Introduction

We are rapidly approaching the final year of preparation for the third session of the Archdiocesan Synod in 2008.

Happily, more and more people are becoming comfortable with their role of being Church. They have also accepted responsibility for building Church. The truth is that since the first session of the Synod, the people of the archdiocese have proven that they are quite good at both aspects of Church – being and building.

Members of the archdiocese understand that the Church does not exist in the abstract. It exists in and through a communion that comes alive and visible in the Spirit through the interaction of the varied vocations in the Church.

The role of the Bishop is to preserve the unity of the communion and to facilitate an ongoing dialogue about the agenda of the local or particular Church. The Bishop must encourage people to care, to share, to listen, to plan and to implement with zeal.

In a prior column entitled “Facing the Facts” (confer Catholic News, June 4, 2006), I raised the issue of the pastoral care of the Catholic community. In that column, I stated that while the issue of pastoral care is an ongoing issue for the Archdiocese, it had become more acute recently due to the rather sudden loss of priests through death, illness and the three-year rule of the nation regarding foreign priests.

In that column, I also referred to the encouraging dynamic of planning that every challenge contains opportunities.

The challenge

It is time to come together to analyse the challenges and to discuss the opportunities. As we come together it is absolutely necessary for everyone to understand that the Archdiocese of Port of Spain is not just coextensive with the city of Port of Spain, it is coextensive with Trinidad and Tobago. The Church must be present to and caring of all of Trinidad and Tobago.

The Church must convince the people in every part of the Archdiocese by presence and service that it cares about them, that it will be present to them and that it will do its best as Church to serve them as Catholic believers. I do not think that we as an Archdiocese can ever become satisfied or comfortable with anything less.

To care for the entire archdiocese is an implication of the call to ministry rooted in Baptism and Confirmation. It belongs to all of us. Therefore, the first step in planning to care for the entire archdiocese is to provide the information to everyone so they can pray about the data, think about the issues and begin to formulate a plan to respond to the challenge the information contains.  

Sharing the information

The Council of Vicars and I have prepared three meetings to begin the process of sharing information on the pastoral situation with the people. At each meeting, there will be handouts for the participants. The handouts will be based on the Geographical Information System (GIS) and will present a detailed picture of the entire Archdiocese in relation to the Catholic population, statistics on priests by vicariates along with data on religious and laypersons who are presently engaged in pastoral ministry. Power point presentations will provide additional information. The data will become the basis for the discussions.

The meetings have been arranged as follows:
The first meeting will be with the Presbyterate and the Four Parish Administrators. The meeting is scheduled for September 26th and will be chaired by the Archbishop.

The second meeting will be with the Religious, Chairpersons of the Archdiocesan Councils, Commissions and Secretariats, the Leadership of the Ecclesial Communities and the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council. The meeting is scheduled for October 7th and will be chaired by the Vicar General.

The third meeting will be with the Vicariate Councils and the Parish Councils of the Vicariates. Each Vicariate will have its own meeting. The Regional Episcopal Vicar will be responsible for the scheduling and chairing of the meeting in his Vicariate.  The meetings must be completed by October 27.

On October 31, I shall meet with the Vicar General, the Regional Episcopal Vicars and the Vicar for Priests to evaluate the results of the first series of meetings and to prepare for a second series of meetings. The goal is to have in place a pastoral plan to care for the entire Archdiocese by January 1, 2007.

Conclusion

I request that the invitees adjust their schedules to participate in the meetings. I ask everyone to process the agenda thoroughly and with a collaborative spirit of openness.

There is no doubt in my mind that the archdiocese has the gifts to meet the goal. However, each person (priests, religious and laypersons) must make a personal decision to share the gifts they have received from God and developed by the grace of God for the common good of the archdiocese. 

In the meantime, I invite the entire archdiocese to pray for the success of these meetings, to reflect on the implications of the information presented and to be willing to make whatever sacrifices may be necessary to care for the people of the archdiocese.