Today, as I was trying to register one of my daughters for the fall soccer league at our territorial parish, I noticed the parish’s mission statement on the front of the bulletin. You know, the proverbial touchy-feely and oh-so-inviting slogan that has become the inevitable calling card of the modern parish.
The great thing about these statements is not that they give parish councils something to do for a few months. No, that is a side benefit. What is really great about them is that although they are hammered out individually in each parish, they end up looking essentially the same. For example:
We, the parishioners of St. Mission Statement, a body of diverse individuals, come together under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to promote the mission of Jesus Christ. This is accomplished by encouraging and supporting the development of the sacramental life of each member in the community through liturgical, educational, social and service activities. We strive to create an environment that fosters communication; an environment that helps us realize we are each a unique child of God. The stewardship of our time, our talents, and our treasures expresses the continuous accountability to God and the shared responsibility to each other, to the community and to the world.
Here is one more example, just for flavor:
We, the members of St. Mission Statement Parish, strive to live out our faith as Christians in the Roman Catholic Church. We see ourselves as a caring community, drawing from the strength and tradition of those who have gone before us, the wisdom of our senior members and the energy of our younger members.
We believe that our faith is our common bond; that all of us are made in the image and likeness of God; and, as such, possess a dignity and potential that is to be respected. We are called to be signs of God’s love to each other and to all we meet. We believe our strength and nourishment come from the Church’s ministry of Word and Sacrament.
Having experienced God’s grace, we commit ourselves to announcing to others God’s love for them. We will face the future by reaching out and serving the needy, by fostering spiritual growth in our families, by educating our children in Christian values, by welcoming visitors and strangers into our community, and by joyfully facing the challenges of our neighborhood. We value openness rather than negative criticism and reconciliation rather than materialism, selfishness and prejudice. We want to become a parish family with a care and concern that is characteristic of family members.
OK, there are other variations, to be sure. But essentially, mission statements tend to be a sign of what is euphemistically known as a “progressive” parish. Why? I don’t know, but I can only give witness to the observations of long years in the Church. I mean, didn’t our Lord give us a mission statement 2,000 years ago?
Going therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world. Mt. 28: 19-20.
These days I belong to a parish without a mission statement, but which seeks to carry out the command given by Christ in those lines from St. Matthew’s Gospel. That ought to be good enough for any Catholic parish.
However, I have heard from some critics of this blog that I am stuck in the past in matters of the faith. I want to respect those prophetic voices. Therefore, in order to improve this blog, I propose the following mission statement for your review. I welcome your feedback, after which I will finalize it for posterity.
We, the blogger and readers of Saint Louis Catholic, come together under the wistful hope that wasting time better spent caring for our families or engaging in productive employment can be used in the service of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
We endeavor, under the guidance of our Blessed Mother and other blogs we like, to promote the truths of the faith, to expose the ridiculousness and danger of heresies and those who espouse them, to keep a sense of humor at all times, and to occasionally pat each other on the back.
We reserve the right to talk about subjects that normal people shun, and to wonder why they do so.
We believe the Church has authority given her by Christ Himself, and we highly resolve not to look a gift horse in the mouth. We are grateful, in other words, for all we have been given.
We are truly inclusive group, in that we want everyone to be Catholic–really Catholic– and to experience the abiding peace and joy that comes with the Catholic faith.
We seek to be a sort of advance newsletter scattered behind enemy lines. No loitering.
P.S. Don’t mess with our Archbishop.
I sign off on that!
Very good mission statement Timman! You forgot the part about how we graciously accept the ridicule from our families who let us know that the way we are living out our faith is weird, strange, and not normal. For example; willingly accepting all the children God gives us, even the miscarriages, and being open to all future life, even if God has called us to adoption.
Better watch out, TheTimman. Your observations about the bulletin are going to get your kids banned from the parish teams.
Mission Statement??? We don’t need no mission statement!
Having wasted many hours in the business world on ‘Mission Statements’ for yet another “can’t miss” project dreamed up by the airheads in HR, I can relate!But I do like your Blog’s Mission Statement – especially the PS…!
