Pastoral Regions

Most Recent News from the Regional Pastoral Council

Posted on Thursday July 9, 2009

Minutes of the San Fernando Regional Pastoral Council Meeting of June 27, 2009

San Fernando Pastoral Regional Council Meeting Minutes
Saturday June 27, 2009

Present:

Bishop Gerald E. Wilkerson, Deacon Medina, Jean Brown, Karen Brown, Ben Decenario, Tim Donahoe, Rosey Hungerford, Frank Luciano, Tim Lynskey, Sister Rochelle Mitchell, SSS, Sister Yvette Perrault, RSM, Douglas Pham, Lito Reyes, Exiquio Ruiz, Monica Ryoo,
Kathleen Schwartz, Willis Veluz-Abraham, Bobby Vidal, Rev. Richard Zanotti, CS, Diana Cardenas

Absent:

Rev. Raymond Finerty, OP, Deacon Ken Elsey, Mike Gonzales, Regi Meeha, Rev. Olin Mayfield, Msgr. Peter Moran, Deacon Bob Seidler, Dennis Young, Gary Smith, Fernando Baeza

9:00 am – Opening Prayer and Reflection – We ended with a Prayer for Priests.

Bishop’s Report:

Bishop welcomed our new members: Sister Yvette Perrault RSM (St Charles Borromeo - Women Religious); Douglas Pham (Our Lady of Peace - Vietnamese Community); Bobby Vidal (Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, Deanery 8); Timothy Lynskey (Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, Deanery 8) Diana Cardenas (St Mary, Deanery 8).

Bishop had three (3) handouts for us which I have summarized at the end of these minutes, providing information from these handouts.

Moderator’s Report (Jean Brown):

Deacon Ken Elsey, Tim Donahoe, and Dennis Young are not renewing their terms. We all thanked them for their contributions. They will be missed.
Please keep Father Ray Finerty in your prayers as he has a heart problem and is currently not at work.

Please keep Mario Ramirez in your prayers as he is battling colon cancer.

Jean handed out the revised schedule for Synod Initiative Reports. Jean thanked Monica Ryoo for the great job she did on the Initiative IV report, we were on time and she had to do the report twice because of a change in format.

o Initiative III – October 15,2009
o Initiative IV – December 15,2009
o Initiative V- March 15,2010
o Initiative I – August 15,2010

Jean provided follow up strategies from the Sustainability Event, they are recommendations for our parishes to “go-green”

Jean reminded us about the Archdiocesan wide meeting on January 16, 2010. Please reserve this date as we are responsible for handling the registration this will be held at Notre Dame High School.

Synod Initiative Year End Reports

Initiative I – Frank reported some interesting statistics:

48% of Catholics have no personal contact with Jesus

29% Impersonal Force

62% have not shared there relationship with others.

Frank reported that they want to come up with a model for each parish to design an Evangelization Plan. They are trying to move towards discipleship.

Accomplishments:

Established the four steps of pastoral planning.

Completed the first step by defining the vision and mission of evangelization with four priorities for the region, based on the Church’s Teachings and the totality of its understanding of evangelization.

Completed the second step through parish visits/ assessments/ interviews.

Four areas of priority:

o Seeking out and drawing in the unbelieving and unchurched

o Fostering life-long discipleship and spiritual growth

o Discernment of gifts (charisms) and vocations

o Equipping & Supporting extraordinary apostolate's

Initiative II – Karen reported that the next steps are to assist parishes that do not have Pastoral and Finance Councils to form them. The completion of the Pastoral Council and Finance Council workshops and the survey to find out which parishes did not have councils.

This Initiative is looking for new members – Karen asked our new council members to consider joining.

Liaisons were asked to assist in confirming that the parishes that were in the process of creating councils or they were getting a new Pastor. The Finance council is mandated by Canon Law and the Pastoral Council is mandated by Cardinal Mahony.

Tim Donahoe brought up the Legal reorganization project – relating to Incorporation to preserve assets and shield us against risk. He suggested that we let Parishes know what the impact will be to them. We cannot have them caught off guard.

There was a great deal of discussion on this topic. Bishop said that these concerns are real and that they are aware of them. That is why the whole process has slowed down. The Archdiocese is investigating all aspects of the law and will inform Parishes once they have all the answers.

Initiative III – Lito reported:
REAP ( Religious Education Achievement Program) - they are defining a program on how to receive merit awards – Some areas for these awards are: The Rosary, Holy Mass, Bible, etc. Once a child has achieved a merit award, they will be presented with a medal during Mass.

Marriage Spirituality Program – to help couples grow in faith and parish involvement.

Met with Margaret Sardo – there is a handout explaining that there are 555 children at risk of not returning to Catholic Schools. There was a long discussion around this topic, topics that need to be looked at are:

o Money issues, we need to raise money for financial aid. Families are struggling with the tuition.

o We need educational endowments, the Church provides for the needy, but the stronger wealthy parishes will survive will this change our mission if the only schools that survive are the wealthy ones?

o Opportunities for twinning or partnering schools needs to be looked at.

o At Saint Catherine of Siena they have an “Adopt a student program”.

o It is suggested that when students are applying to the school, the tour of the school should start in the Church. This would bring more unity between Church and the school.

