FINANCE/ GOVERNANCE

Pastoral Plan

Environmental Factors

A description of the context within which the operation takes place especially in terms of extrinsic factors which influence the operation and over which it has no control.

1. Influences relative to joining a   parish community have changed:

• People in our time have many choices for their Sunday worship community.
• People and priests take geographical boundaries less seriously and so people feel freer and freer to move between churches.
• People seem to be searching more, and searching more broadly.
• People are attracted to more friendly places, where they can learn more about their faith and the Mass times are convenient for their lifestyle.
• People are ever more mobile.
• Living in the city is an increasing draw.
• Catholic schools are more in the city than in the suburbs

2.   The authority of the church is at times in question:

• People are more questioning of the Catholic faith in our time.
• The media and literature tend to be more critical of the Church in our time and criticisms are given more credence.
• Bishops are more and more distant from priests and people.
• The relatively narrow leadership roles for women in the Catholic Church discourages people.
• The sex abuse scandal and the huge outlays of cash in reparation have shaken people's trust in the Church
• The Church's stewardship of its funds is suspect on the diocesan level.

3. Leadership Roles are shifting.

• Priests and nuns are fewer.
• Bishops and younger priests seem generally to be more traditional
• The Church's stewardship of its funds is suspect.
• We will have an increased dependence on lay staff and volunteers to take on leadership roles.
• There will be increasing opportunities for the laity to exercise Church leadership.

4. Changes in family and neighborhood religious traditions affect parishes:

• The profile and structure of the American family is less traditional than in the past, and continues to change.
• The nation is experiencing an influx of non-Catholic and non-Christian immigrant
• People in our time are generally less rooted in and less loyal to family and neighborhood than in the past.
• Parishes will be clustering and merging because of population shifts.
• The increased openness of American culture to dialogue about many difficult ideas is a distinct advantage to our growing together as a parish community.

5. The Church's place within the culture can produce a confusing perspective:

• Respect for authority is down
• Democratic structures in society create expectations that conflict with a hierarchically structured Church.
• The U.S. political categories liberal and conservative do not parallel the same category use in the Church, creating confusion among peopl
• Church attendance is down nationally to around 27% on any given Sunday on average.
• Institutional mistrust is generally higher than it used to be.
• People are generally disconnected from relationship in society.
• Society is increasingly individualistic, consumerist and self-centered.
• People are increasingly relativistic morally

6. Influence of the Media and Culture on Choices:

• TV is compromising religion-based moral values and stable relationship expectations in our culture.
• Technology is changing people's approach to life and worship, and their expectations.
• People are more and more influenced by the media.
• Entertainment is an expectation in worship.
• Youth seek and expect more and more stimulation.
• People expect services and programs to be tailored to their specific needs.
• Many people in our time lack the ordinary skills to extend basic human courtesy.
• American society generally is getting older even as it worships youth.

7. The economy influences contributors to the parish:

• Catholic education is becoming too costly for many.
• Taxes are high, and will be getting higher.
• People are consistently solicited by a wide range of charitable organizations.
• People are assuming more and more debt, and they want more, therefore less money is available for Church support.
• Unites States Catholics are the wealthiest religious group in the nation.