Unlike the others yours is a hoot to read and carries the element of truth. A bit verbose for a mission statement but that is the point right?
‘gor’ is right — these things are like’mission statements’ from HR in thecorporate world. They even share muchof the same language:”diverse””communication””environment””unique [child/individuals]”Other ‘mission statements’ that otherbloggers have submitted for reviewand debate in the past are even morepointedly explicit in this regard. Theend result is often that the ‘missionstatement’ winds up sounding likelegalese from a company’s HR departmentabout equal employment opportunities.So, somewhere, some weird how, andsome weird way, somebody got the ideathat the Catholic Church has elitistovertones, and that it needs such astatement added to it, like it was acorporation, or a university. Quitelikely, the idea got started bysomebody who DOES work in HR whenthey are on the job; and they thoughtit would be a good ‘ideer’ for theirChurch to have one, too. Also, Ibelieve that such ‘mission statements’serve a very specific agenda.the timman writes: “But essentially, mission statements tend to be a sign of what is euphemistically known as a “progressive” parish. Why? I don’t know, but I can only give witness to the observations of long years in the Church.”I can’t help but to agree; but I dothink that I know why they tend tobe a sign of a ‘progressive’ parish.They are a sign of a ‘progressive’parish for the same reason that theytend to stifle fairness, open debate,and honest hiring in the corporation.Such ‘mission statements’ are inreality a thinly-veiled *warning* inmost cases; and they are used tocreate an ‘atmosphere’ that isappropriate to the feminist agenda(especially when they are talked-about, power-pointed, group-meetingedto death, force-fed to each businessunit several times a week, etc., etc.,etc.).So, with all of my experience andyears in the Church, what I see on adaily basis is that the warning isthis: WOMEN are in charge ’round HERE.Period.Call me daffy if you like; I reallydon’t care. I’ve seen it too manytimes to have any more doubt aboutthe matter. I’ve seen the way fartoo many American women manage theiremployees; and I’ve seen the way fartoo many American women manage aparish. There’s very littledifference a’tall in most cases, tobe honest.The whole wide-world of CatholicBloggery is, in my opinion, way pastdue in talking openly and honestlyabout this. Women are mostly incharge in nearly all of the positionsthat it is possible for someone to bein charge of in a parish; and quitefrankly, the Catholic Church’s dailybusiness in America has gotten tangledup in a very angry, very vengefulpart of the feminist movement — toa VERY large degree.Ask any priest what causes him themost grief — a man or a woman — andthe answer is most likely to be awoman. I’ve seen it with my own eyes;and I don’t need sensitivity training(thank you very much). I’ve seenpriests come *this* close to losing itas they try to meet the demands of allthe women in their parish, and theirdemands for greater and greater lay(read: female) participation.I’ve watched women yell at priests fordaring to make slight changes in theChurch’s flower arrangements duringHoly Week (“What! You think this Massis about YOU?!?!??”). I’ve seen parishwebsites where the names of the priestsAREN’T EVEN LISTED; and yet everysingle woman who is in charge of theslightest amount of parish business hasher name prominently displayed in boldletters.I’ve seen women who have been appointedto head the vocations committee oftheir parish; and I’ve watched themvet candidate’s opinions about “women’sroles” and “the charismatics” beforeeven telling the candidate that theyhead the parish’s vocations committee.I’ve watched women hide the incensefrom a priest, and conveniently “lose”money that has been earmarked for hisvestments, solely because that specificpriest doesn’t allow EMs to serve inhis Masses. I could go on and on.So if you happen to be a typical tradguy in your parish, and you findyourself wondering why the apse iscrowded with altar girls and womenwith blue hair, and you wonder why thepriest looks like he’s scared, thengive my thesis a moment or two ofyour careful ponderation, my friend.Yes, Cardinal Bugnini was a guy; yes,America also has a large bunch offeel-good, tambourine-shaking baby-boomers in every parish who are male;but the yellow-brick linoleum road ofthe last 40 years of the typicalVatican II American parish is filledwith the prints of a whole lot ofhigh-heeled shoes.So no, I’m not saying that allCatholic women act this way. I’vemet some very cool trad-women fromtime to time — some real humble,holy, and kindly women and mothers(who also happen to see what I’mseeing in the Church). But if whatI’ve said so far has you grinning andit has got your eyebrows raised, andyour ‘by golly, the lad’s got apoint!’