Initiative IV- Fernando was not present. We discussed the fact that we liked the two programs that were introduced at a previous meeting and would like more focus on getting them in place in more Parishes.

Chalice and Stole
Adopt a Seminarian

Initiative V- No Chair. We need to focus on this.

Initiative VI – Monica reported findings during the collection of the data and creating her report. There is a great deal of charity work, but not as much Social Justice & Peace. When the committee reconvenes there will be more focus on Social Justice than on Charity.

Archdiocesan Pastoral Council Kathleen and Ben reported:

Cambria would like to set a common goal for all regions with regards to the Synod Initiatives. The suggestion is to have all regions focus on the same initiatives. There was a great deal of discussion around this topic with concerns that we may take a step backwards in our progress and a concern that this would re-centralize the regions rather than having them work independently with their Bishop. The conclusion was that SFR would rather continue on the path we are on and would like to keep focus on our Bishop’s goals.

Election Results:

Moderator – Lito Reyes

Vice Moderator – Rosey Hungerford

Secretary – Karen Brown

At Large Members – Tim Lynskey and Diana Cardenas

APC Member – Jean Brown joins Kathleen Schwartz and Ben Decenario

Everyone thanked Jean for her excellent leadership as Moderator. We also thanked all the members of the Executive Committee.

Meeting Dates:

September 19, 2009
November 21, 2009
March 6, 2010
June 26, 2010

Meeting adjourned at 11:10am

Next meeting is September 19, 2009 Location: TBD

Hadout #1

PASTORAL CHANGES IN THE SAN FERNANDO PASTORAL REGION

PASTORS:
Reverend John Collins at St. Robert Bellarmine, Burbank

Reverend Mike Wakefield at St. Francis de Sales, Sherman Oaks

Reverend Kevin Larkin is retiring.

Reverend Vaughn Winters at St. Mary, Palmdale (Msgr. Steve Downes becomes pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Montecito.)

ADMINISTRATORS:

Reverend Jim Bevacqua continues as Administrator of Holy Family,
Glendale.

Reverend Olin Mayfield continues as Administrator of St. Clare,
Santa Clarita.

Reverend Ikechukwu Ikeococha becomes Administrator of Our Lady
of the Valley, Canoga Park.

ADMINISTRATORS PRO TEM:

Reverend Paul Griesgraber at St. Catherine of Siena, Reseda

Reverend Roily Jardiniano at St. Euphrasia, Granada Hills

Reverend Victor Ruvalcaba at St. Bridget of Sweden, Van Nuys

In addition, two of those to be ordained have been assigned as Associate Pastors in parishes within our Pastoral Region. They are:

Reverend Christopher Pagan to St. Mary, Palmdale

Reverend Julio Gonzalez to St. Charles Borromeo, North Hollywood

The process for changing Associate Pastors is still in progress and I will try to let you know of those when they are complete.

Please note also that Reverend Rene Juarez, OFM, has been recalled by the Franciscans and will become pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish, Los Angeles. He will continue to Administer Divine Saviour Parish until the end of 2009.

Reverend Ted Ley, SM, is returning to Chaminade High School and Reverend Joey Buencamino will administer St. Ann Parish, Los Angeles, until the end of 2009. Other arrangements for the leadership of these two parishes will be put in place at the beginning of 2010.

Handout #2 (sent to each Parish to be placed in the bulletin)

SAVE AN AT-RISK STUDENT!

555 Students in the San Fernando region are at risk of not attending Catholic school this fall. You can help! Donate now at www.cefdn.org and choose the San Fernando Student Appeal

CEF provides tuition awards to financially deserving students attending parish and archdiocesan schools in Los Angeles. For the 2009-2010 school year, CEF has committed to fund 719 SF students at a cost of $781,700. But that does not cover all the children who need assistance. The San Fernando Student Appeal will raise funds to provide tuition awards to the 555 students who are on the CEF wait list.

Handout # 3

RENEW Theology on Tap 2009

Save the Dates! San Fernando Pastoral Region

Where: Soups Sports Grill
21028 Ventura Blvd
Woodland Hills, CA
Fellowship: 7pm
Sessions begin: 7:30 pm

7/19/09 - SOLIDASAROCKARITY – VIKKI SHEPP

7/26/09 – THEOLOGY ON TAP TRIVIA GAME! –SPECIAL GUEST PRESENTER

8/2/09 - RAPPED UP WITH GRACE AND AMAZED – JOE MELENDREZ

8/9/09 – CATHOLIC BIOETHICS: STEM CELLS AND BEYOND – JENNIFER M. SHAW

For speaker biographies, session downloads and podcasts, visit www.sfmya.org/tot Questions? Call 866-304-0341, or e-mail tot@sfmya.org

Please Pray for Priests

Dear Lord, we pray that the Blessed Mother wrap her mantle around your priests and through her intercession
strengthen them for their ministry.

We pray that Mary will guide your priests to follow her own words, “Do whatever He tells you” (Jn 2:5)

May your priests have the heart of St. Joseph, Mary’s most chaste spouse.

May the Blessed Mother’s own pierced heart inspire them to embrace all who suffer at the foot of the cross.

May your priests be holy, filled with the fire of your love seeking nothing but your greater glory and the salvation of souls. Amen

Saint John Vianney, pray for us.