outline and a line by line review of the draft of the "Guidelines for Receiving Pastoral Ministers in the United States" developed by the USCC Secretariat for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees; and a lengthy discussion of the committee’s study of the impact on fewer priests.

The subcommittee drafting the "Ratio Fundamentalis" has an ambitious time frame. We hope to have a draft ready for committee approval in September 1999, for review by the Bishops’ Administrative Committee also in September, a draft ready for review by the full conference of bishops in November 1999, then a draft for review by the Congregation for the Clergy in early 2000, withsubsequent possible approval by the NCCB.

Congratulations. NOCERCC is pleased to congratulate former members of NOCERCC who were ordained bishops: Bishop Robert J. McManus, Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Providence; Bishop Patrick J. Zurek, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of San Antonio (former member of the NOCERCC Board from Region X); and Bishop Richard J. Garcia, Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Sacramento. We are pleased when NOCERCC members and those associated with our mission and ministry are called upon to assume additional leadership in the Church. Congratulations!

Transition. As some of you know, I am leaving Madonna University at the end of my current contract, June 30, 1999, having served six years as the vice president for planning and mission effectiveness. I am looking into positions both in Catholic higher education and in a diocese perhaps as a director for priestly life and ministry or director of continuing education/formation. I invite your prayerful support in this job search and transition time.

Francis S. Tebbe, O.F.M.

 

This resource contains detailed descriptions of approximately 45 sabbatical programs, including programs in the United States, Europe, Australia, Canada, Israel and Mexico. The programs are designed for, or are inclusive of, priests.

The booklet is helpful when clergy are seeking to plan a sabbatical time for themselves. It includes specifics about each program such as location, history, degrees offered, purpose and goals, preferred participants, eligibility criteria, length of time, dates, content or program description, staff, room and board arrangements, costs, and contact information.

For the upcoming issue of Sabbatical Programs, NOCERCC is adding a compact disk (CD-ROM) to the book. The disk will include all the textual information in the book as well as visual and audio clips. A visual or sound clip, photos of the "program in action," or of the location where it takes place, will enhance the program description.

Look for the new Sabbatical Programs booklet to be in the mail to full members and associate members by the end of May. For those who would like extra copies, we will include an order form in the next NewsNotes.

Workshop for Pastors. Pastoring in Today’s Parish – presented by the National Pastoral Life Center. At the Bergamo Center in Dayton, Ohio July 18-23, 1999; at the Marywood Center for Spirituality in Jacksonville, Florida, January 23-28, 2000; at the Oblate Renewal Center in San Antonio, Texas, July 16-21, 2000.

This workshop is for new pastors, pastors looking toward a new assignment, and those wanting a fresh look at their pastoring style. Presenters and Topics: Msgr. Philip J. Murnion, Keynote Address: Pastoring: Parishioners, Mission, Leadership; Dr. Patricia Kelly: Understanding Your Own Style and Goals, Collaboration and Conflict, Working Toward a Developmental Understanding of Christian Leadership; Msgr. Douglas Doussan: Organizing the Ministry, Roles and Responsibilities, Living by Your Priorities; Mr. G. Richard Fowler: The Social Mission of the Parish; Rev. William Griner: Liturgical Policies and Practices; Ms. Jan Haselschwerdt: Parish Religious Education; Sr. Donna L. Ciangio, O.P.: Small Community Development; Sr. Mary Angela Shaughnessy, SCN: Legal Concerns.

For information and brochure, contact: Sr. Donna L. Ciangio, O.P., National Pastoral Life Center, 18 Bleecker St., New York, NY 10012-2404; 212-431-7825; FAX: 212-274-9786.

“ “ “

-- My Three Years With NOCERCC --

The ensuing comments are the fruit of a retrospective look at my three years of involvement with the continuing formation of priests. It all began with a convincing appeal on the part of the Presbyteral Council of our Archdiocese to have a full-time Director appointed who would minister to priests and their ongoing formational needs. At the time, we were in an interim period when no one was serving in the position, not even on a part-time basis, and so there was room for a lot of catch up.