-meter is going ding! ding!ding!, then as honest Catholics weneed to start talking about theeffects of ugly feminist politics inthe Catholic Church. It should notbe a delicate issue to talk about;especially since a great deal is atstake. I know, for example, a verygood doctor in California who, whendiagnosing stress in his patients(male OR female), asks them if theyreport to a female manager. He asksthem this because, according to him,whenever he sees the results ofsevere stress in his patients, moreoften than not they turn out to beworking for a female manager. Heis comfortable asking *women* thisquestion, as in his professionalopinion it is a legitimate phenomenonin the world we live in today. So,Catholics need to stop avoiding thisissue in their parishes, in my opinion.So, I think these issues are fairissues for debate, particularly sincethe timman has written thusly: “Wereserve the right to talk aboutsubjects that normal people shun, andto wonder why they do so.” It’s beensaid by many that the Catholic Churchhas suffered greatly the last fewyears from modernist tendencies; andthis is obvious to most people. Butit is equally obvious that thefeminist movement has had a hugeimpact on the Church, and it is timethat Catholics start talking aboutthis, and start putting ways to dealwith this into their training slidesfor their parish faithful.Gents — Ladies — your thoughts?Erick
I will not attend a parish that has a mission statement. It is a sure sign of misguided liberals trying to reinvent the Catholic religion in their own image.
Erick, I completely agree with you. Not to put too fine a point on it, the current tyrrany of political correctness with its accompanying lexicon of buzzwords(“inclusive”, “diverse”, “welcoming”, “prophetic” etc.) is traceable — if we are to be honest — to the radical feminist movement of the 1960s, of which I considered myself a part for a while. I remember what that movement was like in its early days, and have observed the havoc it has wrought. I only began to figure out what was going on when I took a very honest look at the implications of what I was advocating. I began to come out of the fog when I realized that the world I dreamed of was, in fact, a world without gender — and I had to ask myself why I was promoting something that was a denial of reality.I also began to realize that in very many cases, gender and life issues are intimately related. The legalization of abortion is actually on the same ideological continuum as the insistence that we pretend — and teach our children — that there is no important difference between sodomy and reproductive intercourse. I could go on because I feel that the damage that has been and continues to be done to us all — male and female, straight and gay, child and adult — is enormous.The toxic fallout — operating behind a civilized veneer and using deceptive jargon — is currently very much in evidence within mainstream Protestantism and now also, as you have noted, in Catholicism. It starts with the impulse to displace men from traditional leadership roles…but that is only where it starts.My hope is in the current generation of young people, male and female, who are beginning to see through the smoke and mirrors.
Yes Erick and Jane, there’s much to be said about the influence of radical feminism in the Church in recent decades. It is irritating in the extreme to see priests tripping over themselves trying to avoid ‘gender’ in the Liturgy.The Creed: “…for us [blank] and for our salvation…”The Eucharistic Prayer: “Through Christ, with Christ, in Christ…””Humankind” (as distinct from “animalkind”…?)Far be it from them that a male pronoun should enter into our prayers.How long before the Our Father becomes “Our [blank] Who art in Heaven”…?Another reason to bring back Latin! Most priests wouldn’t know enough Latin to change male word endings to female…
No Mission statement is best, but I love the line about Archbishop Burke
My parish doesn’t have a Mission statement either. It’s a blessing to be at my parish, how it got stuck in LA, i have no idea.
Wow…You don’t attend you territorial parish…??? Is the parish not adhering to the Catholic Faith? Is Burke aware of this fact? He could have the parish council excommunicated for you…!!!
One parish at a time, friend.
John 13: 34 A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.
If a mission statement helps to remind people how to act, then it's a small price to pay, and after all, it's a one time deal per parish. How long can it really take in the life of a parish. Also, lets not get too caught up in the wording instead of the meaning.