After the customary search and screening process in which potential candidates were named and interviewed, the lot fell to yours truly via a direct appointment from our Archbishop. Fortunately, the appointment came as a full-time one, which did justice to the request submitted by the body of priests. That’s a luxury these days! Most directors are expected to exercise numerous roles in their dioceses and many hold down a full-time position of being a pastor of a parish as well.

Another obstacle facing most directors of priestly formation is the fact that their service, even if full-time, is usually brief in duration. As a matter of fact, in discussing the position with my Archbishop, it was made clear to me that the appointment was for a three-year term. I guess that’s the main reason for the frequency in turnover of directors and the basis for a continual change in the membership of NOCERCC.

Be that as it may, I approached the task of director by making a firm commitment to do my very best, but realizing also that in no way could I presume to be anybody's messiah, much less the entire body of gifted priests who compose our Archdiocese. It was my primary responsibility, I discerned, not to do a lot of things for priests, but to encourage and motivate priests to give of themselves to each other. There are far more resources latent in the presbyterate itself than can be found simply by bringing in experts from the outside.

Of course, we have to prime the pump to surface those gifts, and that means offering occasions for priests to get together and establishing programs that will encourage their sharing with one another. In that respect, I am deeply indebted to NOCERCC, especially for the new directors workshop at the beginning of every annual convention. It’s a way of getting to know other newly-appointed directors who face challenges similar to one’s own, and of learning from veteran directors some of the approaches that have proven successful.

I can remember my own experience at the new directors workshop during the 1996 convention held in San Antonio. Besides being informed about resources available through NOCERCC, I was able to learn from a highly regarded and obviously successful director how his Archdiocese provided newly-ordained priests with guidance from older priests who served as mentors. It was that input that got me going on a similar course of action for our newly-ordained priests.

Just recently a successor was named to replace me as director of continuing formation of priests in our Archdiocese. The two of us attended the recent convention in New Orleans and, like myself a few years back, he had the opportunity to be part of the workshop for new directors. It was such an enlightening and supportive experience that he had and nothing but glowing comments to report. It surely got him off to a good start on the challenging journey of serving and caring for priests.

Besides the Mentor Program for Newly-Ordained, another program tailored to the specific needs of priests at a given stage in their ministry is the Pastor Training Program. This particular need was identified in our Archdiocese by professional consultants who judged it to be the most crucial. Consequently, it became the task of the director of continuing formation (myself) to do something about it.

To address the need, a two-edged approach to the problem was implemented with the support of our Archbishop. To cover the general and broad-based needs of preparing priests for a pastorate, those in our pool of candidates seeking to be a pastor for the first time were expected to attend the marvelous 5-day workshop sponsored by the National Pastoral Life Center, which is now called "Pastoring in Today’s Parish."

Then, after his appointment, the new pastor is required to attend a series of 8 one-day workshops given over a two-year cycle which are organized by the Office of Continuing Formation of Priests but presented by the various agencies and departments in the Archdiocese that have something significant to contribute to the development of a pastor. The topics have included such areas as: Budget and Finances, Plant Maintenance and Insurance, Providing Good Liturgical Celebrations, Approaches to Religious Education, The Relationship between Parish and School, Pastoral Staff and Lay Leadership, Parish Stewardship and Fund Raising, and Computerizing the Parish.

Looking back on it all, and even from the outset, it is evident to me that the most important service we can render to priests as directors of continuing formation is to assist and enable them to love and care for one another. Nothing is more life-giving than a sense of one’s own self-worth and a genuine acceptance by one’s peers. We need to appreciate one another as much as possible and rejoice in each other’s accomplishments. If the programs, activities and events that we schedule for priests can foster a real love in them for one another then we have succeeded in our task and made the Lord truly present in our midst. "See how they love one another" is the most important message we can convey in approaching priests and their formation.

“ “ “